LOS ANGELES, March 17, (Agencies): Twentieth Century Fox hopes “Avatar” fans will take time off on Earth Day, April 22, to buy the DVD or Blu-ray disc for the blockbuster movie with a pro-environment message. The studio said on Tuesday it set Earth Day as “Avatar’s” home video release date for the US and Canada, because the film’s themes match the day’s goal of environmental awareness. “Avatar” has made a record-breaking $2.64 billion so far at worldwide box offices since its release, with a large bulk of that coming from 3-D showings. But the “Avatar” home video will be in 2-D, Fox said. A 3-D version will likely come out next year, when more consumers are expected to have 3-D televisions in their homes.

“Avatar,” which won three Oscars, is about a soldier from an environmentally degraded Earth who is sent to infiltrate a tribe of humanoids aliens living atop a rich mineral deposit on the planet Pandora.
The soldier’s mission is to find a way to move the tribe so humans can mine the mineral, but he falls in love with a member of the tall, blue Na’vi and leads a revolt against the human colonizers.
Some US conservatives criticized the film, with columnist John Podhoretz of the Weekly Standard faulting it for displaying “hatred of the military and American institutions.”
But the movie, starring Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana, has become a pop culture sensation.
The DVD and Blu-ray disc for “Avatar” will be released in the US, Canada and some other countries on April 22. In France, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands, it will be available on April 21, and in Japan, Germany and Mexico it will hit stores April 23, with other dates varying by country.

Disney’s plan to quickly release the blockbuster “Alice in Wonderland” on DVD is heating up a debate between Hollywood studios and movie theaters over how quickly films move from the big screen to people’s living rooms.
Moviegoers will have the option of watching “Alice” at home in about three months, worrying some theater owners who fear that narrowing the gap between theatrical runs and DVD debuts will undermine ticket sales as some fans skip the cinema and wait for the DVD.
“A robust, exclusive theatrical window remains vital for the health of cinemas and the movie industry as a whole,” John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theatre Owners, told members in a speech Tuesday at their annual ShoWest convention.

Studios like short windows between theatrical and DVD releases because it speeds up their cash flow and allows them to pull in DVD business while films are fresh in audiences’ minds. Longer lags for DVDs also leave more time for movie pirates to sell counterfeit copies.
The issue is a key topic this week at ShoWest, where studios trot out stars, films and footage to promote upcoming releases.
The time window between theatrical and home-video releases gradually shrank as studios cashed in on booming DVD sales starting in the late 1990s. The average gap between big-screen and DVD releases has held steady at about four months in recent years.
Now, cinema operators worry other studios might follow Disney’s lead, though the head of Sony Pictures assured theater owners that Hollywood is not aiming to squeeze them out in favor of DVD revenues.
“Showing films in theaters is what makes a movie a movie. It’s what makes stars stars. It’s what makes films famous. It’s what makes the public perk up and pay attention,” said Michael Lynton, Sony chairman and chief executive officer, in the ShoWest keynote address Monday.

Theater owners and studio executives say they are open to flexibility on DVD release patterns for some movies if it benefits both sides. Cinemas always beg Hollywood to release big movies in typically slow months at theaters rather than bunching up top hits during the busy seasons.
“You always have the issue of lots of movies coming in the summer, lots of movies coming in the holiday period, and so our members have been talking to distributors about getting movies into late winter, like ‘Alice,’ trying to get movies into September. Places where we typically don’t have great movies,” Fithian told reporters Tuesday.
But putting a potential blockbuster in theaters in September might mean shortening the time until the DVD release to three months or less so the film can be in stores for Christmas, which Fithian said theater owners are open to discussing.

A slew of Hollywood studios and cable companies are teaming up for a $30 million advertising campaign to promote movies available on cable VOD.
The Movies on Demand initiative comes as on-demand film rentals have hit new highs, and as studios look to capitalize on their high margins amid a more mature DVD market.
The TV, print and online ad campaign runs under the theme “The Video Store Just Moved In” and highlights how easy it is for digital cable subscribers to view movies at home with a simple click of their remote.
Over the next 12 weeks, the ad blitz will feature new titles available on VOD, including some offered day-and-date with DVD releases, such as “The Blind Side” and “Fantastic Mr. Fox.”
The studio partners include Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, Focus Features, Rogue Pictures, Lionsgate and Summit Entertainment.
The cable partners include Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox, Cablevision’s digital service iO TV, Insight, Armstrong, Bend Broadband and Bright House Networks.

Home entertainment distributor Image Entertainment has licensed the 30-plus-title Handmade Films library, which includes such movies as “Time Bandits,” “The Long Good Friday” and “Mona Lisa.”
Handmade was created in 1978 by former Beatle George Harrison and producer Denis O’Brien. The label’s first theatrical release was Terry Gilliam’s 1981 “Time Bandits.” Other titles include “Withnail and I,” “How To Get Ahead In Advertising,” “A Private Function” and “Water.”
Chatsworth, Calif.-based Image said it planned to make the films available for the first time on Blu-ray and digital download.