Last week, Amazon accidentally let slip that a new bumper collection including all six extended editions of Peter Jackson’s Middle-Earth movies together for the very first time was on its way—and that it apparently had a humongous price tag. We thought it couldn’t possibly be true, but apparently we were wrong.
Warner Bros. has now officially announced the Middle-Earth six film collection, and they’ve even roped in former Hobbit Dominic Monaghan to do so:
As we mentioned last week, the set contains 30 discs worth of extended versions of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies, and their extensive behind-the-scenes materials, housed in casings designed to look like faux-leather books and kept on a wooden shelf. Aside from that, the collection also features a replica of the Red Book of Westmarch, which contains tons of artwork from the movies, and recreations of concept art from Alan Lee and John Howe.
It really is a rather lovely looking collection, but the $800 price tag is patently absurd—especially since, right now on Amazon, you can get the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit extended trilogies on Blu-ray for the combined total of just $125.
That means you’re basically paying seven hundred dollars for the replica art book and a shelf. The book is nice, sure, but $700 for a shelf (albeit one with a design selected by Peter Jackson himself, according to the press material) is silly. Who knew Peter Jackson’s shelf design consultancy fee could be so high?
The Middle-Earth six-film collection will be out November 1st, arriving a month earlier on October 4th exclusively through Amazon. If that’s too rich for your liking, a theatrical cut collection of all six films is also landing on November 1st, for $69 on Blu-ray and $36 on DVD (shelf not included).