Closely-Watched Packages: The Saga of 'Indiana Jones and the Delayed Shipment of (4K) Blus'

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© 2021 Paramount Home Media Distribution and Lucasfilm Ltd. 



Hi, there, Dear Reader. It’s mid-afternoon here in my corner of Florida on Tuesday, June 15, 2021. Currently, the temperature is 83˚F (28˚C) under partly sunny skies. With humidity at 73% and the wind blowing from the west-southwest at 9 MPH (15 KM/H), the heat index is 92˚F (33˚C). The forecast for the rest of the day calls for occasional thunderstorms throughout the afternoon and evening hours; the high will be 85˚F (30˚C). Tonight, storms will continue to pass through our area, and the low will be 74˚F (24˚C). The Air Quality Index (AQI) is 34 or Good.

If you recall, I ordered the Indiana Jones: 4-Movie Collection 4K UHD Blu-ray box set on Amazon as a pre-order on March 16. Paramount Home Media Distribution scheduled a release date of Tuesday, June 8 – just a few days before the 40th Anniversary of Raiders of the Lost Ark’s theatrical release (June 12, 1981).

Initially, Amazon – basing its estimates on Paramount’s rosy drop date info – informed me that my 5-disc set (four 4K UHD Blu-rays, one 1080p HD Blu-ray) would arrive here on the 10th or 11th. But on Monday the seventh, Amazon advised that while my order of the remastered Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns had shipped and was on its way, the Indy 4K set could not be shipped and that my delivery date was now unknown.

Of course, I wasn’t the only Indy fan who received a “sorry, but we don’t have a delivery date for your order” email; millions of us who had not ordered the pricier steelbook set are still, as I write this, waiting for our less expensive Digipak sets to ship.

In its infinite wisdom, Paramount’s Blu-ray geniuses decided to expedite the expensive ($99.99) steelbook sets to its main retail partners (Best Buy and Target) while the Digipak sets were relegated to a lower level of urgency at a time when the disc-based media industry (including CDs, DVDs, Playstation games, HD Blu-rays, and 4K UHD Blu-rays)  is experiencing a traffic jam in the supply chain.



Apparently, there is only one disc replication facility for the North American market – in Mexico, to boot – that makes all of the different types of discs I mentioned earlier. And because of unexpected demand caused by life changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, that plant is struggling to keep up with orders for disc-based media.

As a result, most retailers – not just Amazon – have had to adjust the “available by” dates on order statuses all over the continent.

In my case, the status has changed a few times since last Tuesday. First it was:

Your shipment has been delayed and we don’t have an estimate for delivery. Do you wish to cancel?

Then it was:

We don’t have this product in stock, but we will let you know when we have an estimate for delivery.

Today it’s:

Arriving June 19 - June 23

Well, that’s still somewhat vague, but it’s better than the previous status messages.

In the meantime, I can – if I must – watch any of the four Indiana Jones  films either on DVD or Blu-ray.

 

 

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