The Bold New Take on The Beloved Classic “The Color Purple” Debuts on 4K, Blu-ray and DVD March 12th!
Experience the extraordinary sisterhood of three women who share one unbreakable bond when “The Color Purple” arrives for purchase Digitally at home on January 16. This bold new take on the beloved classic is directed by Blitz Bazawule (“Black Is King,” “The Burial of Kojo”) and produced by Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Scott Sanders and Quincy Jones. The film will also be available to purchase on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD on March 12
On January 16, “The Color Purple” will be available for early Premium Digital Ownership at home for $24.99 and for 48-hour rental via PVOD for $19.99 SRP on participating digital platforms where you purchase movies, including Amazon Prime Video, AppleTV, Google Play, Vudu, and more.
On March 12, “The Color Purple” will be available to own on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD. “The Color Purple” will also continue to be available to own in high definition and standard definition from participating digital retailers.
“The Color Purple” is directed by Blitz Bazawule from a screenplay by acclaimed playwright and WGA Award winner Marcus Gardley (“The Maid”). Bazawule is a Ghanaian multimedia artist who was a co-director on Beyonce’s musical film “Black is King” and made his feature debut with the critically acclaimed Afrofuturistic “The Burial of Kojo.”
The film stars Oscar nominee Taraji P. Henson (“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”), SAG Award winner and Tony Award nominee, reprising her role on Broadway, Danielle Brooks (“The Color Purple,” “Orange Is the New Black”), Tony nominee and Emmy Award winner Colman Domingo (“Rustin,” “Euphoria,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”), Tony Award nominee Corey Hawkins (“Six Degrees of Separation,” “In the Heights”), Oscar- and Grammy-winning artist H.E.R. (“Judas and the Black Messiah”), Grammy nominee Halle Bailey (“The Little Mermaid”), Oscar nominee Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (“King Richard,” “Ray”), and Grammy-winning artist Fantasia Barrino as Celie in her major motion picture debut. Also starring are the legendary Louis Gossett, Jr. (“Roots,” “An Officer and a Gentleman”), Phylicia Pearl Mpasi in her feature film debut, singer/songwriter Ciara and Oscar winner Jon Batiste (“Soul”), among others.
Gardley’s script is based on the novel by Alice Walker and based on the musical stage play, book (of the musical stage play) by Marsha Norman, music and lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray, who also served as executive music producer along with Nick Baxter and Bazawule.
“The Color Purple” is nominated for 2 Screen Actors Guild Awards – Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in A Supporting role for Danielle Brooks; and Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
Synopsis:
Torn apart from her sister Nettie (Halle Bailey) and her children, Celie (Fantasia Barrino in her major motion picture debut, reprising her 2005 role from Broadway) faces many hardships in her life, including an abusive husband simply called Mister (Colman Domingo). With the support of sultry singer Shug Avery (Taraji P. Henson) and stand-her-ground stepdaughter Sofia (Danielle Brooks, Tony-nominated for the role on Broadway), Celie ultimately finds extraordinary strength in the unbreakable bonds of a new kind of sisterhood.
DIGITAL, 4K, BLU-RAY & ELEMENTS
“The Color Purple” Premium Digital Ownership, 4K UHD and Blu-ray contain the following special features:
Creating The Color Purple: A Bold New Take on the Beloved Classic
Join the director, Blitz Bazawule, filmmakers and cast on their high-stakes, high intensity, heart-stopping, and awe-inspiring odyssey to bring Alice Walker’s beloved novel to life.
Hell Yes! The Iconic Characters of The Color Purple
The cast, producer Oprah Winfrey, and director Blitz Bazawule explore the characters – their personalities and intricate interpersonal dynamics, as well as their relatability and lasting impact – and how the actors connected and grew as performers.
In The Flow: Creating The Color Purple’s Biggest Musical Moments
Rehearsal footage reveals what it took director Blitz Bazawule, producer Scott Sanders, Quincy Jones, the cast, and the music team to push through the stumbles and missteps and hone all the rough edges to get each musical number exactly right.
A Story For Me: The Legacy of The Color Purple
The cast and filmmakers discuss the importance of Alice Walker’s novel – its timelessness and how it has touched so many, from book to landmark 1985 film to 2005 Broadway musical – and what it means for them to be a part of this bold new film.
BASICS
Premium Digital Ownership: January 16, 2024
4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD Street Date: March 12, 2024
4K Languages: Canadian French, English, Latin Spanish
4K Subtitles: English SDH, Latin Spanish, Parisian French, Canadian French
BD Languages: Canadian French, English, Latin Spanish
BD Subtitles: English SDH, Latin Spanish, Parisian French, Canadian French
DVD Languages: Canadian French, English, Latin Spanish
DVD Subtitles: English SDH, Latin Spanish, Parisian French, Canadian French
Running Time: 141 minutes
Rated PG-13 for mature thematic content, sexual content, violence and language
DVD: DLBY/DGTL
Blu-ray: ATMOS TrueHD
PRODUCT ERP
4K UHD + Digital $27.99
Blu-ray + Digital $22.99
DVD $17.99
THE CREDITS
About “The Color Purple”:
“The Color Purple” is directed by Blitz Bazawule from a screenplay by acclaimed playwright and WGA Award winner Marcus Gardley (“The Maid”). Bazawule is a Ghanaian multimedia artist who was a co-director on Beyonce’s Black is King and made his feature debut with the critically acclaimed Afrofuturistic “The Burial of Kojo.”
The film stars Oscar nominee Taraji P. Henson (“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”), SAG Award winner and Tony Award nominee, reprising her role on Broadway, Danielle Brooks (“The Color Purple,” “Orange Is the New Black”), Tony nominee and Emmy Award winner Colman Domingo (“Rustin,” “Euphoria,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”), Tony Award nominee Corey Hawkins (“Six Degrees of Separation,” “In the Heights”), Oscar- and Grammy-winning artist H.E.R. (“Judas and the Black Messiah”), Grammy nominee Halle Bailey (“The Little Mermaid”), Oscar nominee Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (“King Richard,” “Ray”), and Grammy-winning artist Fantasia Barrino as Celie in her major motion picture debut. Also starring are the legendary Louis Gossett, Jr. (“Roots,” “An Officer and a Gentleman”), Phylicia Pearl Mpasi in her feature film debut, singer/songwriter Ciara and Oscar winner Jon Batiste (“Soul”), among others.
Gardley’s script is based on the novel by Alice Walker and based on the musical stage play, book (of the musical stage play) by Marsha Norman, music and lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray, who also served as executive music producer along with Nick Baxter and Bazawule.
Joining director Bazawule behind the camera are a roster of acclaimed artisans, including Oscar-nominated director of photography Dan Laustsen (“Nightmare Alley,” “The Shape of Water”), Oscar-winning production designer Paul Denham Austerberry (“The Shape of Water”), editor Jon Poll (“Bombshell,” “Meet the Parents”), costume designer Francine Jamison-Tanchuck (“Glory,” “One Night in Miami…”) and choreographer Fatima Robinson (“Dreamgirls”). The music is by Oscar nominee Kris Bowers (“King Richard,” “Green Book,” documentary short “A Concerto Is a Conversation”).
Warner Bros. Pictures Presents An Amblin Entertainment Production, A Harpo Films Production, An SGS Pictures Production/A QJP Production, “The Color Purple.” It is distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures.
About Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (WBHE) distributes the award-winning movies, television, animation, and digital content produced by Warner Bros. Discovery to the homes and screens of millions through digital transactions on major streaming, video-on-demand cable, satellite, digital, and mobile channels, and through physical Blu-ray Disc™ and DVD retail sales. WBDHE is part of Warner Bros. Discovery Content Sales, one of the world’s largest distributors of entertainment programming.
One of the two times I visited a theater in 2023, and I left feeling incredibly disappointed. This did not make a smooth transition from stage to screen. I thought the performances were good all around, but the songs were neutered and flat, whereas I was moved to tears with the stage version. Most of my friends who also saw it felt similarly. I'll skip this in favor of the original movie.
Watch Fantasia's 11 o'clock number on stage on YouTube and compare it with the movie version. The movie wasn't even close.
I loved this version. Obviously Fantasia has a killer voice but Taraji P. Henson can also flat out sing, as can Danielle Brooks (Tony nominee for the Broadway revival). I saw the national tour production of the Color Purple, years ago and enjoyed it enormously. This new version struck me as a hybrid between the original movie and the stage version. Some of dialogue in this version was exactly the same as that in the movie. There's a scene in which Danielle's Sophia regains her swagger and what she says is exactly what Oprah Winfrey's Sophia said in the first movie. The only thing that I wished for was that had been a musical number written for Mister. Coleman Domingo is a major theater star and has a great voice.
The Color Purple remake is a 2023 musical that was released on the 4K Blu-ray format on 3-12-2024. Movie was rated PG-13 by the MPA for “Mature thematic content, sexual content, violence and language”. The Color Purple remake had a budget of $100 million dollars and box office sells of $68.8 million dollars (the actors got paid since the main salaries come out of the studios budget from what I understand). However sadly the studio lost a massive amount of money on this movie, and maybe some of those loses can be made up on home video. Sometimes remakes to movies are not successful at the box office. Also, the events of this fictional but realistic movie takes place around 100 years ago, and maybe the younger generation is not able to relate to western movies and classics like the Color Purple that have stories in time that took place long before many people were born. I did like the original 1985 movie of the Color Purple the best, but there were some scenes that were an improvement in the remake (and vice versa for some other scenes). While I like musicals, making the remake of this movie a musical might have been a bad decision since sometimes the 2023 remake movie had an upbeat feeling when compared to the 1985 movie that was depressing (A movie like this is supposed to be depressing). The 2023 remake many times is faithful to the novel by Alice Walker. The 2023 remake takes place in Georgia between the years 1909 to 1947+. In 1829 indoor plumping was invented but did not become common until the early 20th Century in more luxury homes. Some of the luxuries of the 19th century like 1860’s landline phone and 1880s electricity city wide, is also seen a lot more in the remake. Also, the remake shows more cars and wealth when compared to the 1985 movie, and therefore the movie is less depressing at times. In 1909 one sees an entire downtown Georgia city with telephone poles that carry landline phone service and electricity to the businesses and people living in the city. However, in many parts of rural Georgia in 1909 especially in the poor homes owned by Black Americans there is no electricity, no landline phones, no running water indoors, etc. As the movie goes on one gets to see some of the wealthy Black Americans have fancy cars, landline phones, electricity, indoor running water, and other luxuries especially in the 1940’s. While this 2023 remake does show poverty around 1909, things got much better for most people in the movie as technology improved. Both the 1985 movie and 2023 remake are both fictional movies, and both movies have realistic scenes of what some Black women in America went through in the early 20th Century in terms of poverty, racism, sexism, and many other horrors in life. However, a combination of the movie being a musical and showing much more wealth in this remake movie with more 20th Century technology, made the movie a lot less depressing when compared to the original 1985 movie. The very private secret same sex relationship in the 2023 remake movie is a little more detailed when compared to the original 1985 movie. I like how the 2023 remake movie shows the two women going to a fancy big town with electricity in a very nice car and seeing a movie at the local movie theater on a huge big screen film projector (which was common in the 1920’s and 1930’s and less common in the 1890’s when 35mm movies started being made). Also, a neat fancy rotary dial phone in the 1940’s is seen in the movie in someone’s huge expensive home. Again, I was less depressed watching the remake since people seemed to be more happy at times with some more technological luxuries in the early 20th Century.
I highly recommend people seeing Steven Spielberg’s original 1985 movie of the Color Purple and then after seeing that movie watch the 2023 remake. Both movies have sad events that shows the horrors that some Black women went through in the early 20th Century, however some of those depressing moments are lost in the remake when the movie was turned into a musical with some of the characters being much wealthier and with more technology and luxuries in life. But maybe that was the message of the remake to show that in the 1940’s things were improving for all Americans including some Black Women that no longer were in poverty and for the first time had large fancy homes and very nice cars to drive. Steven Spielberg was not the director for the remake but was one of the producers for the 2023 remake movie (the main producer for the 2023 remake movie was Oprah Winfrey). During the bonus features for this movie, crew members can be seen wearing COVID-19 masks to offer virus protection.
A total of 84.3GB of space out of 100GB is used on the triple layer BD-100 4K Blu-ray disc. The Musical Moments bonus feature is in native 4K Dolby Vision HDR with lossless 13.1 Dolby Atmos surround sound. All the other bonus features on the 4K Blu-ray disc is in native 2K SDR quality using the MPEG-4/AVC codec. If one owns a A/V receiver with 13.1 channels they will experience the Color Purple in lossless 13.1 Dolby Atmos (Dolby Atmos is mixed for most movies between 9.1 channels minimum to around 13.1 channels maximum). However, doing research online it appears the native Dolby Atmos mix for this movie comes from a 12 track Digital Studio master and therefore the native soundtrack might be native lossless 11.1 Dolby Atmos and on a 13.1 A/V receiver one or two of the channels might be upscaled. But at the very minimum this movie is mixed for 11.1 channels from the studios 12 track digital PCM master. Also, movie was recorded with digital cameras at a native resolution of 4.5K and then a 4K digital intermediate was created for the theater and 4K Blu-ray disc release. Because of limitations of my old display and A/V receiver the native 4K Blu-ray disc with lossless 13.1 Dolby Atmos (native 11.1 Dolby Atmos) was downscaled to 2K SDR quality with 7.1 Dolby TrueHD core audio. This Color Purple musical remake BD-100 triple layer disc from Warner studios played back perfectly fine even while doing several revere scans on my year 2016 OPPO UDP-203 4K Blu-ray player. I am talking about zero player glitches and zero-disc glitches. It appears Warner Bros has mastered BD-100 disc playback and that might be the main reason why many of their new 4K Blu-ray disc releases are no longer combo packs, since 4K Blu-ray disc releases have become so reliable that a 2K Blu-ray disc no longer needs to be included in the package. Warner Bros also places all extra features on the BD-100 disc. Warner Bros releases are becoming reference quality for reliability with only Lionsgate, and Kino Lorber never being a problem for BD-100 discs so far (at least in my experience).
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The Color Purple 4K UHD (2023)
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