A 2025 Blu-ray Gift Guide for Movie Lovers
Hold the line, physical-media lovers! As more and more people sell off or give away their DVD and Blu-ray collections, conceding to the beast of streaming media, those of us who love to embrace and showcase our favorite movies feel more challenged than ever. But there’s room for hope. While fewer people are collecting physical media than ever before, studios have continued catering to this niche market. The reward? Releases that don’t just bring a movie home but supplement the experience with informative special features and the kind of video and audio quality you still can’t get on your phone. It was a really good year for physical media. Here are 15 of our favorites — just in time for your holiday shopping list.
4Ks and Blu-rays
The American Revolution
This latest project from the legendary Ken Burns is one of his best, and PBS matched its Blu-ray release with its TV debut, making this a perfect gift for the holiday season. Burns and his collaborators, including co-directors Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt, and longtime writer Geoffrey C. Ward, unpack the entirety of the formative historical chapter from the first shot to the last. They place it all in a context that most of us never learned in high school, including the fact that it was as much a fight for expansion into Indigenous territory as it was one for freedom, as well as the role slaves played during the bloodshed. With mesmerizing voice work from dozens of prestige performers like Josh Brolin, Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, Samuel L. Jackson, and Matthew Rhys, along with narration from the legendary Peter Coyote, the documentary is both informative and entertaining — history truly brought to life.
Chain Reactions
This limited-edition digibook from Dark Sky is one of the coolest of the year. Alexandre O. Philippe’s documentary is not just a study of the impact and influence of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, but how people have seen it in different ways over the years. To amplify that theme, Dark Sky includes multiple versions of Tobe Hooper’s horror masterpiece alongside the documentary, including a 16-mm overscan print, 35-mm grind-house print, 1980s Slovakian Betamax, and five more. These various visual revisions of TCM have never been released on disc before, and they’re designed to replicate catching this nightmare fuel on an old TV in the ’80s or a small European theater at midnight. It’s a brilliant idea.
Creepshow Complete Series
We need one TV boxed set in here, right? The truth is that most of the heavy hitters of the golden age of TV got boxed sets years ago, and the new stuff often bypasses physical media altogether for streaming exclusivity. One company bucking that trend is Shudder, which has assembled its fan favorite Creepshow into a lavishly designed boxed set that’s aimed directly at people who love the show, with its comic- and TV-inspired aesthetic. Creepshow ran from 2019 to 2025 and included anthology segments based on legendary writers’ works like “Gray Matter” by Stephen King, “By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain” by Joe Hill, “Survivor Type” by King (adapted by Greg Nicotero), and “The Companion” by Joe R. Lansdale. Like a lot of anthology shows, Creepshow is hit and miss, but this collection is a must-own for fans of the hits.
Dark City
In a great year for Arrow Home Video, one of the best physical-media distributors in the world, this is its pièce de résistance. Not only does this set feature some truly remarkable Doug John Miller artwork, but it’s got all the archival material from the many releases of Alex Proyas’s masterpiece. The set also includes copious new physical collector’s items, among them a 60-page collector’s book, double-sided poster, art cards, a postcard, and even Dr. Schreber’s business card. The real draw is the brand-new 4K restoration from the original 35-mm camera negatives on the director’s cut, which is the one you should be watching. There’s an excellent new documentary called Return to Dark City and a new visual essay by Alexandra West called Rats in a Maze. If that’s not enough, the director’s cut includes three informative commentaries: one from Proyas, one from writers Lem Dobbs and David S. Goyer, and one from the singular Roger Ebert, who numbers among this movie’s biggest fans.
Dogma
The days leading up to the release of Kevin Smith’s follow-up to his critically acclaimed breakthrough Chasing Amy were pretty crazy. A project the Clerks writer-director had been formulating for years, Dogma became a battle with Harvey Weinstein, who wanted to radically change the film before dumping it off on Lionsgate. Then, after a Blu-ray release in 2008 (which went out of print), the film was stuck in a kind of purgatory because Weinstein held on to the home media rights, making the film impossible to see on streaming or in 4K until this year. Smith celebrates by not only giving a new introduction on this release but participating in an included feature-length documentary, Revelations: Making Dogma, about what might be his best work. Also imported were great previously available material from those ancient physical releases, including a raucous commentary with Smith, Ben Affleck, Jason Lee, and more. Say what you will about his movies, Kevin Smith has a gift for commentary tracks.
Eyes Wide Shut
A lot of individual 4K Criterion releases could make this feature, but the company saved the best of the year for right before the holiday season. After all, Stanley Kubrick’s 1999 masterpiece is a Christmas movie, right? Seriously, this is one of the best 4K restorations in the history of the process, maintaining the grainy shading of certain scenes while letting colors pop in others. The movie itself — an erotic thriller starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman as a couple on the brink of infidelity — has held up remarkably well and is now firmly considered among the best of the ’90s. This release also includes new interviews with D.P. Larry Smith, second-unit director Lisa Leone, and archivist Georgina Orgill. Plus, there’s a fascinating array of archival supplemental material like Kubrick Remembered, the master’s acceptance speech from the 1998 Directors Guild of America for the D.W. Griffith Award, a press conference for the film from 1999, and the must-see Lost Kubrick: The Unfinished Films of Stanley Kubrick about two abandoned projects: his notorious adaptations of Napoleon and The Aryan Papers.
Re-Animator Limited Editions
Technically, two limited-edition 4K celebrations of Stuart Gordon’s masterful Re-Animator are dropping this holiday season. The first is a stateside release from Ignite Films, the second a limited edition from the wonderful folks at Second Sight in the UK. Now, good 4K collectors know that regions don’t matter, which makes both of these enticing options, especially because they have different special features. The Ignite release includes a 40th-anniversary conversation with Jefferey Combs, Barbara Crampton, and Brian Yuzna; a new interview with editor Lee Percy; and a feature-length documentary called Re-Animator Resurrectus; along with much more. The Second Sight release has awesome original cover art, a 120-page book, art cards, a video essay called The Cosmic Horror of H.P. Lovecraft, a new audio commentary by Eddie Falvey, and much more. The result? If you’re a fan, you’re gonna have to get both. Sorry, we don’t make the rules.
Quentin Tarantino 4Ks: Jackie Brown, Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction, and Inglourious Basterds
It’s a little weird that Quentin Tarantino hasn’t released a new movie since the start of COVID; the six-years-and-counting stretch between projects has been the longest of his career. As he carefully picks what he claims will be his final film, the industry has spent much of 2025 celebrating his old ones, in part with collectible SteelBook editions. (Note: Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair is finally getting a limited theatrical release on December 5 before a likely Blu-ray release next year.) Jackie Brown, both Kill Bill volumes, and Pulp Fiction have all seen excellent SteelBook editions in 2025, and Arrow dropped a spectacular non-SteelBook boxed set for Inglourious Basterds way back in January that features a 60-page book, double-sided poster, beer mat, programme booklet, art cards, and even a strudel recipe card. Who said physical media wasn’t cool? It’s got strudel!
Tombstone
Shortly after the passing of Val Kilmer, one of his best films dropped in an artistically packaged SteelBook edition, and it sold out almost everywhere. People were looking for some of that Kilmer magic, the way he held a screen so often in the ’80s and ’90s. It’s not just the excellent art on this release that makes it a great gift this holiday season but a new 4K restoration of the western that also stars Kurt Russell, Sam Elliott, Bill Paxton, and Powers Boothe. Kurt is fun as Wyatt Earp, but this movie belongs to Kilmer as Doc Holliday, giving one of the most beloved western performances of its era.
John Woo 4Ks: The Killer, Hard Boiled, and A Better Tomorrow
Shout Factory has given action fans a remarkable gift this season with some of the best genre films of all time restored in 4K and accompanied by spectacular special features. It’s hard to overstate the importance of John Woo’s ’80s and ’90s masterpieces, which have all been released in standalone Shout Factory editions (or are about to be). And Woo himself got involved with these releases, not only overseeing the restorations but sitting down for new commentaries and interviews. There’s too much good shit here to capture in one gift guide, but here’s just one example. The release for The Killer includes a feature-length documentary about Woo’s work called The Hero of Heroic Bloodshed: A John Woo Documentary, and that’s alongside deleted scenes and new interviews with Woo, Terence Chang, David Wu, and even the great author Grady Hendrix. Woo also sat down for interviews and a commentary on Hard Boiled. Finally, there’s the A Better Tomorrow Trilogy, which includes Woo’s two films in the series and Tsui Hark’s third, all in 4K. You really need all of these.
Box Sets
007: James Bond - Sean Connery 6-Film Collection
Warner Bros. has a long history of repackaging and rereleasing James Bond movies. So why put this one on the list? Two reasons: One, it has a focus on the best performer to play 007, collecting only Sean Connery’s six films instead of making fans buy giant boxed sets with the versions of Bond they don’t really want just to get Goldfinger. Two, it features all six films in their best presentation to date in 4K. There’s even a version of this release that breaks out each work into SteelBooks with new art (or a simpler, tighter boxed set that takes up less space on your shelf). If you need a reminder, the Connery Bonds are Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, and Diamonds Are Forever. (Never Say Never Again doesn’t count.)
The Luc Besson Collection 1983-2005
There was a time when Luc Besson was hailed as one of the most visionary directors alive, and that era is captured in a new gorgeously packaged nine-film boxed set from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Only six of the nine films are available in 4K, but several of those had never been released in the high-definition format before. Plus, each film includes bonus features, even if most of them have been imported from previous home releases over the years. Standouts are still La Femme Nikita, Léon: The Professional, and The Fifth Element, all presented in 4K with booming audio tracks, as they should be. The other three films in high-def are Subway, The Big Blue, and The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc; films included only on standard Blu-ray include Le Dernier Combat, Atlantis, and Angel-A.
Shudder 10th Anniversary Collector’s Edition
Shudder has become an essential part of the conversation around horror in the ’10s and ’20s, but streaming services and physical media are often at war with each another. (Don’t get us started on how there’s still no physical release for Killers of the Flower Moon, for example.) To celebrate Shudder’s tenth anniversary, the good folks at the genre giant collected ten of its most beloved original films and assembled them in one boxed set. They may just be Blu-ray (not 4K) releases, and it’s a bit odd how they seem to have no special features, but some of the best horror flicks of the last decade are included: The Dark and the Wicked, Host, Mad God, Caveat, Skinamarink, Late Night With the Devil, and In a Violent Nature. Less effective but sure to have fans who want to collect them are Terrified, The Mortuary Collection, and V/H/S/94. May the next ten years of Shudder be just as fruitful.
The Wes Anderson Archive: Ten Films, Twenty-Five Years
The Box Set of the Year trophy usually goes to Criterion, and that’s the case again this year with this spectacular collection of Wes Anderson’s first ten films. Criterion has released a number of Anderson’s works, but this is the first time they’ve been collected and the first time that several of them have been made available on 4K. It comes assembled in a wonderful box that looks like something an Anderson character would take on a camping trip: Each film sits in an individual case that resembles a tiny book. Let’s just say the style of the archive is inspired by the style of the filmmaker. The set includes over 25 hours of special features, along with a booklet of essays full of spectacular writing by voices such as Kent Jones, Dave Kehr, this site’s own Bilge Ebiri, and Bottle Rocket’s biggest fan, Martin Scorsese. The films included are that debut, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, The Darjeeling Limited, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Isle of Dogs, and The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun.
X Trilogy: Collector’s Edition Box Set
A24 has been upping its physical-media game over the last year or two, with releases available on their online shop as well as in indie stores and big retailers like Barnes & Noble or Amazon. The coolest of 2025 is probably this set of Ti West’s three collaborations with Mia Goth: X, Pearl, and MaXXXine. All three films include commentaries from key contributors like cinematographer Eliot Rockett, production designer Tom Hammock, and set decorator Kelsi Ephraim, along with featurettes about the making of each film. On top of that, the set is encased in a unique digibook with an artfully designed slipcase. This is actually the first and only physical 4K release of X and Pearl in the U.S. The set includes a whopping 64-page booklet with a new essay, unreleased costume art, sketches, and much more. It’s a showcase piece for horror fans this season.
Related