September belongs to Star Trek. Paramount is putting the complete original series back on the shelf on September 8, which is sixty years to the day since “The Man Trap” aired on NBC. Around it: Supergirl, Toy Story 5, a Studio Ghibli SteelBook wave, Forbidden Planet in 4K, and Universal quietly getting the monster movies ready for October. Here is what is worth the shelf space.

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The Big Ones

Supergirl (2026)

Street date: September 8  |  Formats: 4K UHD, Blu-ray, DVD  |  Label: Warner Bros. and DC Studios

Milly Alcock’s Kara Zor-El arrives with more than ninety minutes of bonus features, which is a serious package for a film that split audiences straight down the middle. Craig Gillespie directed from a script by Ana Nogueira, adapting Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s Woman of Tomorrow, and the disc includes a mini comic of that first issue. Three editions: standard 4K, a Limited Edition SteelBook, and Blu-ray.

Check out our review of Supergirl.

Preorder on Amazon

Toy Story 5 (2026)

Street date: September 22  |  Formats: 4K UHD, Blu-ray, DVD  |  Label: Disney and Pixar

A billion dollars worldwide, and the disc has the extras to match. Commentary from co-director Kenna Harris, production designer Bob Pauley, and VFX supervisor Thomas Jordan, plus featurettes on the new cast, a breakdown of the film’s biggest set piece, a look at characters cut from the film, deleted scenes, and a gag reel.

The 4K SteelBook is the one to watch. It sold out once already and came back. If you want it, do not wait for a sale.

Check out our review of Toy Story 5.

Preorder on Amazon

Evil Dead Burn (2026)

Street date: September 22  |  Formats: 4K UHD, Blu-ray

The latest entry in a franchise that has now survived four decades and multiple hard reboots without ever losing the plot. Timed nicely for anyone building an October watchlist.

Preorder on Amazon

4K UHD Debuts

Forbidden Planet (1956)

Street date: September 29  |  Formats: 4K UHD, Blu-ray  |  Edition: Limited Edition

The film that taught science fiction what a spaceship interior should look like, and every production designer since has been quietly borrowing from it. Robby the Robot, an electronic score with no conventional instruments in it, and a plot lifted from The Tempest. A limited edition 4K is the release this has deserved for twenty years.

Preorder on Amazon

12 Angry Men (1957)

Street date: September 8  |  Formats: 4K UHD, Blu-ray

One room, twelve men, ninety six minutes. Sidney Lumet shot it with progressively longer lenses so the walls appear to close in as the film goes on, and that trick only reads properly on a clean transfer. This is a movie where the restoration is the argument.

Preorder on Amazon

Interview with the Vampire (1994)

Street date: September 22  |  Formats: 4K UHD  |  Edition: standard and Limited Edition SteelBook

Anne Rice’s New Orleans, shot in candlelight and mud, with Kirsten Dunst giving one of the great child performances in horror. It has been living on a soft, muddy transfer for years. The HDR grade on those interiors is the entire reason to double dip.

Check out our review of Interview With The Vampire

Preorder on Amazon

Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

Street date: September 8  |  Formats: 4K UHD, Blu-ray  |  Edition: 30th Anniversary SteelBook

Best of the Next Generation films and it is not close. Paramount putting it out the same day as the 60th anniversary box set is not a coincidence, and if you are buying one Trek item this month it is worth deciding which of the two is actually for you.

Preorder on Amazon

Arrival (2016)

Street date: September 8  |  Formats: 4K UHD, Blu-ray  |  Edition: 10th Anniversary Limited Edition SteelBook

Ten years on and Villeneuve’s first real swing at science fiction still holds up better than most of what followed it. Bradford Young’s photography lives almost entirely in low light and grey fog, which is exactly the kind of image that falls apart on streaming.

Preorder on Amazon

Dead Poets Society (1989) and Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)

Street date: September 29  |  Formats: 4K UHD, Blu-ray

Two Robin Williams films arriving on the same day, which will hit some of you harder than others. Doubtfire is the crowd pleaser and Dead Poets is the one people quote at funerals. Buy accordingly.

Preorder Dead Poets Society  |  Preorder Mrs. Doubtfire

Boutique Corner

The Hot Spot (1990) — Radiance Films

Street date: September 1  |  Formats: 4K UHD, Blu-ray  |  Edition: Limited to 5,000

Dennis Hopper directing a sweaty Texas noir with a Miles Davis and John Lee Hooker score. Five thousand copies means this is gone by November, and Radiance limited editions do not get repressed.

Preorder on Amazon

Peking Opera Blues (1986) and City on Fire (1987)

Street date: September 8  |  Formats: 4K UHD, Blu-ray  |  Edition: Limited Edition SteelBooks

Two cornerstones of Hong Kong cinema landing the same day. City on Fire is the Ringo Lam film Tarantino borrowed the third act of Reservoir Dogs from, and Peking Opera Blues is Tsui Hark at his most gleefully unhinged. If your Hong Kong shelf is thin, start here.

Preorder Peking Opera Blues  |  Preorder City on Fire

Bullet in the Head (1990) — Shout! Studios

Street date: September 29  |  Formats: 4K UHD, Blu-ray  |  Edition: Limited Edition SteelBook

John Woo’s angriest film and the one he has said cost him the most to make. Three friends go to Saigon and come back broken. It is not the fun Woo, and that is precisely why it is the one worth owning.

Preorder on Amazon

Anthropophagous (1980) and Absurd (1981) — Severin Films

Street date: September 29  |  Formats: 4K UHD, Blu-ray

Two Joe D’Amato video nasties in 4K, which is a sentence nobody in 1984 could have imagined. Both spent years on the UK banned list and both have circulated in butchered cuts ever since. Severin restoring them properly is the whole point.

Preorder Anthropophagous  |  Preorder Absurd

Three Films by Leos Carax

Street date: September 29  |  Formats: 4K UHD, Blu-ray

Carax has spent forty years making roughly one film per decade, so a three film set is close to a career retrospective.

Preorder on Amazon

TV and Anime

The Studio Ghibli SteelBook Wave

Street dates: September 8 and September 29  |  Formats: Blu-ray  |  Label: GKIDS and Shout! Studios

Fifteen Ghibli SteelBooks across two dates, which is the widest availability this line has had in years. September 8 brings Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Howl’s Moving Castle, Grave of the Fireflies, When Marnie Was There, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, From Up on Poppy Hill, and Only Yesterday. September 29 adds Princess Mononoke, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Ponyo, Porco Rosso, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, The Wind Rises, and The Secret World of Arrietty.

Worth knowing: these are reissues of the existing GKIDS line, not new transfers. Several titles in it, including Castle in the Sky, have been out of print and selling for triple on the secondary market. If you have been waiting to fill gaps in the shelf, this is the window.

Browse the Ghibli SteelBooks on Amazon

Frankenstein and The Wolf Man: Complete Legacy Collections

Street date: September 29  |  Formats: 4K UHD  |  Label: Universal

Universal putting its two flagship monster franchises on 4K on the last Tuesday before October is about as unsubtle as home video scheduling gets, and it will absolutely work. [VERIFY: film count and extras on each set.] These are the sets that turn a Halloween marathon into an actual event.

Preorder Frankenstein  |  Preorder The Wolf Man

Dark Shadows: Volume 1 (1967)

Street date: September 26  |  Formats: Blu-ray

The gothic soap opera that ran five days a week for five years and accidentally invented an entire genre of daytime television. Volume 1 on Blu-ray suggests someone is finally committing to the whole run.

Preorder on Amazon

Pick of the Month

Star Trek: The Original Series — 60th Anniversary

Street date: September 8  |  Formats: Blu-ray, DVD  |  Label: Paramount  |  List price: $139.99 Blu-ray collector’s set, $83.99 DVD

Paramount is releasing this on September 8, which is sixty years to the day since “The Man Trap” aired on NBC in 1966. That date is now Star Trek Day, and the studio has never had a cleaner excuse for a box set.

All 79 episodes across all three seasons, previously remastered with enhanced visuals and the original audio, in new anniversary packaging. The Amazon exclusive collector’s edition runs 20 discs and adds a set of premium lobby cards covering both famous scenes and behind the scenes material, plus a miniature Tiny Vinyl record pressed with Alexander Courage’s theme and the show’s sound effects. Total runtime is just under 69 hours.

Here is the honest read. If you already own the Blu-rays, the discs inside are the same remaster you have. What you are buying is the packaging, the lobby cards, and the occasion. That is a real thing to want, and Paramount knows it, which is why the collector’s set costs what it costs. But if you have never owned the original series and you have been waiting for a reason, there will not be a better one than the sixtieth anniversary. Sixty years is the whole point.

Preorder the collector’s set  |  Preorder the standard Blu-ray

Also Landing This Month

September 1

September 8

September 15

September 22

September 29

What are you making room for on the shelf this month? Tell us in the comments.

Catch up on last month’s BluRay Tuesday, or browse every edition of the column.


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