Nothing encapsulates what I love about collecting SteelBooks more than the international release of “Alien: Romulus” with Matt Ferguson’s artwork on the front. Combining amazing artwork with physical media, it’s like owning a painting and putting it on your wall. As compared to the flimsy blue clamshell case, which shows zero effort. Also, this way, an incredible artist like Matt Ferguson gets his work immortalized on the movie itself, and not only are you supporting a movie and the studio it came from, but an artist as well.

Lionsgate gets it, and I wish that understanding would spread throughout the industry. This month’s Lionsgate Limited Exclusive SteelBook was the 1999 Johnny Depp film “The Ninth Gate,” complete with removable clear slipcover, with artwork done by Matt Ryan Tobin. Taking a catalog film and breathing new life into it by wrapping it in amazing artwork is the pinnacle of physical media collecting. No one is getting excited about “The Ninth Gate” anymore, but you slap Tobin’s work on a SteelBook and suddenly people are excited to add it to their collection. How are other companies not understanding this model?

Sony, Universal, and Warner Bros all dabbled with their own SteelBooks this month, although they were less about commissioned artwork and more about visually interesting designs. Universal re-released “Carlito’s Way” featuring some art of Al Pacino’s character (the artist’s name was not included). Sony put out their newest film “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” in a deep red SteelBook, with Ralph Fiennes holding a skull brandishing the biohazard symbol cracked into the cover. And Warner Bros put out “Sleepers,” featuring some shadows of prison bars laying over a picture of a group of boys. I appreciate the effort put into these, but there’s something flashier about commissioning a specific artwork from a paid artist.

If you want an example of how not to do SteelBook artwork, just take a look at what Shout! Factory is putting out. Most often it is sets or inanimate objects, like the cases for this month’s releases of “The Deer Hunter” (a field with a fence) and “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” (robots and an airplane). My best guess is that they don’t have the rights to put the likenesses of any of the actors on the cover, so they go that simple route. But it feels lazy. At least Kino Lorber and Arrow Video simply use the theatrical poster artwork and usually have a reversible cover with some unique work specific to that release. That’s the case with Arrow Video’s release of “Soldier,” which, when you turn the artwork around, features newly commissioned artwork by Orlando Arocena. This shows effort by the label and offers something for the collector to be proud of.

And then you have labels like A24 and MUBI, who you’re just happy are putting out movies in general. A24 released their 2025 Spike Lee joint, “Highest 2 Lowest,” starring Denzel Washington. And MUBI released their 2025 Jennifer Lawrence/Robert Pattinson film, “Die My Love.” I love that A24 has made their releases completely uniform DigiPacks. Next month, the two releases I’m looking forward to the most just happen to be for television series. Warner Bros is releasing the first season of the HBO series “It: Welcome to Derry.” As a Stephen King fan, and huge Pennywise stan, I am in love with the artwork on that SteelBook. And then in what will be my first Alliance label purchase, I’ll be grabbing Amazon Prime Video’s “Fallout” Season Two, which is also getting a SteelBook with some cool artwork.