None of the other UHD steelbooks had such a high MSRP, probably ever. It's hard to find official press releases nowadays, even official studio websites and 'social network' pages turned into moronic 12-year-old's blurbs, but I don't remember such prices.
Amazon price will drop before release date as I have explained multiple times previously on other releases that had a list price aka MSRP when first goes live on Amazon websites
Pre order price promise covers any price drop that happens after you pre order upto release date
MSRP for the 4K amaray in USA is $40.99 and that is what Amazon also have listed
The Amaray will also drop in price by release date with various USA retailers including Amazon
Some retailers pre order prices that start with MSRP drop quickly or take longer to happen but happens by release date
The only exception is when a retailer has a exclusive that sometimes stays at MSRP and sold out before a price drop could happen and why would they drop the price if they already sold all stock at MSRP
The other exception is a small retailer that can't afford to price match the bigger retailers
MSRP is provided by the distributors to retailers its not made up prices
It's calculated based on dealer price + standard profit margin + any tax (Vat) that might apply
Most of the big retailers end up selling a lower price by release date as they can afford to drop price and still sell at a profit but that can depend on what file discounts they have with supplier.
The more you regularly order with a distributor as In large regular orders the better chance of getting a decent file discount
A retailer can decide to sell at lower or higher price at various stages before and after release date or keep price at MSRP
It will depend on that retailer profit margin and file discounts they have.
Some retailers set profit margin to be lower or higher than standard
The main retailers like Amazon/Best Buy have much better file discounts with distributors than smaller retailers would have.
That is why you see bigger price drops with Amazon and Best Buy
It has happened sometimes when retailers price match each other they end up selling at dealer price as in break even price (No Profit) or even sell at a loss
A release not selling well its often better to sell at a loss than have no revenue
We as customers gain when that happens but the retailer is not making any profit.
As more people switch to streaming the retail price of physical media will stay at high prices.
Some retailers if lucky have SOR or SOE with suppliers but that don't happen now as much compared to a few years ago