[darinp2]

Given the even better reviews from critics and that I think they will make in about the same ballpark at the US box office, it would be interesting to compare 300's first week on high definition disc to The Bourne Ultimatum's first week on high definition disc, if Universal is still exclusive to HD DVD. The latter one has the advantage that there should be more players by then. I think many Blu-ray owners don't buy DVDs anymore and so Universal isn't going to get money from the group of exclusive Blu-ray owners who also don't buy DVDs. The same applies to exclusive studios on the Blu-ray side, but not to the same degree in general with the higher sales there and of course these studios need to look at what they are trying to gain in the long run (not selling out the short run and losing in the long run). But 100k lost sales at $10 marginal profit average would be another million in the coffers.

I think Sony is shooting themselves in the foot somewhat with their pricing on SM3 and I wonder if that combined with some lost sales from being on just Blu-ray (even though the dominant format), and coming out later, will mean that 300 will outsell it on next gen disc this year.

And the first week for Transformers should be huge with even more players out there by then.

I bet there are some people within side Warner who would love to stop releasing on Blu-ray, but if the ratio is big toward Blu-ray that pretty much puts the kibosh on that. And from one thing I read it sounds like they were trying to favor the HD DVD in their advertising.

--Darin