9 mil. Blu discs sold to date; 3 million already this year

[Grubert]

Source: Hollywood in Hidef

Blu-ray Disc sales continue to pick up steam, with total U.S. sales since inception (about a year-and-a-half-ago) hitting 9 million units through March 16, according to HMR research.

In just 11 weeks this year, BD unit sales have hit 3 million units, seemingly putting the format on pace to easily hit at least 15 million units for 2008.

After averaging weekly sales ranging from 200,000 - 300,000 the past two months or so, sales spiked up to 319,000 units, driven by Miramax's release of "No Country For Old Men."

The Oscar-winner, despite having few special features of any kind, sold a whopping 68,000 units the week ending March 16. That's double the next closest title, Fox's "Hitman: Special Edition," which was also a relatively strong seller.

Prior weekly top-sellers this year were ranging from 10,000 - 30,000 units.
Look for even stronger numbers in the coming weeks with much bigger box-office titles slated for release.

As a reference, BD sales in the full first quarter of 2007 were about 830,000.