Yikes! 300 sells 250K copies since 7/31

[RUR]

From the warner press release:

"BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today Warner Home Video (WHV) announced that it has the fastest and highest-selling high definition title in the market with the epic action-adventure, “300.” Since July 31, 2007, “300” has sold more than 250,000 copies to consumers on HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc."
etc.
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/...67&newsLang=en

Here's hoping the BD/HD DVD ratio is completely cockeyed.

[dakota81]

Here's hoping at least 200k Blu, 50k red. Could be interesting. It's the PS3 demographic, versus those curious about the HD DVD interactive features. I have to give the edge to the PS3 demographic. Heavily.

No matter what the split is, it's great for the future of hi def movies on optical disc.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by dakota81

Here's hoping at least 200k Blu, 50k red. Could be interesting. It's the PS3 demographic, versus those curious about the HD DVD interactive features. I have to give the edge to the PS3 demographic. Heavily.

No matter what the split is, it's great for the future of hi def movies on optical disc.

Absolutely. This is a huge big deal for HD discs. 250K is real serious money. I bet a lot of DVD releases don't see that in the first week.

But, 4:1 would be sweet.

[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

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by darinp2

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.

Well, what we don't know is how much it costs Warner to release on two formats. The extra format cost could eat away all the profits of the extra sales.

Gary

[dialog_gvf]

Let's assume Warner is right.

Who is being more stupid:

(1) Fox, MGM, Disney, Lionsgate and Sony for missing out on 30/70 (42%) more sales.

(2) Universal for missing out on 70/30 (133%) more sales?

It's funny how the HD DVD camp all agree Warner is right, but would never agree that Universal should make the first move because they have the most to gain.

Sacrifice the 133% gain and push the others to go neutral. That's the way of maximizing their profits.

Gary

[gand41f]

Originally Posted by darinp2

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

You are wrong on the second point. HD DVD owners still buy DVDs, remember how many of them are saying that they will be happy with Sony/Fox/Disney movies on DVD because XA2 upscales so well....

enjoy
gandalf

[Monkeykong2215]

Originally Posted by dakota81

Here's hoping at least 200k Blu, 50k red. Could be interesting. It's the PS3 demographic, versus those curious about the HD DVD interactive features. I have to give the edge to the PS3 demographic. Heavily.

No matter what the split is, it's great for the future of hi def movies on optical disc.

Yeah, I feel that the PS3 is a huge help for BD. I have a PS3 and I bought 300 the first day it came out.

[POTC123]

this is huge for 300, but IMO Spider-Man will eclipse its record, and Pirates: At World's End will break that record

[yeslek]

Originally Posted by Monkeykong2215

Yeah, I feel that the PS3 is a huge help for BD. I have a PS3 and I bought 300 the first day it came out.

i'm still waiting for mine to be shipped over from the US .... and with all the postal strikes over here its just going to take even longer

[atomik kinder]

That is increadible. I knew this was selling well since most of the stores I visited the first day were sold out or nearly sold out. I know people are buying these things, but I find it funny that I have never seen anyone else buy a BD or HD DVD. I have never seen anyone else looking at the displays of movies. Usually when I am browsing, someone will walk by, but not even look at them.

[MrVorhees]

AMAZING!!

I wonder how many copys each format sold.
This is going to be VERY interessting.

[doctorsteve]

Let's for a moment assume that every HDDuD player owner bought 300, and the rest of the copies were bought by Blu-Rayers. What would that worst case scenario look like???

[nhaase]

Originally Posted by doctorsteve

Let's for a moment assume that every HDDuD player owner bought 300, and the rest of the copies were bought by Blu-Rayers. What would that worst case scenario look like???

Well, including the 360 add-on there are something like 300,000 HD DVD players, so your assumption is impossible. I'm not going into including only standalones into that assumption, since we've all dealt w/ the crappy end of that debate (PS3). We won't know anything for sure until format-specific numbers are released, but if this title follows the trend of all other titles, we will all be very happy, as will the BDA. Ken Graffeo will probably be very happy, too, since he will have a good excuse to charge more LSD to Universal's account to help him hallucinate while thinking of ways to spin it.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by RUR

From the warner press release:

"BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today Warner Home Video (WHV) announced that it has the fastest and highest-selling high definition title in the market with the epic action-adventure, “300.” Since July 31, 2007, “300” has sold more than 250,000 copies to consumers on HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc."
etc.
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/...67&newsLang=en

Here's hoping the BD/HD DVD ratio is completely cockeyed.

“‘300’ is an amazing film, and the high definition sales we are seeing underscores the positive business benefits of supporting both HD DVD and Blu-ray,” said Ron Sanders, President of Warner Home Video. “This phenomenal response to ‘300’ is the latest proof that our approach makes the most sense in today’s market and has enabled Warner Home Video to continue to lead the market in high definition sales.”

So, the Blu-ray version kicked ass, and they are trying to sell the board and shareholders why they should continue supporting HD DVD.

Gary

[atdm71]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

So, the Blu-ray version kicked ass, and they are trying to sell the board and shareholders why they should continue supporting HD DVD.

Gary

AMEN! You put is perfectly. It is really dissappointing to see that Warner didn't give a breakout on the sales volumes. I haven't read the rest of this thread yet, but there's gotta be another source?

[nhaase]

Originally Posted by atdm71

AMEN! You put is perfectly. It is really dissappointing to see that Warner didn't give a breakout on the sales volumes. I haven't read the rest of this thread yet, but there's gotta be another source?

Right now, no. If there was another source, we would of course be discussing those hard format-specific numbers. If we don't get a source by Friday, the Nielsen numbers will tell the tale. It will be even better, since we won't have to deal with just an index, we can convert that into somewhat hard numbers (of course they didn't sell 250k on the dot most likely, but we get a ball-park figure).

[atdm71]

Originally Posted by nhaase

Right now, no. If there was another source, we would of course be discussing those hard format-specific numbers. If we don't get a source by Friday, the Nielsen numbers will tell the tale. It will be even better, since we won't have to deal with just an index, we can convert that into somewhat hard numbers (of course they didn't sell 250k on the dot most likely, but we get a ball-park figure).

Right on, I'll be watching closely and in eager anticipation of Friday's Nielsen numbers. This won't persuade anybody to support both formats in as much as it will persuade Universal to open up to the significant amount of Blu-ray money they are just leaving on the table. I wouldn't be suprised to see Universal charge Toshiba back on the opportunity costs!! -- ha ha

[darinp2]

Originally Posted by RUR

Here's hoping the BD/HD DVD ratio is completely cockeyed.

Wow. 250k to stores would be one thing, but 250k to consumers is pretty incredible. I wonder what percentage are in the US or North America.

As far as the ratio, I predicted 1.6:1 on the AVSForum, but with this high a number I'm thinking higher for Blu-ray. Basically, if there are 400k unique HD DVD owners worldwide and 20% of them bought this disc, that would be 80k to 170k for Blu-ray, or over 2:1. I know some will think 20% for 80k sounds too low, but I think that is more than Batman Begins on HD DVD has sold and that has been out since last year. I know 300 is popular, but should we expect it to sell more on HD DVD in its first week than Batman Begins has sold in over 9 months? I can't wait to see the percentages and the ratio. It won't surprise me if some people continue on their campaign that sales aren't near what DVD sales are, so they don't matter.

Using an analogy I've used elsewhere, if a baby oak is 3' tall it would be ridiculous to trash it as if it won't really survive to be a big oak based on it not being as big as an old oak tree, when that old oak was 3' tall when it was the same age. Or something like that.

--Darin

[dialog_gvf]

Apparently, the title didn't matter. Warner and xboxboi and rdjam have decided 300 sold 250K units simply because it was available on both formats.

Apparently, BD owners only buy titles in big numbers if HD DVD people can buy them too. So, all the studios should rush to neutrality to gain this special philanthropic boost.