81:19 Nielsen/VideoScan Weekly Sales Numbers

[CptGreedle]

Well I am disappointed for a few reasons.
• We didn't get the numbers we wanted.
• We didn't get the sales of Ratatouille and Cars that we wanted
• They are talking about how poorly Walmart handles HD content
• They are saying bad things about the fans

I do not know if they are talking about this site specifically, but i know they are aware of us. However I don't think its us cause there are no threats on here and usually not very much of anything but some trolls every so often.
I think they are talking about AVS. I won't say BD supporters are innocent of this, but I have not seen that much myself at all. But I see it all the time with AVS and HD-DVD supporters. But obviously they don't want to pick sides so they are being generic. Plus AVS is technically a neutral site since they have forums for both sections. I didn't realize that it was so bad they shut down that site (knew it was shut down, didn't know why).

Here's the good news...
• We are still 2:1 ahead.
• This week is above the YTD so it is pushing it in BD favor
• We still have most of the top 10 sellers and more upcoming releases.

I would not be surprised if the format war will not end not because of the competing formats, but because of the lack of interest and knowledge by J6P and clerks/retailers.
The way I see it, globally HD-DVD can not hold any ground and it will eventually (slowly) start to affect the US market more. Because of this, it is far more likely that the real battle here isn't against HD-DVD, it's against apathy and ignorance. People who don't care or don't know, get or give bad information, or think SD is just "good enough". If people can be convinced that HD is that much better than SD, than we would be in good shape, but right now it is not the case.

Next week will be higher thanks to the BOGO, but I wonder what else will happen next week in the HD world. If one format (BD) can win and the other (HD-DVD) gives in, then stopping the ignorance and apathy would be SOOO much easier. This format war is really starting to hurt consumers now.

[ikbradley]

Originally Posted by mel2

very bad for the blu-ray camp. no more predictions from me. I thought it would be higher than 75:25 easily. sales are just way to low across the board. There is no reason that ratatouille shouldn't have sold over 100k and cars 50k. with all the new players out there for both sides you would think the numbers sold would get alot higher every week. especially these busy shopping weeks.

Don't worry about it too much. Predicting is fun. Look this week was less than expected. So be it. However, as long as there is no gradual decline in the overall or YTD, the stalemate will not happen.

Keep in mind that the average PS3 user is the single male between 15-35. While Pixar films are great, there is a reason why action titles are selling.

I thought 79, but clearly the A-2 liquidation helped prevent the gap from widening. C'est la vie!

[richteer]

Originally Posted by olarmy96

Actually, it looks like the Spiderman trilogy is actually throwing off the numbers to me. Since the trilogy counts as 1 instead of 3. If you count the trilogy as 3 movies, then the ratio is pretty close to 3:1.

Please, we don't need any HD DVD style math here! Count the trilogy for what it is: one SKU (unit).

Yeah, 65:35 is a bit disappointing, but at least we don't have to resort to dubious tactics to prop up our numbers. Unlike that other format...

[glenn22]

I made a prediction of 76:24 earlier, but after seeing the numbers it actually makes a lot of sense to me.

They sold a ton of HD-DVD players, and did have the "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" release, which didn't do badly.... We had Ratatouille, residual sales from Spiderman, and Cars. Well Cars is a catalogue title which a lot of people probably don't want to double dip on so... 65:35 is actually pretty great!

Think about it guys, Toshiba made a move of desperation and sold 90K players to try and make a dent, and STILL lost the week 2:1....

[gand41f]

Oops, so I was way off this week. Looks like the Rat didn't sell nearly as well, while DUD had some sales I didn't know about (Knocked Up and Evan Almighty?). Oh well, 300 is still selling at over 2:1.

Now, does anybody have Ratatouille's DVD sale numbers?

Originally Posted by Joe Cain

Did I hear right? Did BD get a point back in YTD?

Yes it did. For a week of 65:35 to push the YTD back from 64:36 to 65:35, that 64:36 should have been really close to the edge.

enjoy
gandalf

[Iron Man]

Originally Posted by phloyd

65 is really not very good all things considered.

65:35 is pretty good but unfortunately 65:35 won't throw HD-DVD out of the ring.

I was hoping that Blu-ray would outsell HD-DVD by great margin in Q4 with all the exsclusive titles. There are still som great ones left, Die Hard, Pirates and Simpsons but I don't think any of them will do much better than 70:30.

[w_tanoto]

yay. we've claimed back the YTD figure....
I missed 6% (my prediction 71%)

[GregBlu5]

It's still going to come down to the hard numbers that the movie companies themselves see. And, most importantly, what Warners does, or does not do, next year. Without Paramount/Dreamworks, HD would have had no Transformers keeping them afloat. Again, it's what the movie companies themselves do over the next few months based on these sales figures.

-Greg

[olarmy96]

My point is if the movies were all offered separately at exactly 1/3 of the trilogy price, then the percentages would be higher. The trilogy costs about 3x of SM3, so it does have an effect.

So, if Sony, Fox and Disney combine and offer a 10-pack of this week's top 10 for $200 and we lose the "unit" percentage for a week, does that mean HD-DVD is winning? Give me break!

Studios care about the money they make, not unit percentages.

Originally Posted by richteer

Please, we don't need any HD DVD style math here! Count the trilogy for what it is: one SKU (unit).

Yeah, 65:35 is a bit disappointing, but at least we don't have to resort to dubious tactics to prop up our numbers. Unlike that other format...

[davidPS3]

A win is a win. I am not sure about anyone else, but 65 to 35 is not even close. Does anyone remember back to the transformers week and the numbers there?? Let's appreciate our format is kicking and now back to a strong lead. It seems like everyone thinks this war will be over before year end, it's not going to happen that fast.

[Seabass]

Originally Posted by stockstar1138

uh, thats not how you do %s. blu-ray sold about 100% more than hd dvd this week.

Sorry, slept through stats class, volume.

[Cyorg]

so much for my 99.99 : .01 prediction.

[BadAss]

Wouldn't you just love to see Sony drop the price of BDP-S300 for a week to regain 100,000 player sales?

[stockstar1138]

Originally Posted by GregBlu5

It's still going to come down to the hard numbers that the movie companies themselves see. And, most importantly, what Warners does, or does not do, next year. Without Paramount/Dreamworks, HD would have had no Transformers keeping them afloat. Again, it's what the movie companies themselves do over the next few months based on these sales figures.

-Greg

we do have to realize that we have more releases than hd dvd. so we have to watch out for proclaiming victory for outselling hd dvd 2:1 every week. the only reason why we do this is because we have a much stronger lineup. warner is looking at spiderman and saying, man that barely outsold transformers. its looking at ratatouille and saying, beat shrek 3 by a bit, but nothing significant. and then we of course of the neutral titles. i wouldn't be shocked if our 2:1 lead for neutral titles like 300 has been eroded down to about 1.5:1.

[CptGreedle]

Originally Posted by davidPS3

A win is a win. I am not sure about anyone else, but 65 to 35 is not even close. Does anyone remember back to the transformers week and the numbers there?? Let's appreciate our format is kicking and now back to a strong lead. It seems like everyone thinks this war will be over before year end, it's not going to happen that fast.

I agree. It might not be as HIGH as what we'd want.. but we still kicked HD-DVD's butt... again. They are never going to have a single week where they get better sales. 65:35 is still good, and I think it shows that 2/3 of the market is dedicated the BD.

[GregBlu5]

Originally Posted by stockstar1138

we do have to realize that we have more releases than hd dvd. so we have to watch out for proclaiming victory for outselling hd dvd 2:1 every week. the only reason why we do this is because we have a much stronger lineup. warner is looking at spiderman and saying, man that barely outsold transformers. its looking at ratatouille and saying, beat shrek 3 by a bit, but nothing significant. and then we of course of the neutral titles. i wouldn't be shocked if our 2:1 lead for neutral titles like 300 has been eroded down to about 1.5:1.

I really do wonder how The Aviator did. It was Warners. It was offered in both formats. This is likely what Warners is going to look at closely, too. Obviously, it didn't even dent the Top 10. How far down did it rate? If I were Warners, I'd not want to compete in two different formats when I'm not selling *that* many copies in either.

-Greg

[pscoop]

Even Almighty is the #4 selling HD DVD? Sad.

[richteer]

Originally Posted by BadAss

Wouldn't you just love to see Sony drop the price of BDP-S300 for a week to regain 100,000 player sales?

Or better, semi-permanently. Time to blow out the old Profile 1.0 players and make way for the new 1.1 players!

[blitz6speed]

Originally Posted by pscoop

Even Almighty is the #4 selling HD DVD? Sad.

Best Buy/Circuit City lowered price to 19.99 on rats week, along with a host of other flicks. It didnt do it by its own will.

[stockstar1138]

Originally Posted by GregBlu5

I really do wonder how The Aviator did. It was Warners. It was offered in both formats. This is likely what Warners is going to look at closely, too. Obviously, it didn't even dent the Top 10. How far down did it rate? If I were Warners, I'd not want to compete in two different formats when I'm not selling *that* many copies in either.

-Greg

looking at the top 10 it didn't even do 6k on both formats combined. this title will not impact warner's decision at all. i think harry potter is the big one that warner is watching. id say we do have the advantage as most ppl who accounted children into their decision went blu.