Top Grossing Studios for 2006

[hmurchison]

Man these tea leaves aren't hard to read.

1. Lionsgate cancels all BD releases for 2006 and states they are moving to VC1 and will resume movie shipments in 2007. Duh they didn't have to cancel 2006 releases unless they planned a larger update than just a codec.

2. Joe Iger from Disney has already stated he thought they'd eventually support both formats.

3. While it's only Amazon...sales of popular HD DVD titles dwarf Blu-Ray versions. Studios have taken notice.

Blu-Ray cannot live by studio support alone. HD DVD has a large advantage in HD DVD enabled laptops and more vendors will be getting in the game. I could be wrong but I doubt that I am. CES 2006 was supposed to be the Blu-Ray coming out party and HD DVD stole their thunder. CES 2007 will be more of the same...further penetration and clever strategy by the HD DVD Promotions Group.

I think Blu-Ray is a great technology and I'd be glad to own their product but it's not good enough to warrant paying more money for. They will need to reach price parity with HD DVD by end of next year for like products. Meaning I won't be comparing a PS3 to a STB HD DVD player.