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.

[AlexCruz]

That is amazing. We haven't even finished 3 full months into the year and already there have been 3 million units sold! I wonder how well DVD was doing when it was around 2 years old?

[sardaukar1977]

I doubt DVD was doing that well in the beginning

[Bullseye]

This is a very good sign that one format will help BD greatly.

[Herr Schmidt]

It looks like it will be a good year for blu :}

[Blu Titan]

Great news Grubert. I Am Legend and Enchanted will be big sellers. With HD DVD gone, the format will only increase in popularity.

[MatrixS2000]

This is great news. Good to see sales picking up briskly.

[RustyK94]

like i said 3 to 4 years dvd will be dead and not a moment to soon. Well ok it was good for it's time.

[Mobe1969]

I'd love to see figures more recent taking into consideration I Am LEgend. I mean FFS it has been #1 or 2 for nearly two weeks now. That didn't happen for No Country and Hitman...

[Argento Fan]

Fantastic. With all of the great movies coming in 2008, and the exclusive promotion of Blu-ray by the retails channels, I can see 20 million BD movies sold in 2008.

[groovyone]

Amazing how much it has picked up steam since the 'end' of the format BS.

[Beta Man]

Being more into the audio side, even though I had my HD TV for two years, I got into Blu this January (60 disks ago or so) and Blu-Ray was the first HD picture ever displayed on my T.V. (I know..... I wasted having a nice t.v. for two years.... it's like a car without gas etc... I hear all the cliche's ) I never got HD stations with my Satellite b/c my wife and I don't like big cable-bills....

Part of the reason I got into Blu was because I'm a big movie fan, and knew they were better, but honestly, I waited until there was more of a selection, and more and more titles are showing up, so I think more people are making the leap every-day...... if there aren't good titles out, it doesn't matter how good the PQ/AQ is...... you gotta have some good movies to get people to buy!!!!

[jadedeath]

How many HD-DVD's have sold this year?

HA HA! I kid I kid!

Logan

[Memnoch71]

Originally Posted by AlexCruz

That is amazing. We haven't even finished 3 full months into the year and already there have been 3 million units sold! I wonder how well DVD was doing when it was around 2 years old?

I just read it yesterday in another Article, At the 2 year point DVD had sold 1 million units. As opposed to 9 million for Bul-Ray.

[Entertainment72]

Does anyone know the I AM LEGEND sales figures yet..any stats.. if NCFOM did that well I would think IAL surpassed it or going to shortly.

[dialog_gvf]

Unfair I say!! Consumer sales shouldn't be allowed to be reported. How can claims of BD losing to downloads/flash catch on in the consumer psyche if the BDA are allowed to prove Blu-ray is succeeding?!



Just wait until Q4 when EVERYONE is pushing a Blu Xmas.

Gary

[Blu Haze]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

Unfair I say!! Consumer sales shouldn't be allowed to be reported. How can claims of BD losing to downloads/flash catch on in the consumer psyche if the BDA are allowed to prove Blu-ray is succeeding?!



Just wait until Q4 when EVERYONE is pushing a Blu Xmas.

Gary

All i want this Christmas is a Blu ray

[mightypen]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

Just wait until Q4 when EVERYONE is pushing a Blu Xmas.

Gary

Hopefully there will be a decent push in late april through may by retailers..Thank you, shrub.

[unreal1080p]

Originally Posted by Memnoch71

I just read it yesterday in another Article, At the 2 year point DVD had sold 1 million units. As opposed to 9 million for Blu-Ray.

Hold on to your horses there and don't believe EVERYTHING some schmoe puts on a blog or make sure you are looking at North American figures... not UK ones

VideoScan, who tracks home video sales, reports that more than 9.3 million open DVDs sold during 1998, a 600% increase over 1997.

For the 1999 calendar year, through the week ended Dec. 19, more than 19.75 million units of DVD software were sold. That's more than double the 9.3 million software units sold in all of 1998, according to VideoScan.

Total DVD sales for 1997 (1st year of DVD-launched April 1997) = 1.5 million
Total DVD sales for 1998 (2nd year of DVD) = 9.3 million
Total DVD sales for 1999 (3rd year of DVD) = 19.75 million

Total DVD sales for first two years (1997 + 1998) = 11 million

Blu-Ray total sales for it's first two years (2006 + 2007) = 6 million

For it's first 3 years, DVD sold 30.5 million units

To match it's pace, there would have to be 21.5 million Blu-Ray discs sold between now and Xmas (probably not going to happen).

Given that DVD ran un-opposed and had more of a "novelty" advantage then Blu-Ray... I think Blu-Ray is doing extremely well. Given the rapid adoption pace currently being experienced by Blu-Ray I think we might be able to match DVD's pace by end of Q1 2009 but will Blu-Ray be able to continue to match it further down the line is the BIG question (DVD boomed between 2000-2002... will Blu-Ray experience the same boom?...)

DVD-VIDEO SOFTWARE SHIPMENTS BY QUARTER -- NORTH AMERICA
(in millions)

QUARTER_____2002___2001__2000__1999___1998__1997

1st Quarter___120.1___69.2__29.0___11.1___3.3___N/A

2nd Quarter___152.2___81.7__33.2___13.9___4.1___N/A

3rd Quarter___153.3___75.9__42.7___29.0___5.9___2.3

4th Quarter____N/A___137.6__77.5___44.0__11.8___3.2

YEARLY TOTAL_425.6__364.4__182.4__98.0__25.1___5.5

TOTAL --> 1,101

[Kuraudo]

Since many people who own blu ray discs have more than one disc
this means a large group of the pie of ps3 owners do not even own a blu ray movie.