Another Week, Another Smackdown!

[Spankey]

In case anyone hasn't noticed the trend...

"Museum" leads DVD charts in first week

High-definition disc sales for the week were 71% Blu-ray Disc and 29% HD DVD, with Blu-ray sales bolstered by the fact that "Museum" was available exclusively on that format.

I didn't see this one coming, really. So Blu-ray still beat up on HD-DVD even with the release of Planet Earth. Just wait till Pirates comes out in a few weeks, and then Cars. Universal may want to rethink things. Thanks to AVS for this one.

[dialog_gvf]

That is interesting.

Perhaps Planet Earth on HD DVD is an Amazon phenomena. We're assuming big HD DVD sales from the Amazon rankings. What if Amazon represents a bulk of the HD DVD sales?

Gary

[Spankey]

That or some people are getting short sighted over the ranking of one title at one vendor. Planet Earth is all HD-DVD had. The Blu-ray sales (at Amazon) of Planet Earth were pretty strong as well. That does not take into account sales of Night At The Museum on either Amazon or B&M stores. The Queen has also been available for about two weeks and those numbers were sure to figure in. Title availability is starting to show as Blu-ray's current biggest strength.

The next big title for HD-DVD is The Matrix. During that time, Blu-ray has Pirates and Cars, with the delayed Fox titles on the way. That should show a strong revenue stream throughout the summer. Universal does not have any real big summer blockbusters coming. The fall will be owned by Sony, Disney, Fox, and Warner. This might start to look like a Blu-ray pile on.

[Shin-Ra]

High-definition disc sales for the week were 71% Blu-ray Disc and 29% HD DVD, with Blu-ray sales bolstered by the fact that "Museum" was available exclusively on that format.

Joy of joys! Keep the biggies coming!

[GTP]

I haven't looked today..but yesterday the pre orders for these movies were.
POTC 1 125
POTC 2 129
Matrix U 302
Matrix 2518

Blood Diamond BD 302
Blood Diamond hd dvd 1093

So its looking like this trend will continue.

[RUR]

The BR release calendar looks very strong thru 6/5, after which we need some new release announcements. Hopefully those Fox titles or ???

[Werewolk Killer]

We are putting too much into the whole amazon thing now. At the start of this, yes, but now we may need to rethink this. When Amazon was one of the only places to get Blu-rays from sales there where very important. Now ppl can walk into Best Buy, Circuit City, Suncoast Movies, and lots of online shops to get a blu fix.

Case in point, AVS guys banned together and bought a ton of movies from Amazon. The result. Blu-ray still made had a three to on sales rate. Sure allot of HD-DVDs where sold but it was from on source. I can not tell you the number of ppl that have stated I am going to X to buy this movie when it come out on this site alone. Heck on the Planet Earth thread about 30% of the ppl stated that they got there copy from a brick and mortar store.

This would explain numbers being wildly different from different sources about Blu-ray sales figures. The early ones only site one or two sources and the later ones taut many.

I feel we should wait for official numbers before we yell victory of a loss when movies come out. Amazon my still be king of the Blu cartel, but there are other dealers we can now get a fix from.

[JTK]

You can use any source you want: The two POTC films are going to clean house when they come out later this month.

[ProvenFlipper]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

That is interesting.

Perhaps Planet Earth on HD DVD is an Amazon phenomena. We're assuming big HD DVD sales from the Amazon rankings. What if Amazon represents a bulk of the HD DVD sales?

Gary

I've said it once and I'll say it again, HD-DVD lives on AVSForum.com. Outside of that camp, nobody knows about it. BD slaughters HD-DVD in the B&M locations. When you go into a B&M all you see is BD, HD-DVD has literally no presence outside of the internet.

It's going to take alot more than AVS Fudsters to bring HD-DVD to the top.

1000th Post!

[MatrixS2000]

Originally Posted by GTP

Matrix 2518

I thought this was supposed to be their "killer" release???

[ps3andlovinit]

Originally Posted by Werewolk Killer

We are putting too much into the whole amazon thing now. At the start of this, yes, but now we may need to rethink this. When Amazon was one of the only places to get Blu-rays from sales there where very important. Now ppl can walk into Best Buy, Circuit City, Suncoast Movies, and lots of online shops to get a blu fix.

Yep. Agree with that trend. I find myself picking up at B&M more often now. In fact just picked up Deja Vu, King Arthur, DreamGirls and (last copy) of Planet Earth yesterday.

[Jaren613]

Wouldn't it be ironic if the actual total sales (not just on Amazon) for Planet Earth were still higher for BD? Now THAT would be funny!

[Rup_Muk]

Originally Posted by sltmag

... Planet Earth is all HD-DVD had. The Blu-ray sales (at Amazon) of Planet Earth were pretty strong as well. ...

Am I the only one thinking that the sales/ranking of the HD-DVD version of PE at Amazon doesn't make sense? To maintain a consistent ranking of under 10, they must be "buying" a lot of copies. Does anybody know the ratio of orders to units shipped from Amazon? Are the FUDsters keeping the ranking up by ordering and then cancelling orders prior to shipment?

What do others think?

Rup.

[Longshot]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

That is interesting.

Perhaps Planet Earth on HD DVD is an Amazon phenomena. We're assuming big HD DVD sales from the Amazon rankings. What if Amazon represents a bulk of the HD DVD sales?

Gary

I firmly believe the bulk of all HD DVD sales are from Amazon.

[Amon37]

Originally Posted by MatrixS2000

I thought this was supposed to be their "killer" release???

Everyone who wanted to pay that much has already pre-ordered it. That's why I'm guessing the rank is so low.

[Longshot]

Originally Posted by sltmag

The fall will be owned by Sony, Disney, Fox, and Warner. This might start to look like a Blu-ray pile on.

These exclusive BD Titles will be available between November 1st and xmas:
Spiderman 3
Pirates 3
Ratatouille
The Simpsons Movie
Live Free Die Hard
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Saw IV

Exclusive to HD DVD by xmas:
The Bourne Ultimatum
Evan Almighty

Even if M$ somehow convinces Spielberg to release some of his blockbusters it's going to be an absolute route. How many players would Jaws and ET really sell? This doesn't even take into account the back catalogue of the BDA studios which is much stronger than Universals.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by Longshot

Even if M$ somehow convinces Spielberg to release some of his blockbusters it's going to be an absolute route. How many players would Jaws and ET really sell? This doesn't even take into account the back catalogue of the BDA studios which is much stronger than Universals.

Exactly. Hot new releases are the killer apps, not catalog titles.

A killer app drives consumers to purchase the hardware to get the specific software. The new releases give people an opportunity to ask themselves: "Do I really want to buy the DVD, or should I just jump in now and get the HD player and disc?"

If the catalog title is big, then people already have it on DVD, so they can defer a decision.

Spiderman 3
Pirates 3
Ratatouille
The Simpsons Movie
Live Free Die Hard
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Saw IV

Those are key titles right there. And for everyone of them people thinking HD will be forced to make a decision.

Spiderman 3 and The Simpsons Movie would be my guess of the leading killer apps for BD.

Gary

[Blu_Ray_UK2007]

Tho I'm sure the HD-DVD fanboys will say "that's because they had 71% of the releases"

That's an impressive number! Heres to 90-10

[becomingwater]

HD-DVD will be Sony's Betamax. The numbers are not from reliable sources, so just wait it out and I see an announcement in the future to cease production of HD-DVD's. Popularity will win in the long run! I recently bought Planet Earth on Blu-ray and had some friends over. A few of my friends were pissed they had the HD-DVD drive for the X-Box and decided to stop buying HD-DVD movies, because they didn't have most movies they wanted to see in HD. Then I showed them the companies that supported Blu-ray and it convinced them.


Now you know why M$ had an external HD-DVD player instead of having it incorporated in the 360.

[hyperdine]

So much for the HD-DVD Amazon buyathon. Lot of good that did them