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Disc Sales: 'Dark Knight' Tops 600K On Release Day
Thu Dec 11, 2008 at 01:30 PM ETTags: High-Def Disc Sales, Warner (all tags)
'The Dark Knight' has smashed another record.
First-day Blu-ray sales are in for the box office juggernaut, with Warner reporting that the title moved 600,000 units in the US. Canada and the UK since hitting stores Tuesday.
That easily eclipses the first-day high-def sales of previous record-holder 'Iron Man,' which earlier this year topped out at 250,000 in its first 24 hours on shelves.
'The Dark Knight's Blu-ray take also accounted for 20 percent of total video sales for the title.
"Numbers like these in this economic environment firmly establish Blu-ray as where consumers are headed," Kevin Tsujihara, President of Warner Brothers Home Entertainment, told the New York Times.
Well ahead of the studio's reported internal projections, 'The Dark Knight' is already poised to sell over 1,000,000 Blu-ray copies in its first week in stores.
You can read our full review of 'The Dark Knight' here.
You'll find the latest specs for 'First Sunday' linked from our Blu-ray Release Schedule, where it's indexed under May 6.
- Related links:
- L.A. Dispatch: A DVD Boost for ‘The Dark Knight’ Cam [The New York Times]
- Discs mentioned in this article: (Click for specs and reviews)
- The Dark Knight (Blu-ray)
- Iron Man (2008) (Blu-ray)
Warner: '300' Blu-ray, HD DVD Sales Now Top 400K
Thu Oct 11, 2007 at 01:00 PM ETTags: High-Def Disc Sales, Warner (all tags)
All hail the high-def king: '300' continues to smash Blu-ray and HD DVD sales records, with Warner announcing that combined sales for both next-gen versions has now topped 400K units.
Since its day-and-date release on both format this past July, '300' has been an unstoppable juggernaut on high-def. Right out of the gate, the blockbuster quickly obliterated all previous next-gen sales benchmarks, moving a combined 250,000 copies in its first week alone. And the record-setting pace of '300' hasn't slowed down much since, with both the Blu-ray and HD DVD versions firmly lodged in the top five of Nielsen VideoScan's top-ranking high-def sales charts week after week.
Warner now says that the dual-format release has moved over 400,000 units through the end of September, with Blu-ray sales continuing their 2:1 advantage over HD DVD, as we first reported back in August. That number easily eclipses the totals for such past top-sellers as Paramount's 'M:i-III' (which took the 2006 honors for best-selling dual-format high-def title), and Sony's Blu-ray-exclusive 'Casino Royale,' which last March became the first next-gen release to ship over 100,000 units to retail.
Warner revealed its latest sales stats for '300' at the DVD Forum's North America DVD Conference, held this week in Universal City, California. The sole dual-format-supporting studio also said it now commands a 36% market share of all high-def disc sales -- more than any other studio.
See what people are saying about this story in our forums area, or check out other recent discussions.
- Related links:
- DVD Forum: 51GB HD DVD Still Testing; Paramount to Up HD DVD Efforts in 2008 [Home Media Magazine]
- Discs mentioned in this article: (Click for specs and reviews)
- 300 (Blu-ray)
- 300 (HD DVD)
- Mission: Impossible III (Blu-ray)
- Mission: Impossible III (HD DVD)
- Casino Royale (2006) (Blu-ray)
- Earlier on High-Def Digest:
- '300' Blu-ray Outsells HD DVD by 2 to 1
- '300' Breaks Blu-ray, HD DVD Sales Records (Aug 07, 2007)
- 'Mission: Impossible III' Top-Selling High-Def Title of 2006 (Dec 21, 2006)
- 'Casino Royale' Blu-ray Breaks 100,000 Unit Milestone (Mar 27, 2007)
Blu-ray, HD DVD Overtake VHS in Sales
Wed Aug 08, 2007 at 07:55 AM ETTags: Industry Trends, High-Def Disc Sales (all tags)
High-def has notched up another milestone, with combined Blu-ray and HD DVD disc sales overtaking VHS during the first half of 2007.
That's according to a new research report from Video Business, which found that during the first six months of the year, consumers bought more Blu-ray and HD DVD discs than half inch videotapes for the first time in history.
Ironically, the good news for high-def comes amid a bit of a sales slump for home entertainment -- specifically DVD -- with a weak Q1 and Q2 slate of both new releases and catalog titles resulting in a slump of over 5 percent versus the same period last year.
Granted, with VHS sales all but non-existent these days, high-def's triumph over the videotape is not exactly leaving DVD quaking in its boots. Whether it is in a slump or not, the standard-def disc format is still far and away the dominant home video format of choice for consumers, and it will likely remain so for the foreseeable future
However, more important for the next-gen formats is that with DVD sales dipping and VHS now all but dead, retailers will be more likely to free limited shelf space for Blu-ray and HD DVD titles. Studios, too, are seeing the flattening standard-def market as an incentive to further develop the high-def market in the upcoming fourth quarter.
"What is likely to happen as the business starts to flatten or trend downward, is it becomes less exciting for retail and they dedicate less space to it,” Sony Pictures Home Entertainment worldwide president David Bishop told Video Business.
This news of Blu-ray and HD DVD overtaking VHS follows Warner's announcement just yesterday that its dual-format bow of '300' set a new next-gen sales record, moving a combined 250,000 copies on high-def in only one week.
See what people are saying about this story in our forums area, or check out other recent discussions.
- Related links:
- Home Entertainment Down at the Half [Video Business]
- Earlier on High-Def Digest:
- '300' Breaks Blu-ray, HD DVD Sales Records (Aug 07, 2007)
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