Disc Sales: 'Dark Knight' Blu-ray Breaks 1M First-Week Barrier

'The Dark Knight' shattered all previous high-def sales records in its first seven days in stores, setting a new opening-week benchmark for Warner with over one million Blu-ray units sold.

Widely expected to one of the format's all-time time sellers, Batman's high-def bow was sure to be impressive, and indeed its 1.7 million worldwide opening salvo handily trumped the previous record-holder for first week sales, Paramount's 'Iron Man' (which is now reported to have approached 500,000 units in its opening frame).

According to studio estimates, 'The Dark Knight's Blu-ray sales accounted for almost 13 percent of the 13.5 million combined Blu-ray and DVD sales for the title thus far.

Domestically, 'The Dark Knight' sold over 1 million Blu-ray units in its first week, including the blockbuster 600,000 first-day sales of the title reported earlier this week.

Warner expects sales to continue strongly throughout the holiday season, with final 2008 sales for 'The Dark Knight' expected to top over 2 million worldwide.

The news also comes a day before the studio is set to host a BD-Live chat with director Christopher Nolan, in which all owners of 'The Dark Knight' Blu-ray can participate.