Warner announces 100K sales of Departed

ppltd · 05-24-2007, 08:00 AM

In what has to be the best reason for studios to support both formats, Warner has said they have sold 100k of 'Departed'.

Quote:

Warner Home Entertainment today announced that their dual-format release of 'The Departed' is the highest selling high-def disc title, having moved over 100,000 units since its release in February of this year

Departed News

Paul Arnette · 05-24-2007, 09:10 AM

This is definitely good news for HD optical media in general, however I would be curious to know what the BD/HD DVD split is on those numbers.

Nick Laslett · 05-24-2007, 09:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Arnette

This is definitely good news for HD optical media in general, however I would be curious to know what the BD/HD DVD split is on those numbers.

The Nielsen data that Sony published in their Reseach paper had the following figures:

Week Ending 18th March 2007

Departed - Blu-Ray: 38,993
Departed - HD-DVD: 23,454

63:37 Split

The discs were released on 13th February 2007.

This period accounts for the first 5 weeks of sales for the Departed.

We can assume that the film sold more on Blu-Ray even if the split might be closer to 55/45 than the above figures.

Paul Arnette · 05-24-2007, 09:40 AM

Nick,

Thanks. This is, undoubtably, attributable to the higher cost of the HD DVD Combo Disc.

Given how much Warner likes to tout that they're releasing in both formats and how they are making more revenue by supporting both, I think they'll be in for a rude awakening should they continue to persue Total HD. Unless they can significantly reduce their cost by going THD, they will be driving down their total units sold by releasing on a most assuredly more expensive combo disc.

Rob Young · 05-24-2007, 12:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Arnette

Nick,

Thanks. This is, undoubtably, attributable to the higher cost of the HD DVD Combo Disc.

Yep. I have both formats and went wiht the bluray version because it was cheaper. I am sure a good chunk of the blu ray sales are from people just like me.

As for the 100k sales figures...really puts things into perspective and makes all the format bickering people do on internet forums even more lame. For people to say the "war" is over and hd-dvd is dead is outright asinine when the top selling disc in HD has sold a combined 100k units in 2.5 months.

**HTF Ads**

ppltd · 05-24-2007, 01:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob Young

Yep. I have both formats and went wiht the bluray version because it was cheaper. I am sure a good chunk of the blu ray sales are from people just like me.

As for the 100k sales figures...really puts things into perspective and makes all the format bickering people do on internet forums even more lame. For people to say the "war" is over and hd-dvd is dead is outright asinine when the top selling disc in HD has sold a combined 100k units in 2.5 months.

I could not agree more. It is important to note that this is 100k sold, not the 100k shipped number Sony passed out on CR. Big difference. This should show why the studios should move to dual support, and get away from exclusive.

If Disney had released POC on both formats, or Universal with 'Children of Men', they might actually turn a profit. An extra 50 or 60k sales is actually a pretty large number for these formats.

I would love to know what the sales figures are on another dual format release, 'Planet Earth'.

Jason Harbaugh · 05-24-2007, 01:55 PM

But if there was only one format it would be 100k sold on a single format, not split across two. Heck it probably would be a lot more than 100k because all the people sitting on the sidelines waiting for the 'war' to be over would have jumped in. No matter how you look at it, this 'war' is hurting the HD format as a whole, and Casino Royal is still on track to be the first to sell 100k on a single format. It jumped back up to the top selling HD disc last week. It will be really interesting seeing the numbers for this week with so many high profile releases. Pirates 1/2, Matrix among others.

ppltd · 05-24-2007, 03:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jason Harbaugh

But if there was only one format it would be 100k sold on a single format, not split across two.

Ther are two formats, there will be two formats for a long time, and the only thing a studio can do to maximize there profits is to release against both.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jason Harbaugh

Heck it probably would be a lot more than 100k because all the people sitting on the sidelines waiting for the 'war' to be over would have jumped in.

I doubt it. Without the dual formats, players would be over 1000.00, with no price reduction in site, and many of the current owners may not be owners due to the price.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jason Harbaugh

No matter how you look at it, this 'war' is hurting the HD format as a whole, and Casino Royal is still on track to be the first to sell 100k on a single format.

And if Sony released on both formats, they could be looking at 200k. This war can be spun any way, but what can not be spun is that it is what it is. As the sales of stand alone units continues to rise, the possibility of it ending diminishes, and the possibility of exclusive studios going non-exclusive increases. At some point the qauntity of players will hit a critical point and the war will end with two formats surviving.

Jason Seaver · 05-24-2007, 03:37 PM

That's conjecture, too - if there were one format, maybe significantly fewer people would have purchased $1000 players that never came down in price.

But I don't think that's the point Thomas was trying to make. What he's saying, essentially, is that the dual-format release of The Departed has so far outsold any single-format release, and that as things stand now, since wishing there were only one format doesn't make it so, this demonstrates studios have more to gain by releasing on both formats rather than one, assuming that the costs for doing so in the way Warner does (one encode ported from HD DVD to BD) are negligible.

ppltd · 05-24-2007, 03:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jason Seaver

But I don't think that's the point Thomas was trying to make. What he's saying, essentially, is that the dual-format release of The Departed has so far outsold any single-format release, and that as things stand now, since wishing there were only one format doesn't make it so, this demonstrates studios have more to gain by releasing on both formats rather than one, assuming that the costs for doing so in the way Warner does (one encode ported from HD DVD to BD) are negligible.

You are right. It is an absolute fact that, as things stand currently (and for the foreseeable future), any studio that releases a title in both formats will sell more disks than they would have selling to only one format. For the 99% of the releases that do not have special features that utilize BD's java or HD's equivalent the cost to the studios to produce in both formats would be minimal.