Blu-ray Dominates Black-Friday

London Lawson · 11-29-2007, 08:50 PM

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/...36c0078ef4de4a

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The high-definition format war tilted even more heavily in favor of Blu-ray Disc despite a rash of inexpensive HD DVD players sold through Wal-Mart and other discount retailers in recent weeks. Nielsen VideoScan data for the week shows 72.6% of high-definition discs purchased by consumers were Blu-ray and just 27.4% were HD DVD. HD DVD players have been selling for as little as $98, one-fourth the lowest street price for a Blu-ray player.

Quote:

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment's "Live Free or Die Hard," released the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, generated first-week sales that were 20% ahead of projections, in addition to nearly 100,000 Blu-ray Disc copies, said Steve Feldstein, the division's senior vp corporate and marketing communications.

Ric Easton · 11-29-2007, 09:21 PM

It's hard for me to believe its that bad for HD-DVD. Especially with all the recent deals. Of which i took advantage of one.

FrancisP · 11-29-2007, 10:31 PM

It's not as bad. If anyone really thinks you can track every sale then you believe the moon is made of green cheese. Transformers was a hd-dvd only
title and sold about as many as Spiderman 3 did on blu-ray only. I will admit the bluray side is better at getting movies out than hd-dvd is. I suspect that is because Paramount and Universal aren't very good at putting out catalog titles. It would be interesting to see Amazon's numbers since they had a buy two and get one free sale on both hd-dvd and bluray.

Jeff Adkins · 11-29-2007, 11:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FrancisP

It's not as bad. If anyone really thinks you can track every sale then you believe the moon is made of green cheese. Transformers was a hd-dvd only
title and sold about as many as Spiderman 3 did on blu-ray only. I will admit the bluray side is better at getting movies out than hd-dvd is. I suspect that is because Paramount and Universal aren't very good at putting out catalog titles. It would be interesting to see Amazon's numbers since they had a buy two and get one free sale on both hd-dvd and bluray.

Amazon's numbers are included in the Nielsen Videoscan data.

ReggieW · 11-29-2007, 11:13 PM

There were also more blockbuster exclusives on Blu-ray this quarter than there were for HD-DVD. BD's catalog roster which consisted of Close Encounters & Cars shamed HD-DVD's Old School, Pride & Prejudice & Tremors. The numbers swing so wildly from week to week depending on what's being released, that it's hard to grow too attached to any of these figures at this early juncture. Once we are out of the Holiday blockbuster season, we'll have to see what happens then. I too have admitted that the Paramount and Universal catalog line-up for quarter four was not only dismal, but MIA for the most part. aside from new blockbuster titles like Shrek & Transformers, both of which sold very well, the only other two must haves were Trek & BSG - and those are expensive box sets. I guess Bourne is coming in two weeks, but the week before that BD will have Pirates & Superbad. Paramount & Universal still have yet to announce any must have's for Jan or Feb 08. Dreamworks has literally announced nothing. I don't know what kind of strategy they're following, but they really need to do a much better job than they've been doing at promoting the HD-DVD format. Having cheap players alone will not do it. For example, I've seen countless Sony & Disney sponsored commercials playing endlessly on Universal HD (Hello? Universal!?) & HD-NET and not a single HD-DVD commercial to be found anywhere. My mother even mentioned to me that if it weren't for me, she wouldn't know that HD-DVD even existed, as she's only seen the countless BD ads and commercials.

I don't know what Graffeo & the HD-DVD promotions group are doing, but they've done a really poor job promoting the format this 4th qtr with a lack of quality catalog releases and television ads promoting the benefits of the format.

Of course, all imho.

**HTF Ads**

Adam Gregorich · 11-30-2007, 04:33 AM

Right now catalog titles are really only selling on both formats when there is a BOGO or other big sale. New releases are the only thing that really sells on either format. I also don't believe the 100000 number for Die Hard. Even if you double the official VS numbers to cover retailers who don't report (very generous, and enough to have the BD studios say Paramount was lying with the Transformers numbers) you still get less than 80K sold.

ReggieW · 11-30-2007, 05:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adam Gregorich

Right now catalog titles are really only selling on both formats when there is a BOGO or other big sale. New releases are the only thing that really sells on either format. I also don't believe the 100000 number for Die Hard. Even if you double the official VS numbers to cover retailers who don't report (very generous, and enough to have the BD studios say Paramount was lying with the Transformers numbers) you still get less than 80K sold.

The truth does hurt Adam.

You are correct that catalog releases do not seem to sell well on either format. I heard that sales for 2001: A Space Odyssey were pretty dismal on both formats, and this is definitely a major catalog release. I mean, did Close Encounters even make it into the top 10? If major titles like 2001 & CE3K can't sell for squat, then the studios are probably pretty justified in not releasing them until there's a much larger market for them.

Adam Gregorich · 11-30-2007, 07:41 AM

Quote:

then the studios are probably pretty justified in not releasing them until there's a much larger market for them.

You hit the nail on the head. As more players make it into the market you will see the bigger catalog titles. We saw the same thing on DVD. How long did it take for the big catalog titles? Several years. CE3K may have cracked the top ten for the week it was released, but it is not even close to being in the top ten HD releases, not even close. Some catalog titles sell in the 100s, not even breaking 1000....

Robert Crawford · 11-30-2007, 07:50 AM

Reggie,
I think film buffs are going to get expose to more classic films in high def. on television than on HDM. I am so happy that DirecTV has expanded their HD channel lineup so much over the last 2-3 months. If TCM would go High Def., I would be a very happy man.

Crawdaddy