Blu-ray... HD-DVD... the latest numbers!
by Nick Doerr 
{ Feb 8th 2007 at 4:30PM }
You knew it was coming -- it's time to move away from video games and just to video. Specifically, the ongoing next-gen movie formats and how they're going. And they're going... slowly, but that should be expected. Not like the DVD monster is going to disappear for a while. Anywho, here's the highlights, brought to you by Sony and Next-Gen:- Cumulative Blu-ray movie sales to date number over 439,000 while HD-DVD numbers a little under 438,000. It doesn't sound like much, but since Sony is reporting this you have to respect that they aren't exaggerating the numbers. They expect the gap to widen in the coming months.
- The top two Blu-ray titles as of right now are Crank and Gridiron Gang.
- Thanks to the PS3, a Blu-ray movie buying frenzy began in January -- BD titles outsold HD-DVD titles in a 3:1 ratio the first few weeks of January.
- Sony claims 40% market share in the Blu-ray world, thanks mostly to the PS3.
Overall, nothing really new, but affirmation that Blu-ray is beginning to pick up steam. With the European launch so very, very close, not only will that bolster sales, but... come on, the Blu-ray of Casino Royale is coming out around the same time. That's a huge movie, hopefully in Europe as much as it was in the US of A. We still think that would have been a swell bundle package, but whatever.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Someone @ Feb 8th 2007 5:56PM
Wow...only 40% market share? I guess the Samsung Blu-Ray player sold better than I thought. But with the upcoming Europe PS3 launch, I wouldn't be suprised if that market share jumped to 50% or more. If this keeps up, it looks like Blu-ray has got this next-gen movie format war in the bag. When Universal begins to sell Blu-Ray movies, that'll pretty much be a declaration of Blu-ray as the winner.
yoma @ Feb 8th 2007 6:01PM
nice, i hope this persuades universal to bring fast and the furious to blu ... im being sarcastic, fuck those guys for chosing hd dvd.
Killer @ Feb 8th 2007 7:11PM
Yoma? So you want universal or not? you just said, "fuck those guys for chosing hd dvd."
So you don't care or are you really wanting the universal movies but you don't have it in you to buy an hd-dvd.
Ps. You'll be with out universal movies for a good 5 years, becuase this little war isn't going to be determined in a year. Pray as much as you want becuase this is going to be just as long as the console wars.
Joop @ Feb 8th 2007 7:58PM
"It doesn't sound like much, but since Sony is reporting this you have to respect that they aren't exaggerating the numbers."
This is the funniest thing I've ever read on this site.
SuicideNinja @ Feb 8th 2007 10:00PM
These stats are great, but they are being taken out of perspective.
Isn't Blu-ray + HD-DVD sales still less than 3% of overall movie sales? Even having 100% of that 3% doesn't really mean much right now. DVD wins by 33 to 1 (assuming 3% marketshare is correct).
What either format needs is bigger support from rental companies. Then again...it's hard to see these low-benefit formats over-taking DVD within 5 years. People are satisfied with the poor quality of Video iPods...what would make Blu-ray and HD-DVD so special to these consumers?
Will @ Feb 8th 2007 10:12PM
Suicideninja: it's not about these 2 formats taking over dvd anytime soon, the thing that does matter though is that 1 of these formats win out soon. the sooner there is only 1 HD format, the quicker the winner can gain support from all the rental stores...
Kevin @ Feb 8th 2007 10:41PM
Actually Casino Royale is even bigger in Europe than it was in America, or at least it is in Britain. In the United Kingdom Casino Royale was the top grossing movie of the year, while in America it was only like 9th (It was 4th overall worldwide btw).
Interesting note: The top 7 box office hits of 06 (Pirates 2, Da Vinci Code, Ice Age 2, Casino Royale, Cars, X-Men 3, and Night at the Musem, in that order) are all BluRay exclusive, while the rest of the top 10 are from nonexclusive Bluray supporting studios. Therefore Bluray will almost certainly dominate in sales this year.
Will @ Feb 9th 2007 12:47AM
i'm not asking people to buy into HD, heck people are still buying vcr's...any person in their right mind is going to see that it's going to be a long process of getting people to move over. BUT as people spend $1-2k on HDTV's they're going to want more than 8-10 HD channels, so what are they going to turn to? HD movies of course, it's not about whether it's going to beat out dvd...it'll take years to do that, but it's about being the dominant HD format. people can talk about digital distribution, but the bottom line is people still have dial up...digital distribution wont be mainstream for at least another 8-10 years
Killer @ Feb 9th 2007 7:46AM
@ Kevin
So what you're saying is that those movies will force people to buy blue-ray. I don't see it. Most people still choose dvd like SuicideNinja so nicely stated. As long as there is dvds out there blue-ray and hd-dvd will be a slow and monotinous war.
Oh by the way you're only looking at the blue-ray titles. Look at the Hd-dvd ones too. Hmmm, One I Can't wait for the HBO shows that are coming out this year. Band of Brothers in HD, Beautiful! Another thing is that Universal has over 170 titles planned to release this year. Plus you have the dual disc warner True HD disc for blue-ray and hd-dvd. (by the way Warner and New Line is going to make a huge killing on those sellings with that True HD, Lord of the Rings!) The question here is where does Dreamworks stand? Seriously I haven't seen one Next-gen format from them. Would love to see Shrek in highdef.
Kenter @ Feb 9th 2007 6:00PM
I just have one thing to say about that 3:1 ratio. It is only that high because just a few months ago their were almost 0 blu-ray, and now their are more than a million. that is why it is 3:1. I just had to point that out before someone comes in here and starts using that as a reason to say blu-ray is more popular than HD-DVD. Now I can't see the difference between the two pictures. But does Blu-ray have more movies out for it? It does have more studios backing it up right?