Top HD/BD Titles for Week Ended 3.18.07
 

TOP HD DVD TITLES FOR WEEK ENDED 3/18/2007
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RANK TITLE (LABEL/DISTRIBUTOR, SRP)
1 THE DEPARTED (WB, $39.99)
2 CASINO (UNI, $29.98)
3 SUPERMAN RETURNS (WB, $39.99)
4 THE LAST SAMURAI (WB, $28.99)
5 BATMAN BEGINS (WB, $28.99)
6 PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (WB, $28.99)
7 BABEL (PAR, $39.99)
8 THE MUMMY RETURNS (UNI, $29.98)
9 FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS (UNI, $29.98)
10 GOODFELLAS (WB, $28.99)


TOP Blu-Ray TITLES FOR WEEK ENDED 3/18/2007
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RANK TITLE (LABEL/DISTRIBUTOR, SRP)
1 CASINO ROYALE (SONY, $38.96)
2 THE DEPARTED (WB, $34.99)
3 THE PRESTIGE (BV, $34.99)
4 THE FIFTH ELEMENT (SONY, $28.95)
5 THE HOLIDAY (SONY, $38.96)
6 BLACK HAWK DOWN (SONY, $28.95)
7 HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS (SONY, $28.95)
8 X-MEN: THE LAST STAND (FOX, $39.98)
9 UNDERWORLD: EVOLUTION (SONY, $38.95)
10 LAYER CAKE (SONY, $28.95)

Looks like Superman Returns took a little turn last week: dropping off the Blu-Ray list and popping up on the HD DVD side. Crazy. Still, I (and I'm sure lots of other people) would be really interested to see actual numbers of discs sold. Like, while Casino Royale reportedly sold 20,000 copies or so, how many copies of Layer Cake also went out the door?

I thought Casino Royale sold around 85,000.

Just FYI, Circuit City has Layer Cake mis-ticketed at $19.99. It rings up $24.99.

Why in hell is The Fifth Element still selling so many copies?

Recent Amazon sale, free with purchase of Sony BR player?

This was a major title. I thought it would easily break 100,000 copies. Really pretty disappointing I think. Shows that less than 10% of PS3 owners can be relied on to regularly buy movies.

The HD-DVD chart needs some new titles.

TFE comes inside the box of the Sony player box, so I don't see how that could count.

COuld be the recent BOGO sales - that would explain why HOFD is there too.

My mistake; I hadn't seen any recent numbers. Which kind of brings me back to my original question, though -- what ARE the actual numbers for each disc? That might go a long way toward explaining why a release like The Fifth Element is still in the top ten! I mean what if everything below the second or third place on each list is only selling, like, 50-100 copies a week?

TFE has been in the Top Ten every week since at least November, except once.

3/18 #4
3/11 #6
3/4 #6
2/25 #5
2/18 #4
2/11 #10
2/4 -
1/28 #9
1/21 #9
1/14 #3
1/7 #4
12/31 #9
12/24 #7
12/17 #6
12/10 #7
12/3 #6
11/26 #9
11/19 #5

No one really knows, but I think the majority of the top ten are selling under a thousand copies a week. The ones at the bottom could be sales of 50-100 copies.

Children of Men and Happy Feet should finally add something new to the HD DVD side. :)

Interesting note:
Amazon.com Top 100 DVD sales features Happy Feet HD DVD at #58 and the Blu-Ray version down at #85.

Children of Men is ranked #53 now on Amazon.

I thought the biggest announced selling individual titles have been X-Men 3 and The Departed Blu-ray at around 25,000 and 20,000 first-week sales respectively.

Casino Royale must not have had huge numbers; otherwise, Sony would have released numerous press releases letting us know how many discs they sold, how they ended the format war, how they saved the world, etc.

The Sony AVS insider said that Casino Royale sold 85,000 copies it's first week and will release a press release when it hits 100,000.

Well, maybe less than 10% can be relied on to buy that movie during the first week.

I've bought several Blu-ray discs for my PS3, just not that one and not last week. I think 85k in sales is amazing considering it's much more expensive than the standard DVD which was packaged with much more (freebies added on at most stores).

Here is Sony's big announcement:
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/pr_sony_032707.html
CASINO ROYALE BD MARKS FIRST HIGH-DEFINITION TITLE TO SHIP 100,000 UNITS

It would be better if we knew exactly how many units were sold, not shipped.

They can ship 100,000 units of Volver too, doesn't mean they'll all sell.

Current Amazon standings...

HD DVD:
Children of Men: 19
The Complete Matrix Trilogy: 20
Happy Feet: 30
The Ultimate Matrix Collection: 52
Planet Earth: 54

Blu-Ray:
Casino Royale: 40
Happy Feet: 48
Planet Earth: 89

I don't know about you guys, but I went from thinking "Hey, at least I have my favorite movies (that have been released on either format so far) and a nice upconverting player" two weeks ago to "Wow, this format might have some staying power." :)

Maybe The Departed's higer Blu-Ray sales were a fluke (or a matter of the movie matching the wants of a generic PS3 owner), as the two current titles supporting both formats have the HD DVD winning by quite a margin.

EDIT: One more thing, Children of Men full screen DVD is at #86... any day when the HD format is beating out the full screen DVD is a good day in my book. ;)

From the press release:

So actual sales were over 50,000 but under 80,000.