Oh I know. There is no rhyme to their madness. You're only luck in finding a title is if it's a blockbuster title like Spidey 3 or something. BTW, the only reason I went there was because I had a gift card. Otherwise, you wouldn't catch me dead at a CC.

The only reason why you can find Spidey 3 is because those cheaters at Sony paid Circuit City 20 trillion dollars.

As Adam pointed out, I rated Disney a very high A- in my year-end Studio Report Card article. However, Paramount wasn't far behind with a B+.

Disney had some extremely high quality releases this year, such as the three Pirates of the Caribbean movies (excepting the framing problem with #1), the three Pixar releases, and Lost Season 3. But they also put out a lot of low-interest junk like Ladder 49, G.I. Jane, and King Arthur without any particularly great quality or innovative features.

On the other end, Paramount also put out a number of the year's best High-Def releases, including Flags of Our Fathers, Dreamgirls, Shrek 3, and Transformers. They also put out some unexpectedly impressive catalog titles like The Untouchables, Trading Places, and The Warriors. Let's not forget the terrific Star Trek Season 1 box. And yeah, they also had some crap mixed in as well.

In the final analysis, they both released the same amount of titles (neither exceptional in volume for either format), with just about the same ratio of gems-to-crap.

To Qui Gon Jim's point about the studio being "committed" to Blu-ray, I personally find it hard to call them committed to the format when they couldn't be bothered to release more than 30 titles, the same number as Fox, a studio that completely disappeared from the release schedule for half the year.

Sony, Universal, and Warner each released 70-80 titles last year. If Disney wants to prove its committment to Blu-ray, it needs to open up the vault and put more of its crown jewel movies out there. The mall tour and all the press releases they've issued to trumpet Blu-ray don't cut it. I put more stock in real actions than in lip service. As we know, however "committed" to the format that the studio PR reps may say they are, what's really going on behind the scenes is another story.

Couldn't agree with you more Josh about Disney. While they have put out some exceptional titles, I think they would truly do BD a favor by opening up that vault. A big reason why I chose BD was that Disney was behind and it and it would be truly euphoric to get classics like Aladdin, Lion King and etc on BD. Hopefully this year will be a banner year for them and they do end up doubling their releases from last year.

I'm not expecting the animated classics on any more than a staggered basis, but I'd like to see them release some more Miramax titles. So far, I believe the only ones that haven't been day and date are Chicago (their biggest box office success), Bad Santa (seasonal), and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (not representative of the quality films Miramax puts out).

They should be able to put out more this year, because last year they went from late May to early November without releasing a single catalog title. They essentially did the same thing Fox did, only they kept the new releases going. Now that BD+ is active, they should continue throughout the year.

Top 10 HDM sales

1) 3:10 to Yuma 100.00
2) 300 28.05
3) Pirates: AWE 27.38
4) Resident Evil: Extinction 25.79
5) Blood Diamond 23.36
6) Harry Potter GOF 22.30
7) War 22.16
8) GoodFellas 21.06
9) Harry Potter POA 20.84
10) Harry Potter SS 20.23

HD DVD ratios (taking Yuma as 100)
(thanks to Grubert for these)

xx) The Kingdom 10.34
xx) Bourne Ultimatum 9.57
xx) Zodiac 9.03
xx) Blade Runner 6.33
xx) Blood Diamond 6.30
xx) 300 2.50
xx) Goodfellas 4.88
xx) Harry Potter GOF 1.13
xx) Harry Potter POA 0.86

Thanks ... makes a lot more sense with the heading

Where the heck is Sunshine?

Maybe its price tag coupled with the mixed reviews kept some people away.

It didn't really get much press when it was released here theatrically. Many people might not even know it's a new title.

I got my copy so I did my part.

Judging off box office receipts:

Quite simply, it just isn't very popular.

I don't think that's the whole reason though. I think it also has to do with the very limited run it was given. It only opened in a handful of theaters where I am (in Toronto) and it was one of those blink-and-you'll-miss-it type of films. Why they didn't give it a wide release is beyond me.

I'd also say that there are a lot of Warner on that list. HD DVD re-buying as well as the B1G1 helped those numbers I am sure.

For once we agree on something.

I talked with a co-worker who has good taste in films and she had never even heard of Sunshine. It's a great disc but it's expensive and the film turns real shitty in the final act.

3:10 to Yuma on the other hand is a fantastic film.

I disagree. I liked the ending of Sunshine. The whole movie was fantastic.

I did a lot of rebuying once the Warner announcement was made and looking at all the HD DVDs dumped on Half.com and Ebay a lot of other people did as well. This definitely sounds plausible. It is pretty much the end of the road for HD DVD.

You could also point the spike in sales for Blood Diamond and Goodfellas as possibly being because they were offered at Best Buy for $14.99 that week. That's when and where I bought Blood Diamond (blind buy).

Sunshine is the kind of movie that doesn't get a wide release because it would cost too much and yield too little. The trailer wasn't tracking for Fox Searchlight, and while it's a good trailer, the outlandish plot line didn't sell well and got quite a few chuckles in theaters (here at least). The movie also didn't do too well in limited run so it didn't warrant expansion past that.

The movie will get its due, but I can't blame Fox Searchlight for their proceed-with-caution approach to the movie.

2007 NPD results of game console sales:
from here:
http://kotaku.com/346301/whos-winnin...-war-in-the-us


2007 Total Hardware Sales

* Nintendo DS - 8,500,000
* Wii - 6,290,000
* Xbox 360 - 4,620,000
* PlayStation 2 - 3,970,000
* PSP - 3,820,000
* PlayStation 3 - 2,560,000

Lifetime-To-Date Total Hardware Sales

* PlayStation 2 - 41,120,000
* Nintendo DS - 17,650,000
* PSP - 10,470,000
* Xbox 360 - 9,150,000
* Wii - 7,380,000
* PlayStation 3 - 3,250,000

If Blu Ray is to become a more than niche product, it really needs people to buy stand-alones, because the PS3 aint going to win the console war anytime soon. I won't buy a PS3 and I won't buy a current Blu Ray player (because of specs and prices) So is Blu Ray going to become the choice for the last place console?

While no one is going to argue the PS3 had a rought start, it still doesn't change the fact that 2008 will be the year for the PS3 as a game console. All the good AAA games will be coming out this year and most analysts agree with that assumption as well. Because the PS3 was lagging in 2007 it has the most room for growth out of all the other consoles.

Whats the life expetency for consoles nowadays? The PS2 came out in I believe 2000, so that was a 6 years before the intro of the PS3. The PS3 I believe came out in late 2006, so thats already 1.5 years gone by. Any plans already for the PS4?

Not to bring the console war here, but the PS3 has MGS4 and GT5 in terms of potential AAA/system seller titles in '08 (Resistance 2 and Killzone 2 need to be vast improvements to their originals to hit that title). That's really about it. A majority of the good stuff is cross platform. I like my PS3, but am so far fairly disappointed with the 2008 lineup.

All due respect, that is what Sony said for 2007, and 2006 for that matter. I think the time for waiting for the Nintendo bubble to burst is over. It is not going anywhere.

Final Fantasy 13 (tentative), Final Fantasy 13 Versus (tentative), Little Big Planet, New Twisted Metal( hint from David Jaffe), Killzone 2 all have me excited for a great year for games for the PS3.

The thing is, Final Fantasy 13 will not be out this year, thats almost guaranteed. I don't know much about Versus. I doubt the new Twisted Metal will make it out (though the PSP one is due) and Little Big Planet, while a cool novelty, will hardly be a system seller.

Killzone 2 needs to step up its game and yeah, that has potential. And as others have said, Home needs to come to impress.