...since the vast majority of Blu-ray players are in homes because Sony has embedded them into the PlayStation 3 video game consoles, many consumers don't seem to care that they even have a Blu-ray player.

See, here's my observation all along and many others if you've followed these discussions releated to sales (some called us anti-Sony and still do when we questioned sales which included the PS3 and the viability of using such stats).

The PS3 has basically given the Blu-ray format a false positive in the rise of HD. Just because you have a PS3, does not mean you will embrace High-Def and does not mean you DID embrace High-Def. It just means you purchased a video game console and have the capability of playing Blu-ray discs.

I don't see anything "negative" about the article at all. It's just being realistic.

However, as to the report of DVD sales being at a possible peak, I have to disagree. We're in shitty economic times. People aren't out in the streets, celebrating Hollywood movies. They're frustrated, getting more frustrated, and are holding on to their cash more. Many people are losing their homes, not really worried if Saw IV is going to be released on a 2-Disc Unrated Version.

So, DVD stats during the last few years and to current, are also misleading when given the current financial situation. The current economy must be taken into consideration.

What the studios are looking for is price inelasticity, and it's just unrealistic, especially when you add an amazingly unrealistic expectation of profits to continue to increase during economic dynamics. High DVD prices will result in consumers looking elsewhere to get their content. With one exception. If the higher-priced media product is superior in every way, fashion, and form, the consumer will pay it. But currently, Blu-ray releases are certainly not all that, and studios are seemingly not giving a shit. It's like they expect us to pay them higher prices just because the fucking case is blue.

Second, the HD industry is STILL doing a craptastic job at informing the population at large, about HD and its capabilities. Kids with acne and a cellphone earpiece, seem to be the frontline of the HD movement. Wonderful. Kudos to the marketing departments.

And then we hear the whining and crying from the studios, placing blame on folks like me, who are apparently deviant in getting their movie fix. Because that's the only explanation, you see. It can't be because our studios don't have our act together. Nah, can't be that. We're perfect. We know what's best for you.

Sorry. Yah gotta work for your money, just like the rest of us.

Also not taken into consideration when discussing this "sustained growth model" is that most people have built up their collections over the last 5-10 years, and demand has leveled off.

Personally, my buying has slowed down to a trickle of what it once was; I only buy 1 or 2 new discs per month now, a far cry from the old days when I'd go hog wild every Tuesday.

I don't think those $5 bins that Walmart has had for years has done favors for DVD. Those have de-valued the format. I'm sure there are plenty of folk who'll wait for X movie to "show up in the bargain bin". I personally don't think we'll ever see a BD $5 bargain bin.

Studios combined are still making over $20 BILLION in DVD revenue. I don't feel too concerned about that. BD was created as a way for the studios to not only re-sell us all of their titles again on a new format, but also as a way to make up for the slow, but steady, loss in revenue from DVD sales each year.

They're going to make their money. With DVD being so established, they are and will, look for other ways to pick up extra revenue. That will come from BD and possibly downloads, though the latter won't be making an impact anytime soon.

When studios began re-releasing the same films for a 3rd, 4th, and sometimes, 5th time, that was a clear indication that most of what everyone wanted to own, had hit the market.

I think the $64,000 question for Blu-ray is how willingly people replace their owned titles (yet again) with new Blu-rays.

I can envision Blu-ray becoming the format of choice for new releases; that's a no-brainer if you have the right equipment, but the real interesting test will be how well catalog titles do as they continue to roll out...

I think the "dump bins" at Wal Mart have had a positive effect on DVD sales in that they, well -- get people in the habit of buying DVDs. I don't think the format would be anywhere near as popular as it is today if it hadn't gotten so darned affordable.

With regard to flagging sales, though, unfortunately, one thing the studios never seem to acknowledge is the possibility that people are buying fewer tickets/discs for the simple reason that THEY DON'T LIKE THE MOVIE. This is a completely foreign concept for a studio executive. Another possibility (as has been mentioned previously) is, of course, the economy. People losing their houses and/or jobs has a tendency to change a few priorities, and, sadly for the studios, purchasing food and shelter is almost always going to come before picking up the latest 13-disc super special limited collector's extreme edition of the same crappy movie that they just bought six months ago. Even if it's the unrated director's cut with 17 seconds of exclusive never-before-seen footage.

Home Media Magazine has the numbers up.

Week Ending 4/20
BD: 91%, HD DVD: 9%

Since Inception
BD: 68%, HD DVD: 32%

DVD: 94% vs BD: 6%

Top 10 Sellers:
1. Aliens vs Predator: Requiem - 100.00
2. Juno - 81.71
3. I Am Legend - 35.89
4. Predator - 22.91
5. Aliens vs Predator: Unrated 2-pack - 20.18
6. No Country for Old Men - 16.95
7. Over America - 15.18
8. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead - 12.72
9. 300 - 11.86
10. Walk Hard - 10.92

Juno debuts pretty strong.

A 9-to-1 week does not move the "since inception" number??

i think it did move by 1% didn't it? even so, the SI numbers seem odd, if the Q1 volume numbers are true.

Why are they even still tracking Blu-ray vs. HD DVD? It's meaningless at this point.......

Strong week for BD sales, just hate the fact that AVP2 was the top seller though.

They'll probably stop once Warners' stops releasing new HD DVD titles. Even I Am Legend couldn't crack the top 10. I know it wasn't available at B&Ms, but it was $19 on Amazon. I thought alot of HD DVD owners were waiting for that one?

AVP2 outsold Juno? You can really tell who the demographic is LOL.
Over America is still in the top 10...that's just crazy.

Hell, 300 is still in the Top 10!

Some people (like Gizmo, as I recall) have been getting the Warner HD DVDs at Fry's on the same day/week that the BDs are being released. Don't know if this has had much impact, but there's that. Also -- like you said -- with so many B&M stores not even carrying HD DVDs, new titles like "I Am Legend" wouldn't be available other than online. And are Amazon's sales figures included in this tally? Lastly, this is a title where the BD version outshines the HD DVD by including several exclusive features, which generally means that any dual format supporters are going to pick the BD . . .

Yes, they are.

I respectfully disagre with that. Completely. First these discs cost studios how much to produce - $1 or $2, if that much? You sell 1 million of those movies to Walmart at $3.50 a pop, and you are doing good for yourself. Walmart wasn't going to sell 100,000 copies of Under Siege 2 at $13 bucks, but at $5 they may just sell them.

Secondly, as mentioned before, the bins help create the idea of movie ownership, which is important for sales.

Everybody keeps mentioning declining DVD revenue. Thats simply a matter of studios having released most of their catalog in DVD. I don't think it is a reflection of a "de-valued" format or whatnot.

My Frys had 30 copes of Legend on HD...for $29.99.

In terms of manufacturing, yes. But you ignore the costs of preparing the HD master, the digital compression, authoring the disc, and the creation of the bonus features. The studio needs to recoup all those expenses.

This is my fear with the classics on BD that the studios will not be able to recoup their investment and just stay away from classics all together.

Small potatoes make the steak look bigger. :lol:

I bought the BD of "Juno", but I'm surprised it was even in the top ten. I expected the disc getting a number 7 or 8 spot at best, considering most people, or at least a few of the posters on here, have the line of thinking that a movie like "Juno" isn't 'worthy' of a BD purchase and the DVD version is "good enough". I have the AVP: R BD and I must admit it looked great.

Glad that "No Country For Old Men" and "I Am Legend" are selling well on BD. Pretty good BDs in my opinion.

That would be awful. I'm glad WB got "Bonnie & Clyde" out on Blu-ray, and a lot of older movies have thankfully been released (like the "Die Hard" films, "The Omega Man", etc.), but a lot more classics need to be released on BD still.

I don't know how well the B&C BD sold, but sadly I'm thinking it didn't sell very well.

I thought AVP:R was way to dark and the film no where as good as Juno. I'm glad Juno did so well.

As for Bonnie and Clyde, it never cracked the top 10. Predator did....

I think HD DVD is more like peas at this point. :)

..Are we quoting Juno now or something?

Nah - we're not nearly that clever.

From a critical standpoint "Alien vs. Predator: Requiem" wasn't good at all. Comparing a film like "Juno" which is at %93 on RT, to AVP: R which is at %15 on RT is just silly, but I had some problems with "Juno". Unlike "Juno", I expected AVP: R to have bad acting, terrible dialog, people you don't really care about, you know, the usual B movie stuff. None of that was in "Juno" except for some terrible, pretentious dialog at the beginning, but I was expecting more than I got. I guess I enjoyed AVP: R because I wasn't expecting much, and I got a movie that wasn't unwatchable and looked pretty good on Blu-ray.

I didn't think "Bonnie & Clyde" sold that great, sadly. I guess it doesn't fit a good portion of the demographic that buys BDs. It probably sold alright, but nothing that broke into the top 10.

No charts available yet, but Alien vs Predator: Requiem stayed #1 on the BD sales chart. Juno remained at #2. I Am Legend #3.

Im so glad that crap One Missed Call is not #1.

I really hope The Orphanage had a decent showing so New Line is encouraged to do more releases like it.

Chart is up...someone needs to post it I can't.

250k discs were sold last week. SI compared to HD DVD is gone.
Most of the top 20 titles were ones sold at Target during the sale.

It was #8.

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...04may2008a.png

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...04may2008b.png

It's apparent that $19.99 is the sweet spot for HD titles. Every time Target has a sale, those titles are in the top 10/20. I don't think new release pricing will drop at all this year, but I think we will see at least 1 or 2 "A" list titles debut with a possible $20 price point during release week. Iron Man, Dark Knight perhaps?

I'm glad to see them publishing the volume and revenue numbers. Those will be interesting to track for the rest of '08.

Forgive me for the shameless plug, but I just found out that I am quoted in the newest edition of Home Media Magazine. Click the link, I'm in the "Geek Speak" section on the left hand side. I guess people do read these forums...

Grubert and applesandrice are also mentioned. As are a few other posters from other forums. Let our voices be heard! :)

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ques...p?startpage=16

....Can they do that without our consent? (well, you're consent at least)

Stole these from Grubert over at the Blu site...

A 75% drop in 1 week. The April 27th numbers are just plain bad. A new release like The Orphanage selling less then 6,000 copies on its release week? Damn.

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2.../snap003-4.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2.../snap004-3.jpg

It's public communication, so as long as everything's correctly cited and not misrepresented, I don't think there'd be any legal hiccups.

That's not bad for a Spanish language movie that barely broke 700 screens on these shores. Heck, it has less star power than Before the Devil Knows You're Dead and moved more copies than that did in its first week. It's always disappointing to see things I like not sell well, of course.

8100 copies for Predator is not too bad IMO.