are any sales numbers known for how many blu-ray or hd-dvd players have been released? or the top selling movies for each format?

[I meant to pick up your question in the "HD DVD vs. Blu-ray" thread a few days ago, but didn't have time then.]

The problem with trying to ferret out sales numbers for HD DVD and BD players and discs is that such numbers are trade secrets. So, the numbers reported in this forum and elsewhere on the net tend to be difficult to pin down as to accuracy.

That said, it has been reported that 70,000 HD DVD players have been sold (meaning shipped to retailers, not necessarily to end users). This number is thought to include the Toshiba A1, XA1 and the RCA clone of the A1. Production of these players ceased some time ago and the A1, in particular, is getting hard to find (implying that it is essentially sold out). The current Toshiba models in production are the A2 (about to be released) and the XA2 (due in another month or so). I haven't seen any hints as to how many of these new models will be manufactured. But similar models are being launched in Europe, so I would expect considerably more than the first generation players.

For Blu-ray Disc players, the number bandied about is 10,000, although that seems high to me. Until very recently the only BD player model was the Samsung and anecdotal evidence suggests that it had a high return rate. Now that a number of other BD players are being released, I would guess that sales in the next couple of months would be in the range of a few thousand to ten thousand or so, due to prices in the range of $1000 and up. But I haven't a clue how one could find hard numbers for these coming sales.

In addition to the regular BD players, Sony is releasing the PlayStation 3 game machine next month, which has the ability to play Blu-ray Discs. Sony keeps dropping their numbers, due to production problems, and last reported that they expected to ship 2 million of them by the end of the year, but the latest information is that the number will shrink yet again (Bloomberg, 10-21-06). Whether PS3s should really be counted as BD players is hotly debated here. The question is whether game machine buyers will really buy movie discs and, if so, how many. A further wrinkle in the game machine wars is the fact that Microsoft is releasing an add-on HD DVD drive to its Xbox360 game machine. While it is undeniable that the drives will be used to play HD DVDs, it is unknown how many of the millions of XBox360 owners will actually purchase the HD-DVD add-ons. I doubt that even Microsoft has a good idea how many they will sell.

As to disc sales, those numbers are closely held and really hard to ferret out. I think I can say with some confidence that the best selling HD DVD at the present time is Batman Begins. It is the bestselling HD DVD at Amazon and one industry insider was reported to have said that it was expected that 90% of player owners would purchase that title. I wouldn't be surprised if this was true because it is the sort of movie that ought to appeal to "early adopters" of HD DVD players and it has been getting excellent reviews. At this hour, the current most popular HD DVDs being ordered at Amazon are V for Vendetta (Pre-order) and Superman II - The Donner Cut (Pre-order).

For Blu-ray Discs, I would guess that the best selling title thus far is Click because it seems to be the bestselling title at Amazon. But the market for BD is still pretty small and fragmented because many of the early releases weren't very good. There hasn't really been anything yet released on BD that qualifies as a "blockbuster", making it harder to discern which titles are the best selling. At this hour, the most popular BDs being ordered at Amazon are Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (Pre-order) and Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (this title is also very popular on HD DVD).

FWIW, The Bus has been tracking Amazon sales rankings and has said that the top 30 HD DVD titles have outsold the top selling BD title. But BD has been having problems getting going and is only now starting to gather some momentum in player sales. Whether Sony's PS3 launch will significantly stimulate BD sales remains to be seen.


Hope this helps, but there just aren't any definitive answers to your questions so far as I have seen.

We have to face the fact that studios and hardware makers have nothing to gain by releasing sales figures. HD DVD and BD sales are way, way below DVD sales and just showcasing this by giving out solid sales figures could just convince people that neither format will catch on. Its very early in the game for HD discs so expect this stuff to be kept very secret for some time.

I think Sony will brag about their sales figures for BD players once they can combine PS3 sales in there.

Samsung has sold 10,000 units of their Blu-Ray player since June. Panasonic shipped an initial distribution of 5,000 units which sold out in the matter of days.

Very true. It's hard to gather data like this. Any number you see floating around the Internet are best guess estimates at best. And depending on who's interpreting the data, it may be inflated towards one format.

Anyway, thanks for your post. That is probably the most informative and least biased post we've seen in this forum in a long time.

if one of them is doing really well i think that publicizing it helps even more. same way musicians publically celebrate going platinum. if one format has a million seller i think it would be news worthy, but i guess that's going to take a while.

Yes, it will take a while before either format has anything to crow about, so far as sales numbers are concerned. And, now that you mention it, studios don't tend to publicize their DVD sales figures, in the way that music albums used to be celebrated (and movie ticket sales are tracked). I have no idea why this is so.

Sony has been promoting its projected PS3 game machine numbers for over a year now, in the hope that they could defeat Toshiba and HD DVD before the format war ever got off the ground. But production problems have left them backpedaling on their estimates all year. So, their release of their hoped for sales numbers has just left them with a black eye. No surprise that underdog Toshiba is keeping quiet on its player sales. And if WB were to hype its HD DVD numbers for Batman Begins, easily the best selling title on either format thus far, the number would look puny compared to DVD sales.

Nevertheless, I would guess that insiders at both the studios and CE equipment manufacturers have access to some sales figures and are watching them closely as they develop strategies to deal with this new market.

link

based only on amazon, but better than nothing

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, HDDVD, at Buy.com:

This Item is Shakin'
Today's Rank: 37
Yesterday's Rank: 1453
up 3,827%

Sure it's not scientific, but it's nice regardless.

Toshiba sold through 30,000 units of the first-gen HD DVD players to consumers between April launch and late Aug/early Sep.


http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6372284.html

Flamebaiting and off-topic posts removed.

HD DVD vs. Blu-ray posts belong in the HD DVD vs. Blu-ray thread.