The Dark Knight pushes Blu-ray past DVD sales of The Matrix
It is official, The Dark Knight is the fastest selling Blu-ray movie ever. Many have speculated that the movie would push Blu-ray mainstream, similarly to the way The Matrix pushed DVDs mainstream back in 1999. At this rate, Blu-ray players may become the de facto standard for many homes by next year.
According to Yahoo, The Dark Knight managed to sell more than 600,000 units on its first day. This shatters the previous record set by Iron Man, which sold 260,000 on its first day. It took a week for Iron Man to even sell 500,000. The Dark Knight is expected to sell over a million copies over the weekend.
The Matrix managed to sell 780,000 units during its first week back in 1999 on the DVD. This is a good sign because The Dark Knight managed to sell close to what The Matrix sold in one week. Considering that the price of Blu-ray players has reached the $200 price range and with the sales up for the holidays, it is starting to look like the transition from DVD to Blu-ray is going smoothly.
Many shoppers have stopped purchasing DVDs altogether after the purchase of a Blu-ray player. I know I haven’t purchased a DVD movie in about a year. I have been building a nice Blu-ray movie collection with The Dark Knight as my latest addition.
The Dark Knight on Blu-ray presents the movie in a variable aspect ration with IMAX sequences framed in 1.78.1. Which look very nice on a 52″ hi-def LCD TV. Sales of Blu-ray players have also picked up dramatically over the holiday season with the release of practically every major movie title on the Blu-ray disc.
It seems like the Blu-ray player is quickly turning into the holidays must have gift item.
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December 13th, 2008
You can’t compare the Blu-ray market of 2008 to the DVD market of 1999.
Hang on there.
Lets keep a little perspective.
Batman the dark knight also set a record for DVD sales.
“THE DARK KNIGHT has broken a new record after DVD sales soared to nearly 3 million in the U.S., Canada and Britain – three days after its release.”
http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/dark%20knight%20dvd%20breaks%20new%20record_1089315
Blu-ray is far more geared to an initial sales spurt than DVD.
Early adopters are much more likely to buy at launch.
A huge number of DVD buyers tend to buy weeks or months after launch when prices drop, steeply.
The DVD sales will be sustained, unlike the Blu-ray sales.
That’s why the BDA refuse to allow sales numbers showing how the movies on Blu-ray sell over a period like 6mths or 1 year.
It’s just stupid to talk & act as if we don’t now have a market very well used to disc based media and accept that Blu-ray is a small early adopting market and DVD is a vast mature market.
“At this rate Blu-ray players may become the de facto standard for many homes by next year.”
Bullsh!t.
Blu-ray sales remain tiny compared to DVD.
Then there’s the coming economic slump to consider.
December 13th, 2008
I’d also add this, for those day-dreaming that Blu-ray is about to slide in & replace DVD…..
Considering how this movie was aimed squarely at the bulk of the ‘PS3 demographic’ and how many multi-millions of PS3s there are supposed to be out there I’d call that 600,000 disappointing.
The fact that, despite the mature state of the DVD market, over 3 million sales could be had speaks volumes about the durability and resilience of DVD.
December 14th, 2008
The reality is that it will be movie studios who decide if Blu-Ray becomes more mainstream; i.e. if (and maybe when) they decide when to pull the plug on DVD.
Now sure, they aren’t going to do that at the moment, but if Blu-Ray sales keep rising, then they can use that as a justification for dropping DVD. Royalties are more lucrative for Blu-Ray than DVD, so movie studios aren’t going to drop Blu-Ray any time soon.
Streaming? Again, it will be movie studios who decide. Microsoft and Apple may push digital streaming; but they are only content deliverers, not content providers.
And given that the big six movie studios (who provide a lot of TV shows as well) are signed on the Blu-Ray Association, they want to make a success of it and push it.
December 14th, 2008
Simple. Release new blockbuster titles like thias one on Blu-ray a week (or a month) before DVD and disc and player sales will go through the roof.
As to the moron claiming Blu-ray only has initial sales while DVD has sustaining sales, that’s complete and total bunk. One has to but LOOK and you’ll see many Blu-ray titles selling well for many months after release. Blu-ray buyers enjoy a good sale too ya know, and there are BOGO offers on new releases. It’s sad the Blu-ray/Sony haters (I.e. HD-DVD fanboies) have to come out of the woodwork to trash every good news story about Blu-ray.
December 14th, 2008
With Blu-ray peaking (so many titles sell so much less) @ 20% of the launch DVD numbers there’s no way on earth the movie studios are going to kill the cash-cow that DVD is.
The studios & CE business can cry & moan about margins per unit sold (which is more than made up for by the huge sheer volume of sales) but the problem they have is that, at the root of it all, DVD offers movies that are in a convenient and almost universally available format that people like and are familiar with at a very nice price.
Blu-ray by contrast is expensive, clunky to operate with often ludicrously slow load times, it can’t be shared with friends and family (unless they too have a Blu-ray player, which is not the most likely scenario).
…..and God knows what trouble each ’security’ revision will bring to those earlier – now cheaper – obsolete Blu-ray players out there.
A peak number of 20% of launch sales (which can only decline heavily as the large numbers of those who wait on DVD prices to fall come in) with what was undoubtedly the most targeted Blu-ray title does not seem to me to be anything other than deeply disappointing, certainly not ‘good’.
Blu-ray expected to charge a premium for something only the enthusiast cares about (the ‘nth degree’ of audio & image quality).
Bur like most after a few minutes I’m into watching the movie for the movie’s sake, I’m not really thinking about whether or not I can make out the stitching on an actor’s jacket.
Instead of being the premium feature they expected it to be high def disc ought to have been sold as the ‘added value’ which kept the movie disc market growing & alive.
It might have been ‘worth’ $1 or $2 more but certainly not the price they expected people to pay.
Of course no-one expects to develop new products or sell their new developments for nothing but we are now seeing Blu-ray wither in the niche and fail to take off into the mass-market.
Had they priced it right (and offered players as convenient, fast and easy to use as DVD) they could have expected to make a return, slower and lower of course but a return nevertheless.
Right now they are lucky to be making a return on their operating costs nevermind give any kind of return on their initial investment.
December 14th, 2008
DavidB
The only “morons” around here are the sort of people who think that the movie studios are going to resort to rigging the market when Blu-ray sales are so tiny.
I never said Blu-ray movies do not continue to sell beyond launch, they do but in minute numbers (comparatively speaking).
The fact the BDA refuses to allow numbers for their sales at the 3, 6, 9 & 12mth points speaks volumes.
DVD sell 1.7+ billion units annually in the USA alone.
DVD sells 7+ billion units globally.
Those are the real numbers (not that cherry-picked Nielson BS).
Blu-ray’s share of the real units sold is minuscule, not even 2% (and probably not even a true 1% still).
If you imagine the movie industry is going to cut it’s own throat just to push Blu-ray you are deluding yourself.
December 14th, 2008
There is a case to be made to say that Blu-Ray will either develop over time (like DVD); or tank badly.
Personally, I think we will see Blu-Ray develop more market share over time; like I think the PS3 will.
Too many people are predicting the death of the PS3 and Blu-Ray — just like they predicted the death of the PS2 all those years ago.
Blu-Ray has not had one full year on the market yet. And the vast majority of internet networks worldwide are simply not up to handling ubiquitous HD content over their networks.
It will be interesting to see how studios decide to push Blu-Ray; maybe releasing Blu-Ray titles before DVD is a good idea.
But the movie industry isn’t going to give up on Blu-Ray anytime soon; otherwise they wouldn’t be releasing on Blu-Ray. There must be some growth opportunity or something, otherwise they wouldn’t waste the cost of releasing on two different formats.
December 14th, 2008
DVD vs VHS= Much better picture, space savings etc.. I bought a DVD player right after the standard was ratified. You couldn’t rent them anywhere back then and the selection at places like Best Buy was minuscule.
Then, may they dine in Hell Circuit City announced Divx and screwed the market for a year.
Blu-Ray offers a much less noticeable improvement unless people ratchet up their A/V equipment and spend more on the Disc. I have no plans to switch at this point and I have a nicer setup than most. I will probably spring for player when they get down around $50 and use netflix.
Blu-Ray won’t lose anyone money, but I think it illustrates how stupid standards fights are. This could have easily been the third Christmas for Blu-Ray with cheap players and Discs. They could have been piggybacking on the switch to digital OTA in the US.
December 14th, 2008
Guys,
All market indicators point to the fact Blu-ray is gradually playing out the scenario where it is replacing the existing format (DVD).
There are no indicators that hint other wise. Analysts have compared the life of the adoption rate with DVDs to Blu-ray and according to studies it shows the adoption rate is faster.
Some of you have said that the difference in VHS to DVD is much more significant that the move to Blu-ray. However, it depends on where the market goes in the near future.
If HD LCD adoption rate continues as it has been, and all of the US TV stations must convert to digital by 2009 as part of the US gov. mandate, Hi-definition will be as huge of a leap from VHS to DVDs.
In countries like Japan Blu-ray movie sales account for about 50% of total sales. In Europe it is past 30% as indicated in my recent story.
US is climbing towards that 30% steadily but I’m betting that once 2009 hits, the US will far surpass Europe and even Japan in Blu-ray adoption rate.
Also you have to realize because Sony owns 40% marketshare in total movies, the ball is really in their hands and they ultimately have the control.
December 15th, 2008
Mike
It seems to me that you have completely misjudged where we are right now and are allowing your own prejudices to appear as fact.
Sony are in huge trouble financially and have been for years (thanks to Blu-ray).
The global economy is set to take a huge dive next year (it has only just begun) and that dive is (according to many respected forecasters) set to last for at least 1 year and possibly as many as 4 or 5yrs.
It would not surprise me if we see the other studios cost-cut & back away from Blu-ray leaving Sony the most involved & contining to target the PS3 market.
(which will, despite the obvious targeting, continue to respond disappointingly)
How many times do we have to read about HD TV owners not feeding HD content to their HD TVs and being happy with the upscaled image – or the PS3 owners who are happy to buy the DVD?
The only really big surprise in this Batman TDK story is how the Blu-ray record was matched and surpassed by that new DVD record.
I’d bet large that many never expected that to happen.
No-one is going to rig the market, not even Sony.
Overall Blu-ray sales are tiny & DVD earns far too much for them – even if they would prefer higher per unit margins.
That alone is a massive factor that more than “hints” and “indicates” that Blu-ray is not, in fact, “gradually playing out the scenario where it is replacing the existing format (DVD)”.
In your dreams.
Blu-ray has been around almost 3 yrs and simply wasted this year.
Japan is no guide to anything.
Japan is, as always, a unique market & set of circumstances that do not really mean squat elsewhere.
In the USA HD TV market penetration is, despite the switch over to digital – which is not the same thing despite the best efforts of the CE industry & retailers to confuse the issue, only @ 23% according to Nielson.
(the lastest figures on the situation)
It’s all happening far too slowly & far too late for Blu-ray
(which, if you can be honest about it, is so well & truly stuck in the PS3 niche that only movies which have major appeal to the PS3 gang sell).
By the time the coming economic slump is over the other means of getting high def content will be well established.
That ‘DVD market’ will only exist for DVD, not for the newer formats.
It will be fractured up between the various competing means of delivery (especially HD TV services, DVRs & VOD).
We can also expect digital downloading to be a huge deal by then (it’s already growing fast) as Gov’s invest in major infrastructure projects to off-set the worst of the looming recession.
December 15th, 2008
BTW Mike you said
“In Europe it is past 30% as indicated in my recent story”.
Where?
I can’t see anything that backs that claim up.
I did see the BDA’s own self-serving PR but that merely talks in their usual ratio & percentage nonsense without a definitive fact or unit sale number in sight.
http://www.blu-raydisc.com/assets/Downloadablefile/Blu-ray-Disc-News-17-11-08-16300.pdf
So, where are the facts to back up your claim that “In Europe it is past 30% as indicated in my recent story”?
December 15th, 2008
Come on Mike, let’s see you back up your claim about Europe.
You said – “In countries like Japan Blu-ray movie sales account for about 50% of total sales. In Europe it is past 30% as indicated in my recent story”.
So what evidence do you have for saying this about Europe?
December 15th, 2008
“In countries like Japan Blu-ray movie sales account for about 50% of total sales. In Europe it is past 30% as indicated in my recent story.”
Wow, 30% of movie disc sales are Blu-ray in Europe?
Where did that come from?
December 15th, 2008
Mike, what’s going on?
Did you say something silly & get called on it & now you can’t back it up?
That seems the most likely explaination the longer you don’t answer you know.
December 16th, 2008
Your silence is speaking volumes Mike.
What’s up with just admitting you got carried away on your own prejudices?
Admit you made a mistake.
We all do it so it’s no big deal.
Just come on out & admit that your claim that “Blu-ray movie sales account for…..past 30%” in European is not only well wide of the truth but laughably incorrect.
We all know it is.
The simplest gauge of this is that the BDA themselves would be howling it from every rooftop imaginable if it really were so.
Plainly it is not and you got caught out trying to spread porkie pies.
Be a man, not a fanboy, Mike & admit the truth.
December 16th, 2008
The Blu-Ray to DVD comparison is similar to the Windows XP to Vista comparison. Blu-Ray has some real problems.
1.) The players are (horrifically) expensive.
2.) Blu-Ray discs are more expensive than their DVD counterparts.
3.) Most people will not notice a significant different in quality.
4.) The content and extras availalbe on a Blu-Ray disc are simply not that much better than those on DVD.
This is completely different than the DVD to VHS transition which occurred in 1999. The benefits of DVD over video were absolutely amazing and the Matrix was one of the first films to really exploit all of the advantages of the new system.
Unfortunately, I agree with most of the commentator community. I doubt very much that Blu-Ray will have any real success. I am not even sure if it will have penetration in the PC market as an archive medium. Rather, I think it substantially more likely that digital delivery will quietely take its place.
DVDs are likely to live the fate of Windows XP, that is, they will be healthy money makers well into the future.
December 17th, 2008
So you could not find a scrap of anything to back up your silly ‘30% of all movie discs sold in Europe are Blu-ray’ then Mike?
December 18th, 2008
Does anyone know the sales of BR players and DVD players since BR launched?
I mean, if Mike was right that “it is starting to look like the transition from DVD to Blu-ray is going smoothly”, BR players should’ve outsold DVD players by 13:1 since it launched (don’t count PS3 for BR player please because any PCs, Xbox 360, or PS2 should be counted as DVD players too). The reason is that DVD players did that (Since its launch in 1997, DVD players had outsold the VCR by 13 to one and the CD player by four to one by the time Matrix DVD was released.).
December 18th, 2008
Just who pays DaveBG? You’ve got to hope that someone so pointlessly vocal against Blu Ray (often two or three posts in a row and all over the web?) isn’t picking up at least a LITTLE corn. Unfortunately, since the Black Friday hardware and TDK software figures came in, all that repetative posting reads as “but but but but” and his puppet masters have to be looking at whether he’s worth the moolah.
December 19th, 2008
Just who pays DaveBG?i think he’s a hddvd supporter.. a sore loser that he is..
December 19th, 2008
DaveBG
It seems like you have something personal against Blue-ray. Do you get a paycheck from Microsoft or are just an a$$.
December 22nd, 2008
Try getting a clue ladies.
Some of us just took a leaf out of the Sony viral handbook.
We are legion.
(and DaveBG is a joke on known PS3/Blu-ray fanboy who frequented many sites until his name got, er, abused)
December 22nd, 2008
For all these blu ray haters, I just have to say it will catch on sooner or later. DVD is great, but its had 10+ years to build its market.
Everything is pricy when it first comes out. Remember $6000+ plasma tvs with image buring problems. But now we see HDTVs everywhere, no crts in site.
Same will happen with blu ray players since they can already play DVDs as well. After you have the hardware, the software will come naturally.
Every new release that I want to own is always on blu ray, because I want to get the most out of my hardware, and the $5 dollar difference does not hurt after going to watch the same movie twice in theatres.
Plus players are vastly improved, no problem with playability or speed. Prices are coming down. Even blu rays can be found for cheap, I bought dark knight on blu ray for 22.50, which is worth it for sure.
Its just a matter of time. Online will never take over because people still want a disc in their collection, they want box art. Plus ISP providers are already capping internet connections.