Almost 10% of No Country for Old Men sales were Blu-Ray discs

allargon

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Aug 2, 2007
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Recession talk or not, it appears that Blu-Ray is breaking out of niche...

With HD DVD out, Blu-ray sales on the rise

With HD DVD out, Blu-ray sales on the rise
By Thomas K. Arnold

March 26, 2008
Blu-ray Disc sales have seen a sharp spike in recent weeks since the bruising format war against rival HD DVD came to an end in the middle of February.

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment's "No Country for Old Men" realized 9.8% of its total sales from Blu-ray Disc its first five days in stores, according to an analysis of Nielsen VideoScan First Alert numbers conducted by Home Media Magazine's market research department.

Fox's "Hitman," also released March 11, fared even better, generating 12.6% of its total unit sales from Blu-ray.

"That one hit the sweet spot," said Steve Feldstein, Fox senior vp marketing and corporate communications. "It's a great action title that looks beautiful in high-def -- and it's right in the cross hairs of Blu-ray's target demographic of young adult males."

By comparison, while the format war was raging, unit sales of high-definition discs, either Blu-ray or HD DVD, generally accounted for no more than 2%-3% of a title's sales.

Even in the busy fourth quarter of 2007, sales of high-profile new releases were overwhelmingly tilted toward DVD. Fox's "The Simpsons Movie" generated just 2.8% of its total sales from Blu-ray, while the Blu-ray version of "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," from Walt Disney Studios, accounted for 3.7% of total sales.

Only after Toshiba threw in the HD DVD towel on Feb. 19 did Blu-ray sales spike. Warner's "Michael Clayton," released that day, generated 5.5% of its total first-week sales from Blu-ray. Sony's "30 Days of Night," released Feb. 26, snagged 8.9% of its total unit sales from the Blu-ray version.

Home entertainment industry analyst Tom Adams of Adams Media Research credits the end of the format war with igniting Blu-ray sales, a trend he sees continuing throughout the year.

"Before, there was a tendency to play it safe and stick with the standard DVD," Adams said. "But now there's no longer anything to worry about."

Feldstein agrees. "Consumers in the high-def marketplace are now purchasing with confidence," he said. "The confusion in the marketplace that you saw when there were two formats continues to work itself out, and once education campaigns begin and the retail presence (of Blu-ray) expands, we should start to see the numbers soar even higher."



Fox market researchers estimate that Blu-ray sales will hit $1 billion in consumer spending in calendar-year 2008, up from an estimated $300 million for combined Blu-ray and HD DVD sales in 2007.

Adams said he expects to see a steady uptick in Blu-ray sales as more players come on the market. He projects that 2008 will end with 2.9 million dedicated Blu-ray players in homes, up from 500,000 at the end of last year, and another 8.4 million PlayStation 3s, with built-in Blu-ray drives, up from 3.2 million at the end of 2007.

Adams said early adopters now buying dedicated Blu-ray players are likely to be rabid consumers of movies, driving up sales, as happened in the early days of DVD. At the same time, the expansion of the PlayStation 3 beyond the hard-core gaming crowd should also lead to an increase in movie sales because the new wave of PS3 buyers are likely "average consumers who consume movies as well as games."

The sales gains that have been achieved so far, Adams said, have come before Hollywood begins an all-out push to drive Blu-ray sales, both through general consumer awareness and education campaigns and a specific effort directed at PS3 owners.

"The promotion to PlayStation 3 homes hasn't really kicked in yet," he said. "And assuming that works, when you're talking 5 million homes, getting them to buy just one more movie a year can make a significant difference in a small market like this."

Adams said studios are keen to derive a greater chunk of their sales from Blu-ray because of the price differential. The average street price for a newly released DVD over its first three months in stores is $20.57, Adams said, while the Blu-ray version goes for $31.31.

"The biggest title of last year, in terms of high-definition disc sales, was 'Transformers,' which derived a little more than 4% of its total unit sales from the Blu-ray Disc version," Adams said. "But in terms of revenue, the percentage was 6% of the total.

Too bad the writer was too dumb to note that Transformers was a HD DVD release. :rolleyes:
 
I'm not sure what research was for this article considering the major gaffe with Transformers. If the rest of the article is true fine(I have doubts) but I'd like to have other sources confirm it.
 
I must have missed the part where that article talked about the sales of these specific, recent titles.
I was replying to the "research" part.
Reporting sales of particular movies a-la Nielsen isn't research.

Predicting what is going to happen in 2012 is. With the exception for when it's prostitution.
BD research so far is dominated by exceptions, IMHO...

Diogen.
 
Let's see, he quotes "Fox market researchers" but you don't like what you read, so you doubt there was research. Right. And it's all about the attach rate ......... :rolleyes:

Will you still have such confident comments about Blu-ray not doing well if the end of the year shows progress anything like the article discusses?
 
I guess Joe's shoes have to be filled while he's absent...
Let's see, he quotes "Fox market researchers" but you don't like what you read...
Do you read anything but your own philisophical opuses and smart-ass remarks?
If you did, you would have run across these three paragraphs in the Videobusiness article I linked above:
Videobusiness said:
In light of the forward momentum, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment’s executive VP of research and technology Danny Kaye laid out a Blu-ray trajectory that is comparable to standard-definition DVD’s rise since its bow more than a decade ago.
Kaye “conservatively” estimated that in 2008 another 2 million Blu-ray set-tops will be sold and an additional 4 million PS3 systems sold. Counting the existing Blu-ray hardware installation base, by the end of the year, 10 million Blu-ray set-top and gaming playback devices will be in U.S. households.
On the software side, Blu-ray titles generated 5.6 million disc unit sales and $170 million in consumer spending, in 2007. The year ahead will trounce that performance, hitting 40 million discs sold, and churning out $1 billion in consumer spending in 2008, according to the studio.
that fits your beloved "Fox market researchers" quote to the "t"
Hollywoodreporter said:
Fox market researchers estimate that Blu-ray sales will hit $1 billion in consumer spending in calendar-year 2008
Videobusiness just wrote this on Jan8/08. This is why I called it "rehash". Satisfied? Don't bother answering...
And it's all about the attach rate ......... :rolleyes:
Show me one post of mine on this forum that talks about PS3 attach rates before bringing up this crap again...
Will you still have such confident comments about Blu-ray not doing well if the end of the year shows progress anything like the article discusses?
Why would I?
Did you ever comment on your "confidence" that no insider claimed BD-Live players don't need 1GB built-in?
http://www.satelliteguys.us/hd-dvd-...players-out-selling-hd-dvd-2.html#post1028805
And after having your nose tucked into Talk's quote, you just walked.
I'll do just like you did.

This is the last time I've replied to your post.

Diogen.
 
Good. Your comments are needlessly abusive. And your view is NOT the only view.
 
6.8%. Still more of a ratio then I would have thought.

True but still nothing to brag about. This movie won best pictue, best director and best supporting actor.

From Blu-ray.com;
No Country for Old Men Blu-ray Review
Riveting, primal, and drenched with symbolism, the Coen brothers' latest film boasts the best picture ever authored for home video.
5.0 Video
4.5 Sound

Apparently this is a must own. With a 3 million + install base, 68,000 is very sad indeed. What's that a 2% attach rate?

The media is trying to make news when there is no news........ Spin, Spin, Skew, Skew, the media will make it sound good to you.
 

Goodbye to this war zone

"HDTV Owners Not Getting HD Service, Survey Finds"

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