HD Disc Sales for "300" Break Records
Wed Aug 8, 2007 12:35PM EDT
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Some encouraging new numbers for the HD disc market: first-week sales of the blood-and-guts epic "300" were the biggest yet for a high-def disc, regardless of format. Looks like Blu-ray and HD DVD are finally making a (small) dent in the overall disc market.
Make no mistake—"300"'s sales figures pale compared to the millions and millions that the top standard DVD titles sell each week. Still, consider this: back in April, when the first Blu-ray and HD DVD sales figures were released, the Blu-ray version of "Casino Royale" topped the charts (for the week of March 18), selling a grand total of…28,233 copies. In fact, the top 10 titles for that week sold about 40,000 copies, combined. Considering that "300" managed to sell a total of 250,000 copies in a single week—all by itself—it looks like overall HD disc sales are growing dramatically.
Both the Blu-ray and HD DVD formats have a long ways to go before achieving anything resembling mainstream success—obviously, someone needs to pick a winner in the format war, prices need to drop, and the overall number of titles available needs to increase dramatically. But "300"'s success in the HD disc market reminds me of a similar (if considerably larger) bellwether title back in the early days of DVD: "The Matrix," which broke records by selling more than 750,000 copies in its first week (back in December 1999).
Related:
300 Is the Fastest Selling HD Title on the Market [MovieWeb]
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Comments on HD Disc Sales for "300" Break Records
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2 Posted by matt_archbold2002 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:11PM EDT Report Abuse
It makes sense that "300" would have high HD sales. Its the perfect movie to show of HD. These types of movies is what will sell people on an HD player. I just dont see anyone running out and buying an HD player because they have to see "Hitched" in High Definition (or any other movie like that).
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3 Posted by fordescortgt@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:01PM EDT Report Abuse
First of all movies like "Hitched" ( i believe matt_archbold2002 meant "Hitch") do look significantly better on Blu-ray than they do on DVD. However as to what kind of picture is acceptable for this and any other movie is purely subjective; to many people VHS is acceptable qaulity. Time marches on, technology changes, you can either take advantage of it or become the guy who comes to a best buy in 10 years and yells at the clerk "What do u mean you dont have dvds!!!!!!." As for "300" on Blu-ray and HDDVD, alot of people bought the movie becase they enjoyed it at the theaters and rememberd seeing beautiful visuals. The problem is the movie was intentionally downgraded to give it a comic book feel and allow the green screen CGI to better meld with the live action. The result? A LOOOOOOT OF GRAIN. This was not as noticable in teh theaters nor is it very noticable on the DVD version w/ an SDTV (I have not seen an upconverted dvd version of it on an HDTV yet). However when i put in my Blu-ray it was as if somone had taken apart my TV and shoved a bunch of misquitos between the screen, alot of Hi-Def disc adapters on both sides noticed this and were bothered by it. While this movie sold very well on HDDVD and Blu-ray, I think after watching what many expect to be a crystal clear visually stunning movie and seeing a movie behind a wall of misquitos, people will be more reluctant to purchase more HD discs and others may be reluctant to purchase the player (especially since most people wont do the research to discover that the grain is intentional). Dont get me wrong i love the movie and after a few minutes you dont notice the misquitos nemore, but when people are looking a Blu-ray disc to try and see how impressive it can be, they pay more attention to the detail than they normaly would.
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4 Posted by deckard0047 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:40PM EDT Report Abuse
While Warner may not break it down between the two formats a quick look at amazon has the Blu-Ray ranked 12th place while the HD DVD is ranked 18th. Not surprising since the Blu-Ray versions of Warner's releases have outsold the HD DVD counterparts.
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5 Posted by vtchuck2000 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:38PM EDT Report Abuse
Right now BluRay has more machines out there than HD-DVD and consequently have more disks sold. However, this is by virtue of Sony putting a BluRay player into each of the PS3. On the flip side, all the HD-DVD players are exactly what they are, used to play HD-DVD disks. Basically, everyone who bought an HD-DVD player as a dedicated video player; while vast majority of BluRay players are bought as PS3 gaming machines, which, at $499 (60GB), are really luxury items to most. The cheapest HD-DVD player by Toshiba has dropped down to ~$250 and comes with 5 free HD-DVD movies. For a consumer who is not a gamer and is value-consicious, the choice clearly leans to HD-DVD. Who will win? Hard to tell. I really think this format war still have a long way to go before a clear-cut winner will emerge. PS3 is an excellent media machine and even under-valued at $499 but faces stiff competition from XBOX and Wii and its sales has suffered. Similarly, BluRay is technologically superior to HD-DVD but that causes its production cost to suffer. If price plays the dominating factor in this war, HD-DVD will have the ultimate edge. PS I have 300, it may be a perfect MOVIE for HD, but Planet Earth takes the overall perfect title by far. If you have a HD player and haven't seen Planet Earth, you are really missing out. Breath-taking is the only word that can adequately describe this seris.
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1 Posted by ytech_patterson on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:58PM EDT Report Abuse
Well, "300" is certainly the perfect movie for HD -- very striking visuals, and of course lots of violence (not particularly gory, however; more stylized than anything else). And very good extras on the HD DVD side, at least, with good use of picture-in-picture commentary. Not much in the way of plot or characters, but I guess that was besides the point.