"Dark Knight": Already the fastest-selling Blu-ray disc ever

See, I told you so. The numbers are in, and the Blu-ray version of "The Dark Knight" sold more than 600,000 copies—in a single day.

That puts TDK on track to be the fastest-selling Blu-ray yet, easily outpacing the previous record-holder, "Iron Man," which (according to the L.A. Times technology blog) sold a "mere" 260,000 Blu-ray copies on its first day, and took a week to clear 500,000 copies. Indeed, "The Dark Knight" is expected to sell more than a million Blu-ray discs by the end of the week, as TVPredictions.com reports.

Now, let's put this in perspective before we get too carried away. As the L.A. Times notes, the DVD version of "Dark Knight" sold a whopping 3 million copies on Tuesday, or five times as many units as on Blu-ray.

That said, a (projected) million Blu-ray copies in a week is an attention-grabbing number, especially for a new, somewhat troubled format that endured a protracted war with HD DVD and is still saddled with overpriced players and video titles.

I've been comparing "The Dark Knight" Blu-ray with the DVD of "The Matrix," which sold 780,000 copies in its first week—way back in September, 1999—and catapulted the then-fledgling DVD format into the mainstream. And with Blu-ray player sales spiking as prices finally fall below $200, well … we might be onto something here.

Not only is "Dark Knight" the most popular Blu-ray yet, it also serves as a dazzling demonstration of what the format can do. Especially impressive are the four eye-popping, IMAX-filmed actions sequences, which are presented on Blu-ray in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio (compared to 2.35:1 "scope" ratio for rest of the picture)—gorgeous. (Some viewers have complained about the abrupt aspect ratio changes, but hey—that's how the movie looked when I saw it in IMAX, and I certainly didn't have a problem with it.)

Also cool (as I wrote last week): The BD-Live features, including the ability to shoot your own, feature-length picture-in-picture commentaries (all you need is a Webcam). In addition, director Christopher Nolan is set to participate in a BD-Live "community screening" of the movie on Dec. 18 at 6pm PST.

So, who's already snapped up "The Dark Knight" on Blu-ray? Impressions?

Related:
Blu-ray's Dark Knight: 600K Sold On 1st Day [TV Predictions.com]