News: Blu-ray Coalition Announces Over 1,000,000 Blu-ray Movies Sold in the U.S.

 

With Nielson VideoScan releasing the April U.S. high-def disc sales numbers, Blu-ray officially became the first of the high-def formats to sell one million movie titles in the U.S.  Despite the several month head start oh HD DVD, Blu-ray has rapidly overtaken their sales lead, and is currently selling 2.27 Blu-ray movies for every 1 HD DVD movie sold, so far this year.

The top Blu-ray title for March, the Bond flick "Casino Royale" sold an astounding 59,000 copies since its release on March 13.  The top HD DVD title for the month was "The Departed" which sold 16,000 copies.

HD DVD backers seem to have accepted that Blu-ray's lead will continue for quite awhile, though they claim that they have a plan to make a comeback in Quarter 4:

"Ken Graffeo, Universal executive VP of marketing and head of high-definition, said that until the fourth quarter, Blu-ray is likely to continue its sales lead, though HD DVD will continue to grow. Consumer electronic sales are slow outside of the holiday season, and the summer’s blockbuster sequels will reach disc then, helping to drive new sales.

“Fourth quarter is really going to be a telling time,” he said."

I'm not sure how giving up on the other 3/4 of the year amounts to a strategy on the part of the HD DVD group, but it's nice that they're aware that they're losing at the moment.

Video Business