Quote:
bobgpsr wrote:
 4. Titles are really where people differ as to tastes. It looks like the floodgates turn on for HD DVD on March 27th. No movies from either BD or HD DVD this release Tuesday, but BD has some coming out on the 13th and 20th. |
You're right that people tend to prioritize titles differently, but Blu-ray simply has more of them in the pipeline. And like it or not, it's new releases that drive sales and create buzz. In that respect, Blu-ray has a huge advantage, since Universal is the only major studio exclusively supporting HD-DVD. And last year was a bad year for Universal, and a banner year for Sony, Disney, and Fox who support Blu-ray exclusively.
Here's a link to
last year's box office chart, and you'll see that 12 of the top 20 movies are tied to the three Blu-ray exclusive major studios, while Universal had only 1 movie in last year's top 20,
The Break Up and it has already come out on HD-DVD.
Next week,
Casino Royale (last year's #6 box office hit) will come out concurrently with the DVD version as a Blu-ray exclusive.
Pursuit of Happyness (last year's #10 movie) gets its concurrent Blu-ray release two weeks thereafter. Next month,
Night at the Museum (#3 in last year's box office) also gets a concurrent release as a Blu-ray exclusive. And in June, last year's top two movies,
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and
Cars come out on Blu-ray. That's a lot of market push that HD-DVD cannot answer.
The biggest HD-DVD titles coming out on March 27 (
Happy Feet and
March of the Penguins) will also simultaneously come out on Blu-ray.
http://www.highdefdigest.com/
Although it's entirely plausible that Universal will recover and have a great year at the box office, Blu-ray's lead in hardware sales, year-to-date disc sales, and disc sales since inception, will continue to increase in the meantime. By the time Universal's movie slate for 2007 has an impact on the HD disc sales, Blu-ray's lead might be firmly entrenched.