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Our Blogs The BeerFiles Egg on faces of Paramount, Dreamworks over Blu-ray
Our Blogs The BeerFiles Egg on faces of Paramount, Dreamworks over Blu-ray | Egg on faces of Paramount, Dreamworks over Blu-ray |
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| Written by Stan Beer | |
| Tuesday, 04 September 2007 | |
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Interestingly, the normalized figures of both formats aggregated by title on the list show that although the Blu-ray version of 300 clearly outsold the HD DVD version, it wasn't a complete walk-over. 300 in Blu-ray comprised a bit more than 57% of HD sales of the title, while the Hd DVD version accounted for slightly less than 43% of sales. The perplexing decision of Paramount and Dreamworks to drop Blu-ray seems even more puzzling when studying the figures for the studios'two top selling HD titles Disturbia (Para/Dreamworks) which was number 8 on the best seller list and Shooter (Paramount) which was number 9. Both top sellers for the studios were in Blu-ray format. What's more, aggregate sales of both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs of both titles indicates that Blu-ray discs accounted for more than 58% of sales of Shooter and more than 64% of sales of Disturbia. Which ever way you slice and dice the figures, Blu-ray discs are clearly outselling the same titles in HD DVD format, sometimes by as much as two to one. No doubt, the move by Paramount and Dreamworks will help the cause of HD DVD but, based on the latest sales figures, it could come at a cost to both studios. The saving grace for Paramount and Dreamworks is that HD video currently accounts for just 2.5% all video sales so the studios may have figured that passing up a reported US$150 million from the HD DVD camp when DVD still dominates and can be played equally as well on the HD players of both formats would be stupid. The studios can always return to the Blu-ray format if it prevails a couple of years down the track and if HD DVD somehow wins the war, Paramount and Dreamworks will have been vindicated in their decision. Meanwhile, the bad news for HD DVD supporters last week is that Blu-ray's strongest supporter among the studios, Sony Pictures, dominated the aggregated best seller's list with four titles in the top 10 - Black Hawk Down (4), Perfect Strangers (6), Casino Royale (8), and House of Flying Daggers (10). Blu-ray exclusive studio Disney also figured strongly with second placed Wild Hogs.
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