Bozster @ Dec 31st 2008 3:13PM

Ben, I'm not sure what is it that I'm making up? I was pointing out mistakes in the way you portraited numbers.

Nobody is arguing Dark Knight sales.. it is what it is.. it's an individual case that did outstandingly well on both and since Blu-ray does have a presence any way you look at it, it was obviously expected. But to argue that it's a measurement of how well Blu-ray is doing is really not objective. There are several reasons for that.. First, the DVD audience is much larger then Blu-Ray audience (even genre wise). So while Dark Knight sold well on both, a large number of DVD consumers simply had other choices they picked up. As far as we know (since we are not given that information), titles from 21 to 25th spot on DVD sales might've sold as well as the ones on 20th spot making numbers overall much larger in comparison to just top 20 titles. Do you understand what I'm talking about here?

So, it is highly misleading to track progress of Blu-Ray by quoting revenue out of only one piece of sales of DVD. It is obvious that it paints a very different picture and why I understand some people stating that Blu-Ray is doing better then it really is. If you want to argue real things, argue units sold. Total DVD sales in numbers (not top 20 crap) and total Blu-Ray sales. Of course, the reason we don't have this information is exactly what I was pointing out and you seem to be buying it hook, line and sinker.

The 12% I was quoting was from you two discussing and mentioning the number. I believe that numbers you posted were around 15% for Blu-Ray overall (top 20) and again, I want to make this perfectly clear (not unit sales, but revenue and from only top 20 titles on both formats).

As for digital downloads, I'm not making any claims in numbers, I can just look at what industry is doing and more and more studios and CE companies are supporting digital downloads. The reason why digital downloads are not devastating Blu-ray is simply because studios still protect DVDs (not Blu-Ray) by limiting movie release time window with digital downloads.

You want to talk about embarrassing? What was embarrassing, is that Dark Knight was the ONLY title that sold on Blu-Ray that week with real numbers. other titles in top 20 were from 3-4%, meaning if it wasn't for that specific movie, Blu-Ray sales for that week would be abysmal. It only shows that unless movie appeals to Blu-Ray audience on a wider scale the sales go down.

And btw, 1.7 million out of 13.5 million is about 12.6%, but again, these 12-13% are only for this title for DVD crowd who bought the movie, the overall sales for DVD that week on different titles (make all available titles) were much much more, so talking as if 12-13% was a good indicator of how well Blu-Ray sold in comparison to DVD is really silly.

But whatever makes you feel better. And FYI, I enjoy everything, from Blu-Ray to downloads so I do enjoy everything to the max, I'm just telling you, we will talk again in a year and we'll see how the numbers and digital downloads adoption (that is not only streaming) is going.

Btw, I'm not sure what "rights" you are talking about. There are no rights with optical media. You still buy a license and are legally bound. You are breaking the law if you rip or even borrow your copy to someone, so in any case you don't have any rights. It's just something that makes you feel better when you hold in hand, but reality is something different.

I'm pretty sure you'll be changing your "downloads won't take off any time soon" tune soon enough but I guess we will see.

Cheers.