Just like it did to the one day Blu-ray sales record, The Dark Knight Blu-ray disc jumped even Warner's projections for its first week, selling 1.7 million copies worldwide, topping Iron Man's 500,000. Apparently undeterred by any claims of issues fans jumped on the release, with DVDs added it moved a total of 13.5 million on both formats. No word yet whether there's still space to chat with director Chris Nolan on the 18th, but Warner's also claiming 300,000 digital copies activated, and the number on spot on iTunes. Not enough celebratory back slapping for you? Check the press release after the break while we try to figure out what movie has a chance of breaking the #1 sales figure next.

Considering that Iron Man is the best selling Blu-ray Disc of all time, it makes sense that there are countless reviews of it out on the web. If you've somehow held back from picking up a copy of your own, you'll be glad to know that pretty much everyone in existence agrees that this film rocks. The most noticeable positive was the absolutely outstanding video transfer, making this flick one you'll undoubtedly pull out when trying to wow your friends with your system's capabilities. Amazingly enough, critics on the whole were even more impressed with the audio, with TweakTown going so far as to say that the soundtrack " almost single-handedly justifies the cost of a home theater." The only real knock that we could find was that blacks fell a tad flat in a few scenes, but really, that's neither here nor there. The critics have spoken, and this is a must-own title for any BD fan.

Read - DailyGame
Read - HighDefDiscNews
Read - Film School Rejects
Read - TweakTown
Read - DVDTalk
Read - Monsters And Critics
Read - IGN

At this point it seems that the only one not talking about how well Iron Man sold on Blu-ray is Paramount, as Adam's Research tells Video Business that the Blu-ray version of Iron Man managed to take 20 percent of the market share away from DVD. This number confirms our estimates that Blu-ray market share has doubled since HD DVD demise. The previous record holder, I Am Legend, that was released around the time HD DVD called it quits, only managed 9 percent. We have to say that this even exceeds our expectations though, and although there is no doubt that this title fits in the Blu-demographic, it once again is some indication that the future might just be Blu after all.

Although we'll probably have to wait another week for the official Nielsen VideoScan charts to reflect the sales of Iron Man this week on Blu-ray, director Jon Favreau was bragging on the Howard Stern Show that the sales of Iron Man had already outsold every other Blu-ray release to date. We can't say we're that surprised though, especially after reports that the load on Paramount's BD-Live servers were too much to handle -- not to mention the fact that it is/was the number two selling disc on Amazon (the DVD version is number one). Either way, it'll be interesting to see how much better Iron Man moved discs then the previous record holders like Spider Man 3, I Am Legend and Casino Royale.

Paramount was more than adamant that absolutely nothing was wrong with its Iron Man discs, but in what's easily one of Blu-ray's biggest releases of the year, folks are still having issues. The bulk of the problems seem to hover around clogged up pipes from everyone downloading BD-Live material at the same time. Users are reporting a handful of issues ranging from the film hanging on a "blue chest loading screen" (affectionately dubbed the Blue Ring of Death) to a muffled TrueHD soundtrack. Some PS3 owners have suggested that manually telling it to bypass the whole BD-Live download circumvents the hangs, but it seems that other players aren't having such luck. So, how has your Iron Man experience been? Do these folks have legitimate beefs, or are these fools just whining for nothin'?

[Thanks, Mark]

We are finally getting our first Summer blockbuster in time for the holiday season, after some rumors of delays, as Iron Man is set to hit the shelves tomorrow. This is the first title to be released in some time that is expected to once again raise the Blu-ray bar and be the best selling titles to date. But this isn't the only news this week, for starters Discovery has its latest title, When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions, which we expect to sell well, but nowhere near what Planet Earth did. Universal has a decent slate as it has a few catchup titles HD DVD and DVD fans have been enjoying for some time like Knocked Up and The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Halloween is very obviously right around the corner as all the horror flicks are being released in droves this week, like the famous Dawn of the Dead and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Another catalog we look forward to enjoying for the first time all over again is The Sixth Sense. Noticeably absent from the list this week is two Olympic titles like the Opening Ceremonies and a Michael Phelps special, that are only available on DVD. Looking forward, next week is the first time Disney is going into the vault and releasing a classic on Blu-ray with Sleeping Beauty, and there are a bunch more horror movies on the schedule as well.

• Iron Man (Paramount)
• When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions (Discovery)
• The 40-Year-Old Virgin (Universal)
• Knocked Up (Universal)
• Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Universal)
• Can't Hardly Wait (Sony)
• Daredevil (Fox)
• The Sixth Sense (Disney)
• Dawn of the Dead (Universal)
• Halloween Starter Pack (Land of the Dead / Dawn of the Dead / The Thing) (Universal)
• Land of the Dead (Universal)
• Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Dark Sky)
• The Thing (Universal)

Bad news Blu-ray fans -- it appears Paramount hasn't gotten past all its production problems and it just might affect the Blu-ray release of Iron Man. Easily one of the biggest movies of the year, Iron Man was expected to really move some volume on Blu when it was set to release this Tuesday on September 30th, but after some rumors that review copies weren't working in some players, it was expected that Paramount would issue a full recall. At this point the studio is doing everything it can to deliver enough replacement discs to retailers, but if it doesn't happen in time, then we'll all have to wait another week until October 7th to take in the latest sci-fi action flick.

Update: Paramount rang to say that the release is still on track for a September 30th release. Phew!