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thedarkknight posts

The next Batman flick could be all-IMAX

by Richard Lawler posted Aug 26th 2009 at 1:09PM


It's absolutely no secret that The Dark Knight director Chris Nolan is a big fan of IMAX, the latest rumors indicate his third Batman flick could make the jump from part-time to full time. The IMAX scenes fom The Dark Knight came home in frame filling 16x9 to the delight of some and the ire of others, but perhaps a movie that didn't switch between aspect ratios would have a more universally positive response. Of course, Ain't It Cool News reports this could all fall through despite the best of intentions, but, are you excited by the potential of 100% IMAX feature films?

[Via Splash Page]

Michael Bay plans The Dark Knight-style IMAX sequences for Transformers 2 Blu-ray

by Richard Lawler posted Jul 24th 2009 at 2:28PM

Hope you liked The Dark Knight's treatment of its shot-for-IMAX scenes, as it may be a trend. Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen director (and Blu-ray fan for life) Michael Bay has stated that among other unspecified extras, the disc release will see similar frame filling transfers that let viewers see top to bottom. This is your chance to be heard, are you a fan, or just want everything in one aspect ratio?

If you saw Star Trek or The Dark Knight on IMAX Digital, did you get your money's worth?

by Richard Lawler posted May 16th 2009 at 4:53PM


Since most of you are apparently waiting to see Star Trek at home anyway, this might not affect you but recently there's been a ruckus over what constitutes "real" IMAX. Judging from the map above, the company has been very successful spreading its IMAX Digital gospel to movie theaters across the country, but when patrons drop an extra $5 or so and don't see the gigantic field of vision-filling screen they're used to, is that really the IMAX experience? Whether you agree with IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond that the quality of digital projection, improved sound and slightly shifted viewing angle is enough to create the "wow factor" or Aziz Ansari's accusation of Liemax for the converted theaters, it's not right that it usually isn't clearly indicated which kind of setup your local theater has until you're actually inside. Check out the Google Map link to know what your local moviehouse is like, and let us know which kind of screen you've seen recent blockbusters like The Dark Knight and Star Trek on.

[Thanks, Ryan]

Read - AZIZ VS. IMAX ROUND 2: IMAX CEO Responds! And so do I. I challenge you to a televised debate sir!
Read - IMAX Digital vs. 70mm IMAX Google Map

Sony still pushing the potential of BD-Live, but is anyone listening?

by Richard Lawler posted Apr 23rd 2009 at 2:58PM


Still believe in the potential of BD-Live? Sony does, exec David Bishop called this the "Pong" stage of development in the technology during an industry demo yesterday on its lot. Apparently wanting to get some fresh eyes on BD-Live after some glitchy releases and underwhelming features, Sony, Disney and others are still trying to find different ways to work BD-Live into their discs, and new wireless capable players like Samsung's 2009 models mighty see more people going online. We've seen live directors chats, games, story databases and other twists, but at the moment we're not as optimistic about where BD-Live is headed in 2009 and beyond.

The Dark Knight Blu-ray Disc up to 2.8 million worldwide, driving PS3 sales

by Richard Lawler posted Feb 4th 2009 at 11:43PM


Fresh off saving packaged media and smashing first week sales records, The Dark Knight Blu-ray is up to nearly 3 million copies sold worldwide, according to Senior VP Dorinda Marticorena. Beyond that, while PlayStation 3 sales may not have quite matched the competition in December 2008, 1/3 of the people who did buy counted the latest Batman flick as a reason why. Warner Bros. Q4 numbers also came out today and were up about 7%, not the least of which had to do with TDK outperforming most of the studio's 2007 releases. Hopefully up to the challenge with their home releases this year? The Watchmen and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Good luck.

[Via Blu-ray.com and Movie Web]

Engadget HD CES schwag giveaway: Blu-ray discs and more

by Ben Drawbaugh posted Jan 19th 2009 at 11:40AM Featured Story

Blu-ray Disc giveaway
Although the announcements at CES weren't particularly wonderful this year, the schwag was pretty sweet. In fact at the Blu-ray Disc Association press event some of the best schwag of the entire show was dispensed -- assuming you like Blu-ray Discs, which we do. You'd expect that if discs were given away, the titles wouldn't be anything to write home about. But in this case, the BDA gave out six movies and a few of them were not only the hottest selling this year, but one of them (The Dark Knight) was the hottest of all time. So we're passing on the goods to our favorite people, which is of course our readers. Up for grabs is four sets of the following movies; The Dark Knight, Batman Begins (Limited Edition Gift Set), WALL-E, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Pineapple Express, and Dr. Suess' Horton Hears a Who! We're also including a Blu-ray branded bag to tote 'em in and one lucky winner will also receive some additional schwag. If you're interested, leave a comment below and we'll randomly pick four winners for the discs and one of those four will also get a TiVo doll, a Cyberlink wallet and a few other goodies -- see below.

The rules:
  • Leave a comment below. Any comment will do, though we'd prefer to hear about your favorite CES announcement.
  • You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you'll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.)
  • If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you'll be fine.
  • Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don't make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
  • Winners will be chosen randomly. Four winners will receive one (1) copy of each of the following movies on Blu-ray; The Dark Knight, Batman Begins (Limited Edition Gift Set), WALL-E, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Pineapple Express, Dr. Suess' Horton Hears a Who!, and a Blu-ray bag. Approximate value is $239.99. In addition one of those winners will also receive a TiVo doll, REALD 3D glasses, Cyberlink wallet, Samsung notebook and pen, and Rock & Roll beads from The Digital Experience. Approximate value is $5.
  • Entries can be submitted until Monday, January 26th, 11:59PM ET. Good luck!
  • Full rules can be found here.

Continue reading Engadget HD CES schwag giveaway: Blu-ray discs and more

Roku digital video player adding Amazon Video On Demand

by Richard Lawler posted Jan 5th 2009 at 12:09PM


Roku owners looking to go discless are one step closer, now that Amazon Video On Demand will be available on the box after a free software update in early 2009. Fulfilling the promise of more "big name" providers to come, flicks like The Dark Knight, Pineapple Express or any of Amazon's 40,000 other titles can be purchased and played back to the TV for a 24 hour window. The bad news? Max bitrate is an h.264 compressed 1200Kbps. Not bad if SD only is your bag, but we're even more eagerly awaiting another Amazon VOD HD rumor.

Blu-ray lifts UK disc sales

by Richard Lawler posted Jan 2nd 2009 at 5:48PM


Blu-ray sales in the UK didn't keep up their mind melting increases from earlier in the year, but considering the economic slowdown worldwide, a 378% jump from 2007 doesn't seem too disappointing. The British Video Association and Official Charts Company numbers point out a 1.9% lift in DVD sales as a whole in 2008, including 3.7 million on Blu-ray. The Dark Knight finished the year moving 281,000 Blu-ray copies as the UK's best selling HD release. We'll see how things proceed in '09, hopefully with cheaper players on the way.

DISH Network adds The Dark Knight to 1080p on-demand movie lineup

by Darren Murph posted Dec 31st 2008 at 1:49PM


Here's an indication of just how important The Dark Knight is to the movie / content industry. DISH Network has just pushed out a bona fide press release solely to announce that the aforementioned film is now available via its 1080p on-demand service. Customers of the satcaster who skipped out on the Blu-ray version and would rather just rent can spend their New Year's Eve trying to figure out if Batman's voice can possibly go any deeper without exploding for just $6.99.

The Dark Knight saved 2008 for packaged media

by Ben Drawbaugh posted Dec 24th 2008 at 12:28PM

The Dark Knight - Blu-rayEven the most optimistic analysts didn't predict that The Dark Knight would be able to single-handedly save packaged media sales in 2008. But thanks to the 13.5 million units sold, packaged media income was only down 3% to $22.9 billion in revenues -- that's with a B. This is hardly the doomsday loses predicted and down right impressive when compared to the US economy as a whole and many in the industry are thanking Blu-ray for this. While some predicted that digital downloads would be the next saving grace, it is actually Blu-ray that is showing promise. Now to be fair it should be noted that The Dark Knight won't be available in HD on digital download services until tomorrow, but then again that is part of the problem. And while we know that the Blu-ray version of The Dark Knight brought in about $50 million in one week, we'd be very surprised if any of the download services anounced even a fifth of that next week.

Nielsen VideoScan High-Def market share for week ending December 14th, 2008

by Ben Drawbaugh posted Dec 20th 2008 at 4:48PM

Nielsen VideoScan chart

The Dark Knight didn't disappoint anyone this week as it clearly outsold any other title (this week and the history of Blu-ray) by an unprecedented level according to Nielsen VideoScan numbers courtesy of Home Media Magazine. Although TDK didn't make the top 10 on Blu-ray's market share chart this week -- thanks to a number of catalog titles, which are obviously availability at a great price somewhere -- based on our estimates it managed just under eight percent of DVD's share. This is barely half of what Blu managed overall, which was at an all time high of 14 percent -- the highest before this was October 5th (Iron Man) at 13 percent, but that week had less than half the revenue at $26 million. Speaking of revenue, this is the most money ever spent on Blu-ray in one week, and by a long shot. In fact this is close to what Blu-ray would make in a month. It truly does look like a Blu Christmas especially if you consider how many more DVD players there are out there. We can't say we blame anyone, with Blu-ray players selling for a little as decent upscalers, why not enjoy some real HD?

Continue reading Nielsen VideoScan High-Def market share for week ending December 14th, 2008

The Dark Knight Blu-ray sells 1.7 million in a week, shows Iron Man a magic trick

by Richard Lawler posted Dec 17th 2008 at 6:46AM Breaking News


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.

Continue reading The Dark Knight Blu-ray sells 1.7 million in a week, shows Iron Man a magic trick

The Dark Knight director hungry for more IMAX

by Darren Murph posted Dec 13th 2008 at 2:29PM


IMAX has been around for years, while 3D is just now starting to really infiltrate the theater scene. Curiously, it looks as if 3D will have more of the alternate cinema market share than IMAX in no time flat, despite IMAX's tremendous advantage in launch time. Thanks to The Dark Knight, however, IMAX could receive that much-needed breath of life it has been waiting for. Director Christopher Nolan has reportedly stated that he'd like to shoot an entire film for IMAX, even though it would undoubtedly be down-converted for playback on traditional screens. He did admit that the noisiness of the camera could cause issues, but that's nothing a hard-working set pusher couldn't overcome. For those who viewed the latest installment of Batman in theaters, many were most captivated by the expansive IMAX sequences -- in fact, we'd be hard pressed to find someone who wouldn't want an entire film to look like that.

[Via FirstShowing]

The Dark Knight shatters sales record, moves 600,000 Blu-ray Discs on day one

by Darren Murph posted Dec 11th 2008 at 9:02AM


The numbers are in, and they're big. Just as predicted, Warner Brothers' The Dark Knight was a huge day-one success, with consumers in the US, Canada and UK snapping up three million copies during the first 24 hours (give or take a few) that it was on sale. More germane to our conversation, however, is this 600,000 figure, which tells exactly how many Blu-ray Discs were sold. We already know that around one-sixth of those were moved in the UK, leaving us to determine that North America did some serious shopping. The studio has now projected it to sell one million BDs by Saturday, and curiously enough, current sales have been "especially strong at grocery stores, indicating that the format is broadening beyond early adopters to more mainstream buyers, notably women." Needless to say, this title took down Iron Man's record of moving 250,000 BDs on day one, which just ratchets up the bar for the next big one to take down.

[Thanks, Geoff]

The Dark Knight fan commentary BD-Live feature shown on video

by Darren Murph posted Dec 9th 2008 at 8:50PM


So, you and hundreds of thousands of others picked up your Blu-ray copy of The Dark Knight today, huh? We know you haven't had time to fiddle with the BD-Live extras just yet, but one Joe Lynch from G4 TV has. One of the most intriguing aspects of the flick's interactive feature set is the fan commentary; put simply, users hook up a USB webcam to their player (PS3 included) and then commentate as the film progresses. From there, you can upload your take(s) to the BD-Live servers for others to enjoy. Granted, we aren't too sure how you'll actually find someone bored enough to listen to you jabber on about a film they purchased, but we reckon that's beside the point. Vid's waiting after the break.

Continue reading The Dark Knight fan commentary BD-Live feature shown on video





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