DVD sales have been down this year, and much of that is attributed to lackluster release slate from 2006. This has affected adoption of high-def DVD formats as well, because people aren’t going to invest a few hundred dollars into a new kind of player if the movies aren’t compelling enough. It looks like Christmas 2007 and much of 2008 will be a very different story.
Summer is not even officially over yet, but summer 2007 box office results are approaching an all-time high of $4 billion with over 600 million tickets sold. All or most of these movies are headed for home viewing by Christmas, which means that “They don’t have enough movies” is going to be less of an excuse for people to stay out of getting into a high-def DVD format.
Shrek the Third is the biggest of the summer box office movies headed to HD DVD, followed by Transformers and The Bourne Ultimatum. All three are HD DVD exclusives which are likely to boost HD DVD player sales as well. Looking beyond the eventual end of the “5 free movies” (and in some cases 6 or 7) offer, Warner Home Entertainment has a “Best of HD DVD” series lined up for release in September. The Best of HD DVD, Volume 1 consists of Lethal Weapon, The Road Warrior, Swordfish, and Training Day, all bundled together for about $60 at Amazon. Here’s how the other sets work out (also for about $60):
- Volume 2: The Last Samurai, The Phantom of the Opera, Unforgiven, The Fugitive
- Volume 3: Blazing Saddles, The Departed, GoodFellas, Superman – The Movie
On top of that, Warner is re-releasing several movies as HD DVD-only instead of as HD DVD and DVD combos. This will result in at least $5 savings on each title. Here’s a list of the movies about to go that route: (links go to search results for these movies because the non-combo version hasn’t shown up in Amazon’s catalog yet)
- The Ant Bully
- The Departed – Also part of “Best of HD DVD Volume 1″
- The Fountain
- Good Night, and Good Luck
- Happy Feet
- Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
- Lady in the Water
- The Lake House
- Letters from Iwo Jima
- Rumor Has It…
- Superman Returns
All of these HD DVD movies are categorized and filed away in our “Shop for Movies” page, or you can fend for yourself and hunt them down in the catalog at Amazon or other sites. I’ve found that while one site or store may feature a good deal on a disc or two, nobody beats Amazon.com overall. On top of that, shipping is often free, and sales tax may not apply to your order either.
August 27th, 2007 at 7:24 am
Blu ray has had 3 “Best of” volumes out for some time now. Pravin – No doubt you’ve heard that Steve Nickerson, a senior Vice President of Warner who was a huge hd dvd supporter and former employee of Toshiba, has resigned his position. There’s much speculation that this could be because he was upset with where Warner is going with their high-def, going away from hd dvd and he disagreed with it. Thoughts?
August 27th, 2007 at 9:42 am
I have seen some kind of Blu-ray movie packs at Costco, and I’m guessing that this is the “Best of” for Blu-ray that you’re talking about.
I did not post anything about Vickerson because there hasn’t been any information about why he’s leaving the post. It could just be a coincidence that his departure happens to come at the time it did, or there might have been other issues.
We’ll have to see what the next exciting plot twist is in this format war/soap opera to find out if Steve Vickerson’s resignation is an extraneous sub-plot or if it’s foreshadowing for the next big announcement.
August 27th, 2007 at 10:59 am
My mistake. It seems that Warner is releasing the same “best of” series in both formats. I saw it Amazon awhile ago for Blu ray, but I just looked and discovered that it was a “pre-order” item to be released mid-September.
August 27th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
http://www.tvpredictions.com/smith082607.htm
Here is an article all you HD-DVD tools should read.
August 27th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
Rwarner174: yeah, old news.
no one cares.
and if you don’t like hd dvd, get off the site.
tool.
August 27th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Actually, this article from the same site (http://www.tvpredictions.com/2007/08/ending-hdtv-dvd-war.html) is a little more interesting to those hanging out at a site named HDDVD.com, I think.
The author offers that HD DVD can end the war quickly, whereas Blu-ray can only prolong it. HD DVD can offer combo discs while Blu-ray cannot –it’s not a technical problem, but a licensing issue. If Paramount, Universal and Warner were to release all discs as combo-only, instead of alongside standard DVDs, then consumers would get their DVD and be ready for HD right away.
I can see studios doing this for some high-profile discs. Why bother to put out DVD and HD DVD (if you’re already HD DVD exclusive) when you can just put that disc out once?
August 27th, 2007 at 5:16 pm
I would like to point out that neither HD DVD or BuRay are “denying” films to consumers. They merely deny High Definition on their exclusives to people who do not own those players. SD DVDS publish virtually everything.
August 28th, 2007 at 3:18 am
I can’t wait for Transformers! I saw it twice in a DLP theater and loved every mintue.