Despite the presence of several new titles on the Blu-ray charts—not to mention mega-blockbuster "Avatar"—Blu-ray's share of the video-disc revenue pie for May 10–16 managed to edge up a whisper (1 percent) to 13 percent for the week.
The typical weekly take for the 1080p disc format totaled just over $19 million in revenue in the United States, which was uncharacteristically down from the same week a year earlier (19.3 percent). Standard DVD's tally of nearly $123.5 million also was down over a year ago by more than 34 percent, according to Home Media Research.
Video-disc revenue for the same week ($142.6 million) was down more than 32 percent over mid-May 2009.
While no one was providing any concrete reasons for the week-long downturn in both Blu-ray and DVD sales, the first of several big spring movie titles began appearing in theaters within the same general timeframe, which could explain some possible revenue diversion by consumers to theater tickets over video-disc purchases.
