Without completely knowing what to expect in this particular holiday sales season, some studios and retailers are already backing off previous forecasts when it comes to CE purchases—including Blu-ray Disc titles and players.
At a briefing Nov. 14 organized by the Digital Entertainment Group, a consortium of major Blu-ray studios and product makers, both Warner Home Video and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment lowered earlier general predictions that Blu-ray titles would reach about $1 billion in sale in 2008. The revisions now range from $650 billion to $850 million. (So far this calendar year Blu-ray sales already have reached about $500 million, according to DEG.)
The revised lower projections come in the midst of a $25 million Blu-ray multimedia awareness campaign being coordinated by DEG (HD Notebook, Nov. 12, 2008).
Although actual sales numbers are not available on a weekly basis, Blu-ray titles overall are widely reported to be perhaps 10 percent of all video disc sales, to date. The Top 10 Blu-ray sales for the week ending Nov. 8, according Rentrak:
- "Get Smart" (Warner Bros.)
- "Journey to the Center of the Earth" (Warner Bros.)
- "Iron Man" (Paramount)
- "The incredible Hulk" (Universal)
- "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (Paramount)
- "Tinker Bell" (Disney)
- "Casino Royale Collectors Edition" (Sony)
- "The Polar Express Presented in 3D" (Warner Bros.)
- "Futurama: Bender's Game" (Twentieth Century Fox)
- "Transformers" (Paramount)
