In the nearly two years since the Blu-ray Disc format was first introduced, its various proponents-makers have managed to sell slightly more than 11 million movie discs globally, according to The Redhill Group.
That still represents a tiny slice of the overall DVD sales pie, even as standard disc sales began to level off, and even decline, a year ago. However, the good news for Blu-ray is that sales figures, with few exceptions, have continued increasing month by month, especially since HD DVD bit the dust in early 2008. One of the biggest short-term hurdles facing Blu-ray, according to Redhill, is the lack of inventory in movie titles compared to standard DVD, which fall somewhere over 100,000.
New film titles are now routinely burned in Blu-ray and top sellers in recent months (albeit for a few dollars more) include: “Casino Royale,” “3:10 to Yuma,” “I Am Legend,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End,” “Planet Earth” and “No Country for Old Men.”
“Transformers,” along with current theater blockbusters “Iron Man” and the fourth Indiana Jones entry are due out on Blu-ray by the fall with a host of sophisticated extra features.
