Egg on faces of Paramount, Dreamworks over Blu-ray

Stan Beer
Tuesday, 04 September 2007 06:24

Opinion and Analysis

The move last month of Paramount and Dreamworks to give the Blu-ray HD video format the flick in favour of HD DVD for some easy money looks slightly ridiculous in the face of the latest sales figures from video mag site Home Media Magazine based on Nielsen VideoScan First Alert data. It turns out that of the top 10 best selling videos for the week ending August 26, the only two on the list from Paramount and Dreamworks were in Blu-ray format!

In fact, Blu-ray videos dominated the best sellers list as reported by Home Media Magazine, with 8 Blu-ray titles of the top 10. In fact, the two HD DVD titles in the top 10 - 300  (Warner) and Planet Earth: The Complete Series (BBC Video) - were both also available in Blu-ray format and outsold the HD DVD version. The top selling video was 300 in Blu-ray, with second place going to 300 in HD DVD.

Interestingly, the normalized figures of both formats aggregated by title on the list show that although the Blu-ray version of 300 clearly outsold the HD DVD version, it wasn't a complete walk-over. 300 in Blu-ray comprised a bit more than 57% of HD sales of the title, while the Hd DVD version accounted for slightly less than 43% of sales.

The perplexing decision of Paramount and Dreamworks to drop Blu-ray seems even more puzzling when studying the figures for the studios'two top selling HD titles Disturbia (Para/Dreamworks) which was number 8 on the best seller list and Shooter (Paramount) which was number 9. Both top sellers for the studios were in Blu-ray format. What's more, aggregate sales of both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs of both titles indicates that Blu-ray discs accounted for more than 58% of sales of Shooter and more than 64% of sales of Disturbia.

Which ever way you slice and dice the figures, Blu-ray discs are clearly outselling the same titles in HD DVD format, sometimes by as much as two to one. No doubt, the move by Paramount and Dreamworks will help the cause of HD DVD but, based on the latest sales figures, it could come at a cost to both studios.

The saving grace for Paramount and Dreamworks is that HD video currently accounts for just 2.5% all video sales so the studios may have figured that passing up a reported US$150 million from the HD DVD camp when DVD still dominates and can be played equally as well on the HD players of both formats would be stupid. The studios can always return to the Blu-ray format if it prevails a couple of years down the track and if HD DVD somehow wins the war, Paramount and Dreamworks will have been vindicated in their decision.

Meanwhile, the bad news for HD DVD supporters last week is that Blu-ray's strongest supporter among the studios, Sony Pictures, dominated the aggregated best seller's list with four titles in the top 10 - Black Hawk Down (4), Perfect Strangers (6), Casino Royale (8), and House of Flying Daggers (10). Blu-ray exclusive studio Disney also figured strongly with second placed Wild Hogs.