[Pecker]

No, I haven't got a crystal ball.

But I thought you might to know a little early breaking news.

Top of the Blu-ray Disc charts tomorrow will be 300.

Top of the HD DVD charts will be Knocked Up.

This just confirmed by Home Media Magazine - sorry I don't have the link to hand.

This is unusual as comedies do not normally do well on high def. Nonetheless, Knocked Up was a pretty massive blockbuster.

It's also notable that sales of Troy: DC don't appear to have held up on BD, and neither Black Book nor Underworld has managed to overtake 300 on the blu-ray Disc chart, meaning there's a possibility of a larger than expected swing tomorrow.

I'll get the figures to you as usual tomorrow evening.

Cheers.

Steve W

[Adam_uk]

Week not wqeek

[cobbler]

I'm sure by now that this must mean that every single person in the world

with an HD player must own a copy of 300, except me

[andythescientis]

Originally Posted by cobbler

I'm sure by now that this must mean that every single person in the world

with an HD player must own a copy of 300, except me

Well i own a copy and no player so that makes us even

[Noggin1980]

I originally thought I'd been over optimistic with 58/42 but after seeing that Knocked up first and 300 beat underworld I think maybe it could be another % or 2 in HD DVD's favour.

Of course DVD empire has 60/40 so maybe it won't be as much of a swing as I'd hoped.

I think I've got a splinter in my bum with that much fence sitting.

HD DVD's Neilsons are going going to be lower now than they would be though due to packing 300 in with all the 3rd Gen Toshibas. Since most new owners now won't need to buy it.

[geomuss]

Originally Posted by cobbler

I'm sure by now that this must mean that every single person in the world

with an HD player must own a copy of 300, except me

Originally Posted by andythescientis

Well i own a copy and no player so that makes us even

do i detect a wee deal maybe, and when you do get the hd player you can swap/sell back!

[Pecker]

Originally Posted by cobbler

I'm sure by now that this must mean that every single person in the world

with an HD player must own a copy of 300, except me

No. I too am waiting for the price to drop below that of a case of Ch. Petrus 2000.

Steve W

[zz101]

Originally Posted by Pecker

This is unusual as comedies do not normally do well on high def. Nonetheless, Knocked Up was a pretty massive blockbuster.

A pretty massive blockbuster? Come off it.

Surely its selling the most as there isnt anything new out?

I bet the figures are more or less the same as last time.

[Noggin1980]

Originally Posted by zz101

A pretty massive blockbuster? Come off it.

Surely its selling the most as there isnt anything new out?

I bet the figures are more or less the same as last time.

150 million in the US

11th biggest grossing movie of the year

It certainly is a blockbuster.

Very unlikely that the figures will be the same as last week, do you play the prediction game? pointless but fun, if you do what did you go for this week?

[zz101]

Originally Posted by Noggin1980

Very unlikely that the figures will be the same as last week, do you play the prediction game? pointless but fun, if you do what did you go for this week?

No I dont - but I'll go with the usual 60:40 split on average for the rest of the year and maybe 70:30 for the Xmas period.

[Pecker]

Originally Posted by zz101

A pretty massive blockbuster? Come off it.

I suggest you check out:

http://www.variety.com/index.asp?lay...Film&year=2007

It grossed $148,761,765, which is more than Die Hard 4, Fantastic Four 2, Superbad, Blades of Glory, and Hairspray.

Originally Posted by zz101

Surely its selling the most as there isnt anything new out?

The only reason anything ever does well is that it's selling more than the other titles that are out.

Originally Posted by zz101

I bet the figures are more or less the same as last time.

Dunno. Last week was 63:37 to Blu-ray. I think maybe HD DVD will be in the 40s this week.

We'll see later today.

Steve W

[HugoFJH]

Originally Posted by Pecker

I suggest you check out:

http://www.variety.com/index.asp?lay...Film&year=2007

It grossed $148,761,765, which is more than Die Hard 4, Fantastic Four 2, Superbad, Blades of Glory, and Hairspray.

Steve W

Sorry but Hairspray, Superbad and BoG werent anything to write home about to start with (although you certainly have a point with DH4 and FF2)

Saying that I thought Knocked up was pretty attrocious too (I fell asleep during it )

[Pecker]

Originally Posted by HugoFJH

Sorry but Hairspray, Superbad and BoG werent anything to write home about to start with (although you certainly have a point with DH4 and FF2)

Saying that I thought Knocked up was pretty attrocious too (I fell asleep during it )

We watched it last Friday. However, we'd spent the first part of the evening watching the rugby, so we didn't start watching it until late, and only got half way through. We intend to catch up the second half on our bedroom player (ah, the joy of the combo!).

I didn't think it was bad, but neither was it hilarious. I'm quite surprised it did as well as it did, particularly as you get the impression that this sort of film usually does well on word of mouth.

Steve W

[zz101]

None of the films mentioned are "pretty massive blockbusters" - just because they did well in a comparitively poor summer does not a blockbuster make. It was a summer of below average sequels and massively overhyped disappointments - the list in that link above makes for depressing reading IMO.

I dont understand why HD-DVD still sells poorly against Blu-ray despite the Paramount deal, cheaper players and all the other reasons given on here why HD-DVD is the best? Not wanting to start a "war" thread so thats a rhetorical question.

[Pecker]

Originally Posted by zz101

I dont understand why HD-DVD still sells poorly against Blu-ray despite the Paramount deal, cheaper players and all the other reasons given on here why HD-DVD is the best? Not wanting to start a "war" thread so thats a rhetorical question.

Just a quick point - Paramount have only released one title since going HD DVD-only, and it wasn't an action/sfx film. Also, for older stuff, there are still BD copies of Mission: Impossible et al still around (it looks like they'll finally sell out this month). So Paramounts older stuff will still be selling okay on BD, at the moment.

That may have partly answered your question, without entering into format war fanboyism.

Steve W

[andythescientis]

Originally Posted by zz101

I dont understand why HD-DVD still sells poorly against Blu-ray despite the Paramount deal, cheaper players and all the other reasons given on here why HD-DVD is the best? Not wanting to start a "war" thread so thats a rhetorical question.

Because it depends how you define poor. In a growing market, a product which only out sells the other by at most 2:1 despite having 5:1 (May be even higher) player numbers would be the poor seller to some analysts.

Lets imagine for a second and do some fun maths.

Lets for sake of argument say there are 2,500,000 BD players in north america (i'm sure that's the last number i read for PS3s).

Now lets say there are around 500,000 HD-DVD players (probably an over estimation).

Ok so if total sales were 100,000 discs per month, there would be around 60,000 BDs and 40,000 HD-DVD sold at present rates.

So 2500000 produce 60,000, and 500,000 produce 40,000.

Now just for fun lets turn those sales rates on there head and see what happens if there was 500,000 BD players and 2500000 HD-DVD players. If that was the case you'd get 12,000 BDs sold vs 200,000 HD-DVDs at current player/sales ratios.

See how fun maths can be, the aboves all totally made up numbers, although i suspect not a kick in the arse away. So if you compares the 40,000 HD-DVD sells with the 12,000 BD would sell if the player numbers were reversed do HD-DVDs sales still look bad? Or if you compare the 60,000 BD sell to the 200,000 HD-DVD would sell if they had BDs player numbers, do BD sales look so impressive?

Perhaps you'd have a point if BD sales ratios were 94:6 they could be if every BD player sold as many discs as HD-DVD players do. Now who's sales look poor?


Truth is both formats sales are poor, and have only just really started to take off in any real numbers.

Originally Posted by zz101

None of the films mentioned are "pretty massive blockbusters" - just because they did well in a comparitively poor summer does not a blockbuster make. It was a summer of below average sequels and massively overhyped disappointments - the list in that link above makes for depressing reading IMO.

I dont understand why HD-DVD still sells poorly against Blu-ray despite the Paramount deal, cheaper players and all the other reasons given on here why HD-DVD is the best? Not wanting to start a "war" thread so thats a rhetorical question.

Poor summer , who are you kidding ? Yourself maybe.
Spiderman 3
Pirates 3
Fantastic Four 2
Die Hard 4
Simpsons Movie
Shrek 3
Transformers
Bourne Ultimatum
Not all great films but blockbusters they are , and there were others.For Knocked Up to pull $150m is quite impressive against that lot.4 of those movies took over 300m box office so a poor summer it was not.

[zz101]

Originally Posted by CRUEFAN

Poor summer , who are you kidding ? Yourself maybe.
Spiderman 3
Pirates 3
Fantastic Four 2
Die Hard 4
Simpsons Movie
Shrek 3
Transformers
Bourne Ultimatum
Not all great films but blockbusters they are , and there were others.For Knocked Up to pull $150m is quite impressive against that lot.4 of those movies took over 300m box office so a poor summer it was not.

Six sequels and two TV spin offs - blockbusters by default perhaps? A crap summer still.

[Bald Monkey]

Originally Posted by zz101

Six sequels and two TV spin offs - blockbusters by default perhaps? A crap summer still.

Originally Posted by zz101

Even with cheap players its the content that sells the system - HD-DVD just doesnt have the Spidermans, Bond's, POTC etc to sell the format.

That took me 30 Seconds to find I'm sure there's better..

And you talk about moving goal posts...

Even you have to see the funny side now ZZ101. This format war is non-existant between movie fans... we all want the same thing

[Pecker]

Originally Posted by zz101

A crap summer still.

If you go here:

http://www.variety.com/index.asp?lay...Film&year=2007

You'll see the box office for 2007. On the top right you can click on previous years.

Looking at the money made by each of the Top 5 we get (rough figures):

2007 $1,670m
2006 $1,416m
2005 $1,333m

It doesn't look liked a bad year to me.

Steve W

[Pecker]

Combined Top 10 figures since the turn of the century (to the nearest million each film):

2007 - $2,555m
2006 - $2,153m
2005 - $2,303m
2004 - $2,533m
2003 - $2,297m
2002 - $2,422m
2001 - $2,134m
2000 - $1,730m

I bet the studios wish every Summer was this crap!



Steve W

[zz101]

Originally Posted by Bald Monkey

That took me 30 Seconds to find I'm sure there's better..

And you talk about moving goal posts...

Even you have to see the funny side now ZZ101. This format war is non-existant between movie fans... we all want the same thing

Spiderman 1 and 2, POTC1 and Casino Royale werent released this year so I dont get your point?

This was a crap summer for films. Unfortunately just because a film makes a lot of money doesnt make it good - I know this is an AV forum and not a film fan forum but even so its quite depressing that people are quoting box office figures to defend Spiderman 3 or Transformers as top notch filmic treats.

Is Spiderman 3 really the best film of the summer?

[andythescientis]

Originally Posted by zz101

Spiderman 1 and 2, POTC1 and Casino Royale werent released this year so I dont get your point?

This was a crap summer for films. Unfortunately just because a film makes a lot of money doesnt make it good - I know this is an AV forum and not a film fan forum but even so its quite depressing that people are quoting box office figures to defend Spiderman 3 or Transformers as top notch filmic treats.

Is Spiderman 3 really the best film of the summer?

For the first time ever i agree with you!

Well actually no i don't entirely, i do agree hollywood has lost it's way slightly. I agree there are far too many sequels. Sequels themselves are not a bad thing, but alot of the recent ones have been sequels for the sake of nothing better.

What is interesting is that as 2006 was undoubtably BDs year for top 10 movies, this years been much more even, 2006 - 7 of top 10 were BD exclusive, with no HD-DVD exclusives. This year it's 4 BD, 3 HD-DVD and 3 dual formats. Shows you how much the top 10 changes from year to year with different studios dominating.

[Pecker]

Originally Posted by zz101

Spiderman 1 and 2, POTC1 and Casino Royale werent released this year so I dont get your point?

This was a crap summer for films. Unfortunately just because a film makes a lot of money doesnt make it good - I know this is an AV forum and not a film fan forum but even so its quite depressing that people are quoting box office figures to defend Spiderman 3 or Transformers as top notch filmic treats.

Is Spiderman 3 really the best film of the summer?

Sorry mate, but there's no way you can be allowed to try to get away with that.

I agree that big box office doesn'y indicate a good film. But you didn't say the films were artistically poor, you implied they'd not done well.

To quote directly:

None of the films mentioned are "pretty massive blockbusters" - just because they did well in a comparitively poor summer does not a blockbuster make.

You were clearly saying that Knocked Up (and others) only appeared to do well on the box office charts because everything else did so badly.

Steve W

[Spidey987]

block·bust·er (blŏk'bŭs'tər) pronunciation
n.

1. Something, such as a film or book, that sustains widespread popularity and achieves enormous sales.

Note the term has nothing to do with artistic merit.

Knocked Up and all the other Summer movies that either achieved similar or higher box office sales should all be considered blockbusters. Whether you enjoyed the movies or not is really quite irrelevant.

[zz101]

Originally Posted by Spidey987

Note the term has nothing to do with artistic merit.

Knocked Up and all the other Summer movies that either achieved similar or higher box office sales should all be considered blockbusters. Whether you enjoyed the movies or not is really quite irrelevant.

None of them did amazingly well though - Spiderman 3 is probably the only one that could be called a blockbuster. A blockbuster should do head and shoulders more business than anything else not just happen to be the next on the list.

Certainly not Knocked Up.

[Pecker]

Originally Posted by zz101

A blockbuster should do head and shoulders more business than anything else not just happen to be the next on the list...Spiderman 3 is probably the only one that could be called a blockbuster.

Eh? Spiderman 3 fails by your own criteria (that to be a blockbuster you need to "do head and shoulders more business than anything else").

Spiderman 3 took $336m, whilst Shrek the Third took $321m.

How on earth did Spiderman 3 "do head and shoulders more" than Shrek the Third?

Traditionally, if any parameters were set at all for what defines a blockbuster in the states, it's taking over $100m.

Knocked Up did $148m.

Whichever way you look at it, it did massively good buisness.

Whichever way you look at it, there were lots of films this Summer which did massively good buisness.

Steve W

Originally Posted by zz101

None of them did amazingly well though - Spiderman 3 is probably the only one that could be called a blockbuster. A blockbuster should do head and shoulders more business than anything else not just happen to be the next on the list.

Certainly not Knocked Up.

zz101 just accept you got this one wrong mate , Spiderman 3 is the biggest blockbuster of the year $336m is great but with a budget of $258m not so great compared to Knocked Up with a gross of $148m and a budget of $30m.
Both blockbusters im sure you will now agree.

[zz101]

You can endlessly quibble over pointless figures all you like but nothing will change the fact that all of those moves are average at best.

[Pecker]

54:46 to BD.

Details to follow.

Steve W