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'Pirates' Outsells 'Matrix' in High-Def Showdown
An anonymous reader writes "As Slashdot recently reported, last week saw the latest showdown between HD DVD and Blu-ray, with both formats bringing out the big guns in terms of high profile format-exclusive disc releases. In one corner were the Blu-ray exclusive releases of the first two 'Pirates of the Caribbean' films on Blu-ray — in the other, the HD DVD exclusive releases of 'The Matrix' Trilogy. So who won the sales battle? According to preliminary estimates, this one goes to 'Pirates' in a big way. The two 'Pirates' flicks sold an estimated 47,000 units, while the 'Matrix' sets sold just about 13,900 units. Is this an indication of movie quality, or another notch in the belt for the Blu-ray format?"
Except that the Matrix trilogy wouldn't have won out that way. I loved the first film, but #2 and #3 just didn't live up to the expectations set at the end of the first one. The effects were still mind-blowing, but the story just didn't carry the promise that the first one did.
When at the end of the first film Neo said:
"Now, I'm going to hang up this phone, and I'm going to show these people what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world without you...a world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries. A world...where anything is possible."
That set a pretty high expectation for the second movie. We didn't get to see anything like this, not in the second film, and not in the Animatrix either. The brothers failed to deliver on that promise.
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how about the fact that consumers don't really care about the format war? The war, really, is fought on the front of "who can get the better releases." If blueray is successful in getting better releases, and the reason they have more sales is because their releases are better, then that is still a win for them.
Feature-to-feature, the two formats are so close that 95% of the population won't even know that there is a difference. The other 5% really shouldn't care either, but they've got reputations to maintain, so they have to care about inane things.
That Pirates is also in theatres and in advertisements right now doesn't make this any less of a win for the format...it makes it more of one.
Really, this is not even a competition. Let's put up two sets that cost the same and are exclusive to each format. Still then, Blu-Ray is going to win because it's the more popular format.
Are you sure? Check out the top-sellers on Amazon today: http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/dvd
#1 Planet Earth - DVD ($53.99)
#6 Planet Earth - HD-DVD ($66.95)
#25 Planet Earth - Blu-Ray ($66.95)
I don't own any HD movies or players, and couldn't care less who wins this "war", but what is everyone arguing about? Unless you want to attribute the above data to the demographics of the people that tend to buy movies for each type of player, it appears that HD-DVD is the vastly preferred HD format. Even if you do make the demographic argument, I'm skeptical that is enough to account for such a large difference.
There's always that, but I think the quality issue (only the first Matrix movie is any good) and the wider audience (Pirates clearly has broader appeal) have a lot more to do with it.
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Only 47k units moved? Yikes! ... Might go with a dual mode player when they get to the $250 mark, but forget about it for now.
I think both formats risk failing, or remaining niche products for many years to come, due to their inability to connect the dots. They know that people don't want to buy two players, but they're trying to ensure their own format succeeds by killing the other. Nobody is killing anybody with those kinds of numbers, even if a real comparison showed one selling 5x better than the other. It's like two kids setting up lemonade stands on the other side of the street. If one sells three cups and the other only sells one, does it matter? Neither are going to be buying the toy they wanted.
There's really two things that are dooming both HD formats right now. Uncertainty and cost. Costs should decrease, but slowly unless there is increasing popular uptake for economies of scale. Uncertainty is preventing that, so they're only hitting the real early adopter market, a subset of the already limited number of people who can afford them. A multi-format player is the obvious way to go to at least get people willing to buy into the concept of HD if they can be sure their player won't be obsolete in two years.
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I'll wait until the 6 star wars movies (which lots of people already have on VHS, laser disk *and* DVD) come out in either format to form an opinion.
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