'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?"

Comments

uggghhh

[Anonymous Coward]

Please raise your hand if you give a shit about this.

Re:uggghhh

[Anonymous Coward]

_o/
shit! it's not http://www.piratesxxx.com/ ... never mind.

Re:uggghhh

[DAtkins]

How is this really an indicator? A new movie sells more copies than an old movie that people probably already have a copy of. I don't see how this really means anything?

Wow....

[JargonScott]

In this hand, I hold an apple. In the other, an orange.

Re:Wow....

[Anonymous Coward]

No... in your right hand you hold an apple picked last year, and in your left hand you hold a fresh one. Most people seem to prefer the fresh apple.

So does this reflect poorly on your right hand? Submitter must be on drugs to even suggest such a point.

Re:Wow....

[Cerberus7]

No kidding. The Matrix set costs around $60-$70, while each Pirates movie is $20-$25. NO SHIT Pirates sold more units. Somebody needs to go back to economics class. The price difference alone, regardless of any other factor, is enough to make the Pirates releases more successful in terms of units sold.

Re:Wow....

[eln]

Ideally, you would have the same movie at the same price on both formats if you wanted to do a direct compare. Hell, if you wanted demographic data you could do that with several movies that each appeal to a different demographic. But, since exclusivity is the name of the game these days, that's not likely to happen for a while.

Re:Wow....

[Ngarrang]

No kidding. The Matrix set costs around $60-$70, while each Pirates movie is $20-$25. NO SHIT Pirates sold more units. Somebody needs to go back to economics class. The price difference alone, regardless of any other factor, is enough to make the Pirates releases more successful in terms of units sold. With those estimated prices (going with the low estimate), Pirates made about to $958,000, the Matrix 834,000. Going with the high estimate, Pirates made $1,175,000 to the Matrix making $973,000. That isn't much of a difference. The Matrix probably made a higher margin, as well. As a disc seller, I think I would prefer a higher margin.

Re:Wow....

[jimstapleton]

And you are charging $4 for the old apple, $2 for the new.

Re:Wow....

[Forge]

That's it exactly. People tend to buy the movies they love in the best available format (Available means it fits within the budget and the player they own).

They generally do not buy movies they already own in another format. I.e. While DVD was the "hot thing" very few people bought DVD movies they already owned in VHS.

With that in mind. How many Pirates fans haven't gotten around to buying Dead Man's Chest on DVD? Compare with Matrix fans. Hell, I could compile a Star Trek Univers (tm) boxed set in ANY format containing all the series, Movies and documentaries. I could then toss in a player and sell the whole package for $2000. Dosn't matter weather I pick Blue Ray or HD-DVD. It would outsell any other $2000 TV bundle.

Darn. I should go back to school and study marketing, so I can know why this won't work.

Or... neither

[mikej]

Perhaps it's because there's an episode of the Pirates franchise in theaters now and we're being bombarded with its associated marketing campaigns, while nobody's thought much about The Matrix in the past few years.

time is the decider

[SethJohnson]

It's been many years since Matrix was released. Hype has long since died over that franchise. Especially with the help of its weak sequels. Pirates has all kinds of current advertising and marketing hype surrounding it. No surprise people bought more of that hi-def title.

Seth

Please...this is silly

[JohnnyComeLately]

A Disney release with broad appeal, versus a niche movie that sucked almost since it started....and you're surprised? My 4 year old wants to watch Pirates, but has 0 interest in Matrix. Does that mean my 4 yr old snubs my HD DVD XBox and wants a PlayStation3? LOL....please

Or not.

[thesolo]

Is this an indication of movie quality, or another notch in the belt for the Blu-ray format

How about neither? If anything, it's an issue of price. Just look at the prices at Best Buy:
Matrix Trilogy HD-DVD: $79.99
Pirates of the Caribbean: $29.99

At those prices, even though Pirates of the Caribbean sold many more units, it only brought in a roughly $200K more than the Matrix Trilogy.
This is ridiculous comparison, the movies appeal to different fan bases, and are in completely different formats (trilogy box set versus individual movies sold separately). If this was a comparison of, say, the Matrix Trilogy released on both formats at the same price point, it would far more realistic.

Price?

[Spudtrooper]

Pirates movie on Blu-Ray = $24
Matrix set on HD-DVD = $75
Declaring victory based on fuzzy math = Priceless

Price Comparison

[nevek]

Well Both Pirates Movies are priced around 27.99CDN
The Matrix Set is priced at 89.99CDN

I could see myself buying The First Matrix in HD for 27.99, but i'm not up for spending 90$ on 3 movies.

Also if you check the numbers again - they are comparing the sale of 2 movies to 3? - Huh?

The Age Old Battle

[Applekid]

So does this mean that Pirates > Ninjas after all?

Re:The Age Old Battle

[Chris Burke]

The battle rages on. This only shows that Eyeliner Pirates > Trenchcoat Ninjas, which I think we already knew.

So nothing 1080p is really selling...

[(H)elix1]

Only 47k units moved? Yikes! From those numbers, neither player appears to be really selling at this point - even combined, the sales are not even close to 'old and busted' DVD media. I've got a 1080p monitor, but went with an upscaling DVD player (Oppo dv-981hd) until the format wars sort themselves out. From my 'customer' perspective, both formats are way over priced at this point and quite a risk. Might go with a dual mode player when they get to the $250 mark, but forget about it for now.

Don't Know About You...

[Nom du Keyboard]

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?"

Don't know about you, but I don't see either of those sales figures setting the world on fire. Not with 1.2 Billion DVD's being sold in 2004, and Finding Nemo selling 28 million DVDs alone in 2003.

A better comparison

[figleaf]

Planet Earth is available on HDDVD & Blu-ray. The HDDVD version outsold the Blu-ray version.
Today the HDDVD version is ranked #6 while the Blu-ray version is ranked #20 on Amazon for Disk sales.

Also

[Dancindan84]

Pirates pirate 'Pirates' more than pirates pirate 'Matrix'... discuss.