Avatar sets first-day Blu-ray sales record

Posted 2 hours 16 minutes ago

DVDs and Blu-ray discs of James Cameron's Avatar have flown off the shelves on the movie's first day in US stores, despite being available in just the 2D format.

An early industry estimate set overall disc sales comfortably north of 4 million units, putting it well on track to become the year's top-selling release to date.

Blu-ray sales - at 1.5 million copies - well outpaced first-day sales of previous high-definition top dog The Dark Knight.

US retailers sold out 60 per cent of their Blu-ray inventory on average, said a spokesman for distributor 20th Century Fox. He declined to specify unit shipments.

Mass merchants moved out roughly 50 per cent of their Avatar DVDs, the spokesman added.

Due to the epic's ecological theme, Fox broke with the industry's Tuesday release date norm and scheduled the release to coincide with Earth Day.

Cameron and others connected to the film have been participating in a host of green-themed events as part of the movie's home-entertainment campaign.

A 3D version of the picture is expected to hit Blu-ray Disc early next year. Fox and the filmmakers wanted to wait until a greater number of homes were equipped with 3D Blu-ray players.

Though 3D-enabled players only recently became available, virtually all new Blu-ray players will boast that capability by year's end.

The first DVDs lack even special features of the sort typically included on disc releases. A special edition release is expected to hit stores in November and will include extensive bonus features.

Despite the lean-and-mean nature of the release, Fox figures "Avatar" eventually will surpass The Twilight Saga: New Moon as the year's best-selling disc.

New Moon moved 4 million units in its first two days - after launching on a Friday, at midnight - and has sold 6.5 million copies on DVD and Blu-ray to date.

Many Best Buy locations and other retailers stayed open until midnight Wednesday to allow witching-hour early birds to flock to stores and snatch the first Avatar discs.

- Reuters

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source - http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/04/23/2881652.htm?section=entertainment

Very impressive BR number and the DVD numbers is decent aswell. Especially considering its first day sales, in Americas region only (as far as I know). Over 4 million in a day when the home cinema market is in the transition between two formats is very impressive. Its not the fastest selling home release ever (I believe that was Finding Nemo) but its above the Dark Knight in regards to first days sales I believe. Its even more impressive considering the barebones release with no special features and the fact its only in 2d (I'm sure some people didn't buy it and are waiting for the later versions). With the more content filled release later this year and the 3d version sometime after that, Avatar should see several sizable boosts in sales in the long run.

Of further note is that Fox is most likely going to re-release the film in the cinemas this year. I think its a good idea considering some of Avatars gross was cut short because it lost its 3d screens to Alice in Wonderland. I think they're probably aiming for 3 billion, but I doubt the re-release will get it there.

Need to pick up a Blue Ray copy, I want to wait for the 3D version but I doubt I'd actually have a 3D TV by the time it releases.

I'll be picking up the DVD when its released in Australia on the 29th. Can't wait! I don't care about the lack of features because I genreally don't watch them.

I loled at that.

You mean it still did well without the extra .05% it would have sold if released in 3D? Wow. Amazing :)

Not me, just the person that wrote the article. A 3d release now would have been insignificant.

Sales make sense. I bought it and it's my first Bluray movie...

~70% of all ticket sales were for the 3D version. Although I don't know how well it'd sell with the 3D features (given the penetration of 3D TV's), most of the reason it did so well was due to 3D.

The same can be said for Alice in Wonderland too.

Actually, thats pretty bad sales for Avatar at 4m copies, unless it has Twilight-like legs. The movie beat Titanic by a huge margin...You'd think it'd beat Transformers by a wide margin, too.

Shame, really... Dark Knight was a much better movie, imo.

Yea, but almost no one has 3D TV's.

Well the sources I've read do say it sold significantly more then 4 million on the first day and remember these are extremely early figures so we have no real idea what its actually sold yet. Significanly more could mean 4.3 million or 4.9 million. We really have no idea yet. But these are the fastest so far this year so whilst they are a bit dissapointing I think its more indicative of the change in the home video markets (eg more digital sales, lots of rentals, transition from DVD to BR) then the movie lacking any demand and some users waiting for the more feature rich and 3d version being released this year and the next (they don't want to buy the movie twice or three times etc).

Just as a note its also number one on itunes, so its doing well in the digital distribution realm aswell. But its certainly nowhere near Finding Nemo which I've read sold 8 million DVDs first day. Atleast Avatar beat the BR first day record.