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Visions of sugar plums? Or too much sun?
June 1, 2007
I'm picking up a bit of the fourth quarter frenzy in the industry of late. Not the real fourth quarter, mind you, but sort of a premature "Christmas in May" (now June) sort of spin brought on by the combination of some big titles coming to high def, and early expectations for both standard DVD and the high-def formats in the real fourth quarter, when many of the summer's blockbusters will come to market.
However early, the second part of the frenzy, is somewhat justified. I am confident that the combination of
Spider-Man 3,
Shrek the Third,
Pirates: At World's End;
Fantastic Four: Silver Surfer and the like will make for possibly the biggest Q4 yet for standard DVD. (If the scheduling is right.).
What effect those titles will have on high-def formats, however, is another matter. Just consider this holiday scenario: Consumers snap up many, many HD DVD players because of their low prices, but then find they can't watch many of the biggest movies in high-def because the films are only available on Blu-ray (Pirates, Silver Surfer, Spidey 3). ???
As for high-def titles in the market now, both the two
Pirates titles on Blu-ray and
The Matrix on DVD have been solid successes, from what we're hearing at retail. Retailers are quick to put any hype in perspective, noting that both are doing well for
catalog titles. No
Casino Royale or
The Departed here--yet--folks.
Any attempt to position one as kicking the other in the britches is simply, to quote the woman who sits in the office next to me, "much of a muchness." In other words, a big deal over nothing. The
Pirates titles have sold more units. Because of its high price,
The Matrix has arguably made more money. All are selling in the tens of thousands of units, not the hundreds of thousands. All are catalog titles.
So much for the frenzy...
Posted by Marcy Magiera on June 1, 2007 | Comments (1)
