Home Media Research is reporting Blu-ray Disc software sales were down 3.39% from the previous week. DVD sales, however, were up 0.02% from the previous week.
What does this mean? Is Blu-ray and its catalyst Playstation 3 dieing a slow and painful death?
Not likely. First of all, a small shift in sales tracked between two successive weeks means little in the big picture, especially if one week had more marketable releases than the other. Lets compare some of the bigger titles for each week.
September 16 releases: 1408, 88 Minutes, Another Cinderella Story, Dragon Ball Z: Tree Of Might / Lord Of Slug, The Hulk, The Love Guru, Made of Honor, The Mist, Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy, Pushing Daisies: Season One, Risky Business, Speed Racer and Torchwood: Season One.
September 23 releases: Animalia, Blow, Cirque du Soleil: Corteo, Deception, The Godfather Collection, LA Confidential, Leatherheads, Madagascar, Run Fatboy Run, Sex and the City, and Shrek the Third.
It can be argued September 23 has The Godfather Collection and therefore should have been the higher week. But the previous week is loaded with more variety that combined could easily account for the small 3% difference in sales.
This will all be a distant memory next week when Iron Man on Blu-ray takes flight. The summer hit should not only boost Blu-ray sales numbers for the week, but push huge sales numbers enjoyed previously by the likes of Transformers and Casino Royale.
