The world’s highest grossing movie of all-time, the blockbuster Avatar has now also become the fastest-selling Blu-ray disc of all-time, selling 2.7 million units in just four days.
The previous record holder was the blockbuster The Dark Knight, which has sold 2.5 million discs in 18 months.
Avatar, on DVD and Blu-ray has already sold upwards of 7 million units, putting it on pace to become the best-selling title of the decade.
20th Century Fox, the distributor behind the film says cumulative first day sales were 3.2 million, with 2 million coming from DVD sales and the rest from Blu-ray. In recent memory, the Dark Knight launched with 2.7 million units (2.1 million on DVD) and Twilight: New Moon saw 4 million units sold in its first two days. Avatar’s two-day number was around 5.5 million.
Says James Finn of Fox, via Deadline: “Grocery and drug stores sold more Avatar [2D] in one day than they sold of The Dark Knight during its entire life on shelves. This shows that the audience for the home entertainment release far out weighs the fan boy base. It’s a cultural phenomenon…again. Employees and customers alike are dressing up as Na’vis in stores around the country, and this is a home entertainment release like no other.”
“My sources are telling me that Best Buy has sold twice as many Blu-ray players as they normally do since the biggest movie of all time landed in stores. Mass merchants are estimating that Avatar Blu-ray sales are north of 50%, a remarkable percentage for the format and for the home entertainment category. I’ll have more of a read tomorrow morning, but Avatar [2D] is on track to do for Blu-ray what it did for 3D in theaters.”
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Wal-Mart has unveiled that it will sell a $78 Magnavox Blu-ray player on Black Friday, the cheapest retail price for a BD player this year, undercutting Meijer’s $89 Sylvania Black Friday promotion.
Notably however, neither the Magnavox or the Sylvania models are BD-Live compliant, and will lack Web features such as Netflix-streaming, which is available via Best Buy’s $99 Insignia model, which should be the best deal available if the $20 higher price tag is not a deal breaker.
Wal-Mart will also have $9.99 Blu-ray titles such as The Dark Knight, Wanted, Fast and Furious and all the Harry Potter films. For those who have not moved to HD, standard DVDs will be on sale for $1.99 including movies such as Casino Royale, Hellboy II, I Am Legend, Blood Diamond, Underworld and Spaceballs.
For new releases, Star Trek and G.I. Joe will sell for $8.99, extremely cheap for movies that were released in the last month.
On the gaming front, the company is offering a $299 PS3 bundle that also includes the new games Batman Arkham Asylum and Infamous, as well as Dark Knight on Blu-ray.
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A newly leaked Black Friday ad is showing that giant retailer Best Buy will be slashing Blu-ray prices to their lowest ever, even undercutting Target’s recent promotional initiative.
Catalog titles such as The Departed will sell for $7.99 in the high-definition format. New releases, such as Wolverine and Monsters vs Aliens are selling for $9.99. A few more expensive titles, such as the new Gladiator BD, are selling for $12.99, all lower price points than have ever been previously available.
Many DVDs will go on sale for $3.99, such as last year’s blockbuster The Dark Knight.
Additionally, Best Buy will be offering Sony and Samsung BD-Live Blu-ray players for $149, matching Amazon and Wal-Mart. Its own Insignia brand players will retail for $99.
