The Fox blockbuster X-Men Origins: Wolverine has quietly become the year’s top selling Blu-ray release, surpassing 007: Quantum of Solace in just four weeks.
Fox would not give exact figures but industry sources and analysts have put the movie at about 850,000-900,000 units sold.
“The resounding success of Wolverine on Blu-ray reveals that the consumer still craves their movies the best way possible,” said Fox executive VP of marketing Mary Daily.
The DEG (Digital Entertainment Group) said the Blu-ray sales accounted for about 30 percent of all Wolverine physical media sales, a giant figure.
Fox also notes that Wolverine has been the top cable VOD title for most of October.
Result for: industry sources
According to industry sources, the popular online video sharing site YouTube may begin offering movie rentals by the end of the year, as parent company Google is currently in talks with the major movie studios.
The negotiations have stalled on only two issues, say the sources, which are pricing and “agreed-upon release date.”
The pricing will likely be in line with current rental models, such as those offered by iTunes, VUDU and CinemaNow which each offer the movies for between $1.99 and $3.99 USD, with 24-hour viewing periods once you have started watching the movie.
Studios very close to already signing deals are Lions Gate, Warner Bros., MGM and Sony, likely because they all currently have working revenue-sharing relationships with the streaming site.
Google declined comment on the speculation, as did the studios.
If the sources are accurate, YouTube could begin testing the rental service later this month, as a three-month “beta.” Studios would receive about 60 percent of all revenue from the rentals, but that number could vary from studio to studio, adds the sources.
Result for: industry sources
According to industry sources, the DirecTV Group is currently in talks with both TBS and TNT about offering their TV content online.
If the deal goes through, satellite subscribers would be able to watch the cable content on their PCs or TVs via the Internet, on demand.
The deal has not been made of yet, and is still in negotiations, say the anonymous sources, via Yahoo Tech.
Just recently, Time Warner Cable announced it had deals with 12 cable networks to have their content on the Internet.
The 12 networks are TBS, TNT and HBO; CBS Corp.’s CBS network; Syfy from General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal; BBC America, Cablevision Systems Corp.’s AMC, WE tv, IFC, Sundance, Discovery Communications LLC’s Discovery and the Smithsonian Channel.
