Iron Man blasts out on Blu-ray

UPDATE: Paramount says title is best-selling DVD, Blu-ray of the year

By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 10/7/2008

OCT. 7 | Iron Man is enjoying superhero Blu-ray Disc strength, tracking as the top format debut to date at Best Buy and other retailers.

An average of about 20% of Iron Man’s total unit sales are on Blu-ray, according to retail sources, though in some instances, its share goes as high as 50%. By comparison, the Blu-ray portion for many recent popular titles, including I Am Legend, logged about 9% of sales in the format, according to Adams Media Research.

One industry source said Iron Man Blu-ray sales range from 10% to 30% of the title’s total sales, varying by retailer. In some isolated cases, including at retailers Amazon.com and DeepDiscount.com, Iron Man’s Blu-ray version is selling more briskly than one or more of the film’s standard DVD SKUs.

Paramount Home Entertainment reports that Iron Man, which bowed Sept. 30, is the best-selling DVD and Blu-ray title for the year. In week one, Iron Man sold 7.2 million units on both formats, when combining sales into the rental channel and at sell-through retailers. 

The studio also touts that Iron Man sold 500,000 Blu-ray copies in its first seven days on shelves, and 260,000 on street date. 

According to retailers, one key reason behind the movie’s success on Blu-ray is its appeal to comic book, special effects and videogame fans—the crowd most likely to be early adopters and own PlayStation 3 consoles, which playback Blu-ray discs.

The title also is attractively priced at $39.99, the same price as the standard two-disc special edition. And with Blu-ray offering extensive format-exclusive Web interactivity, consumers seem happy to upgrade to the more advanced version, retailers said.

“In week-one sales, this is our biggest Blu-ray title ever,” said Best Buy spokesman Brian Lucas. “This was a tentpole title for the format. If you have a Blu-ray player, this is the title that you want to get.”

Lucas is confident that Iron Man’s Blu-ray power bodes well for the entire format going forward.

“I think it’s a sign that Blu-ray adoption is reaching a point where there is excitement around certain titles that fit well in the format,” he said. “This is now becoming an expected format, where on new release Tuesday, people are now coming and looking for the movie on Blu-ray.”

Iron Man also is the best first-week Blu-ray performer for airport retailer InMotion Entertainment, regional chain Newbury Comics and online seller DeepDiscount.com.

In its first week on sale at In Motion, Iron Man sold through 75% of its Blu-ray copies and 50% of its total copies. Typically, InMotion sells 35% of a title’s copies during that frame.

“This is the first Blu-ray title to crack our Top 10 DVD sellers for the week,” said Steve Torr, InMotion director of software purchasing and rental services. “I hope it’s a sign of the future for Blu-ray.”

Iron Man’s Blu-ray sales represented 20% of the total 1,800 copies sold across Newbury’s 28-store chain. That is double the usual Blu-ray portion for titles sold at the retailer. Iron Man’s Blu-ray sales just about equaled Newbury’s first-week sales of the two-disc standard DVD version of Sex and the City: The Movie.

DeepDiscount.com consumers purchased twice as many copies of Iron Man on Blu-ray than the two-disc standard version, and Blu-ray accounted for 50% of the title’s total sales.

“The two-disc [standard for Iron Man] is just $1 dollar less than its Blu-ray,” said David Barker, VP of e-commerce marketing at DeepDiscount.com owner Infinity Resources, referring to the site’s retail pricing. “I think the two-disc [fan-oriented] buyer is trading up—this is the first person who is converting to Blu-ray anyway.”

At Amazon.com, the Blu-ray Iron Man SKU wound up topping its two-disc and single-disc standard versions in its overall top DVD sellers chart. After its first week, Iron Man is the top-selling Blu-ray title of 2008 at the retailer.

“Amazon.com has had other Blu-ray movies highly ranked, but we have never before seen a Blu-ray title dominate the top seller rankings for an extended period like Iron Man,” said Amazon.com spokeswoman Tammy Hovey. “A handful of other Blu-ray titles have outsold the standard-def version, but Iron Man is by far the most significant. Iron Man Blu-ray has been in the Top 10 of Amazon’s DVD bestseller list since early September and has been ranked No. 1 or No. 2 most of the last two weeks.”