Spider-Man 3 is the top selling Blu-ray title to date
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted Nov 5th 2007 3:37PM
posted Nov 5th 2007 3:37PM
Sony says that Spider-Man 3 is their fastest selling Blu-ray to date, but has yet to release actual numbers. We're pretty sure this is bad news for the Blu-ray camp, as we don't think they'd hold back good news. The other reason to believe that the HD DVD camp has reason to gloat, is because on the first day, the Transformers DVD outsold the Spider-Man 3 DVD, by almost three-to-one. So we figure the sales for the first week are somewhere between Casino Royal (100k shipped) and Transformers (190k). But we guess we'll have to wait until Friday's Nielsen numbers to get a better picture of how things shaped up.
meh... spiderman 3 wasnt even that great... it was okay... But i guess u gotta buy it and finish the collection... :-/ (guilty)
I'm confused on the 3 to 1? Can someone clear that comment up? If it comes in between 100K and 190K, and Tranformers is the 190K, how is that 3 to 1? Or was it saying that standard DVD Transformers in it's 3rd week outsold standard DVD Spiderman 3 in it's first week of release?
3:1 is just for DVD, not HD DVD or Blu-ray. And it's only the first day.
Thanks for the reply Ben!
spiderman 3 was terrible.. the real goods on blu-ray is ratatouille. can't wait to get mine tomorrow!
My 4 year old can watch cartoons upconverted...so those types of titles are no big deal.
I would find it so funny if Transformers beat SM3 in sales. That would just make my week as pathetic as that is.
I agree that this is not good new for Blu-ray, but Sony set themselves up for this by releasing Spider-man 3 and The Spider-man High Definition Trilogy at the same time.
Also, what is the final verdict on the first week sales of Transformers on HD DVD? Paramount claimed 190K, but Nielsen showed around 115K. Are we just taking Paramount's word? It seems Sony should just make up a higher number than Paramount for as much as any studio is to be believed where these numbers are concerned.
Remember, Casino Royale didn't sell 100K in its first week, Sony SHIPPED 100K and made a big deal about it (even though Blu-ray is selling slower than UMD at the same point in its history). Notice they also said, THEIR top-selling disc meaning that it didn't surpass Warner's 300 first week Blu-ray sales.
Sony could boost the numbers by including The Spiderman Trilogy as Spiderman 3 sales as well.
This is exactly what we did. Instead of spending $24 at Walmart for just Spiderman 3 we bought the trilogy for $60. So in effect we bought 3 movies because we initially were just going to buy Spiderman 3. So in reality we went to go buy Spiderman 3 but but it plus the other two....not sure how they could break that down but the reality is I bet a lot of people did just that. So even if pure Spiderman 3 sales are lower it is not a true picture unless you include the trilogy sales....
I should clarify that I mean they could if they wanted to.. Not saying they are, but they could.
I wouldn't be surprised DeadPlasmaCell, they have more to lose than paramount by what they claim one of their biggest titles this year.
it wasn't that great of a movie. Cars, Rato, or even the upcoming DieHard Trilogy is a better seller for me.
...it wasn't $30 good. Besides, who wants to see SnaggleTooth in HD?!
Spidey 3 was no where near as good as Transformers so this wouldn't be a shocker by any means..
Same here, just bought the trilogy. At $30-$35 a pop for a BD movie, I'd rather just buy all three for $60. I didn't even know Ratatouille or Cars were coming out this week, that's another $70 for those two movies.... sheesh, I hope these prices go down sometime soon.
They are $30 each at Best Buy this week but if you buy both of them you get $10 off. $25 for each movie isn't bad, plus you don't have to wait if you bought it online.
Spider-man 3 blu-ray sales are probably counted in the standalone title, the trilogy, and the copy found in the 40GB PS3. (Wii Sports gets counted when a Wii is sold). No doubt it sold fast since you could get it 3 ways. Kudos to them though, I bought a copy of Spidey 3 and Transformers. I'm not gonna let this war stop me from buying movies I like.
There's a typo in "Casino Royall".
But anyway, I bought the trilogy though I only really needed the first one in the short term. There wasn't any bonus material with 1 & 2, which is disappointing, but the movie sure looked and sounded nice.
All these comments just show how patheticall stupid this format war is. Every studio needs to release all movies in all formats. They will end up killing HD DVD's for us and then we'll all have nothing. Maybe we should get together a class action law suit and nail them both for allienation of affection.
I probably will eventually get this in the trilogy set for bluray as well, even though the first movie is far away the best of the three.
BD or not(read: not HD-DVD), SPIDERMAN 3 SUCKED!!!
Funny, I thought the same of Transformers :-) which is why I'm not too broke up about it being HD-DVD only. I do think Spiderman 3 was not the best of the 3 but it was still better than Transformers IMO but then again my opinion is more affected by the skewed rating. How can Pirates of the Caribbean have the same rating as Transformers? Transformers should have had an R rating. These days PG-13 has such a wide interpretation that it is a joke.
Sony will fudge the figures as they always do, and claim S3 outsold Transformers on HD DVD, propaganda is so important to the BDA.
Then they will claim victory in the format war, yet again.........just before phase 2 of the Walmart Toshiba offensive delivers another body blow.
I don't think it's fair to compare Spiderman3 to Transformers. Many comments seem to mirror, it just wasn't that good. The studio is trying to hype it. If you were comparing a Transformers 3 vs Spiderman 3 than that might work. That being said, I bought Transformers on HD-DVD. I bought Casino Royale on DVD. Spiderman 3 isn't even a thought. Ratatouille is a must by too, though on DVD since it won't be on HD-DVD.
@ JimC
Transformers was done in by what always ruins a Michael Bay film: dialogue. Lots of T&A, but even that was missing variety. I won't touch the film ratings comment because it would just lead to a very frustrating conversation.
Such a horrible horrible movie.
I do have to wonder if the trilogy will count as 3 movies sold.
Nope, one SKU, one scan at point of sale, equals one title sold. The same is true for the Heroes box set, and Planet Earth.
Now, Sony might count it differently, but Nielson will only count it as one.
I cannot believe engadget is spreading the 190k first week sales FUD for Transformers. It didn't even come close to selling that number. Add the same "shipped" tag you did to casino royale.
Really? I'd like to know your source for that. The T4MRS 190k figure doesn't seem that far off. Videoscan found something like 120k sold, and they don't count online or Walmart sales.
So you counted? Or you have a source that counted? Please provide (remembering that Nielson and Videoscan miss Wal-mart numbers and many online retailers)
One would think they would come out right away and say S3 beat Transformers and is the best selling HD movie on either format, Instead of just saying it's the best selling Blu-Ray movie to date.
You answered your own question. Videoscan et al.
That's hardly an explanation. Videoscan counts point of sale. I really don't think that Amazon and Walmart can't make up almost all the difference.
let's not forget that the same day Spidey came out, a big anticipated game, Guitar Pro, came out and sold alot, and they are both after the same demo age group, so I think Spidey will show its true numbers in a few weeks. Besides that, I think Ratatouille will easily beat Transformers, and Cars will do very well tomorrow. Then we have movies like Die Hard and the Pirates movie, Independence Day, Close Encounters, Simpsons Movie, and with the $399 playstation on sale now and sold out at many locations, waiting for a 2nd shipment, and the Sony stand-alone dropping another $100, blu ray just might end up with a 4 or 5 to 1 sales lead before New Years Day:-)
"blu ray just might end up with a 4 or 5 to 1 sales lead before New Years Day:-)"
Keep dreaming...
mntwister...that is the reason Warner doesn't want to rely on the gamers and puts more stock in standalones sold. Blue ray is going to have trouble holding on to 50-60%.
LOL...Spiderman 3 is award winning material compared to the horrible crap factory that is the extended cut of a crapfest Chevrolet commercial aka Transformers. Ya, you know that scene at the parents house was the best part of the movie... Really, WTF? The whole movie was a mess. Surprised they didn't use LADA as the foundation for the glorified advertisement with some bolted on guns. AWESOME!!!
mntwister, I completely agree with you - BD is seriously blowing HD-DVD out of the water. No comparison in title releases. All HD-DUD has coming out for the next 1/2 year is Shrek and Bourne, and some old Star Trek tv episodes. Garbage.
@HellsGate
Yeah, i agree.
Toshiba joining forces with Walmart to launch a well planned major offensive on the entire market, combined with prime time TV ads, and selling tens of thousands of players @ $98 is lame compared too Spiderman 3 and a couple of kiddies movies.
Betta ray's hot with $500 standalone non specified players, BR has all the momentum so far in Q4, GO BETTA RAY.
You're so right Gorilla! Go HD-DVD! Toshiba and Walmart are a team made in heaven! Walmart sell for cheap and Toshiba make cheap. Why buy an expensive BluRay machine!! Those Blu manufacturers don't know what they're doing! Who cares if they've consistantly made better quality technology for years compared to Toshiba! It's less than $100 for cripes sakes! I've bought 3 for when they break down! They're going to sell in the Brazillion's!
Heck, before the format war happened I thought Toshiba only made washing machines! Doh! How wrong I was!
Don't believe in the fud that the betta ray camp spreads! It all smells like a load of old Smee!
This is rediculous, can we get some quality control in these comment sections?
Ryan,
What exactly do you mean?
Usually we only delete comments if someone uses inappropriate language or attacks another commenter.
I do read all the posts and it is easy for me to see a reported post.
Wow, I didn't expect a response, thanks Ben!
I don't see any vulgar language, just the trolling and childish antics back and forth. It's tiring. I guess I could just ignore them but I feel like I am driving by a car wreck and can't stop looking. I'd rather the accident never happen. :)
Ben, your an idiot. Just because Sony didn't jump the gun and release false numbers like Paramount did doesn't mean they've sold less. While Transformers was a good movie I'm sure Spideman will beat it out. It's a high power franchise that has a more established fan-base. in addition to that, it's on a superior format. It sucks that WalMart has chosen to sell crappy 1080i players with no features to the yokels that shop there and don't know any better - and I'm sure that'll give HD-DVD a small boost around the holiday season. But I'm confident that the people that know the difference, understand the formats, and can afford to spend money on the movies will continue to support BluRay. Even if the players have lackluster sales right now you have to remember that there are a couple million PS3s out there right now too - as long as PS3 owners buy a movie here and there BluRay will continue to beat out HD DVD in terms of sales. And on top of that, Acer, Apple, HP and Dell are behind Bluray, so you'll soon be buying BR drives with new PCs. Hopefully this is all over soon and we can wave goodbye to Microsoft and Toshiba and live happily ever after with BluRay.
Just because you don't know enough to buy a TV which does proper 1080i deinterlacing doesn't mean all the people who bought the A2 are yokels. If you weren't clouded by the specs, you'd know that a 1080i signal with 3:2 pulldown (for 24 fps material) attached sends information to the TV in a way where the TV can fully reconstruct the 1080p image. Thus, as long as you have a TV which can do adequate 1080i deinterlacing and properly dectects 3:2 pulldown, the A2 is all you need.
Then only thing more pathetic than the format war to date is the fanboy wars where people pull all sorts of numbers, claims and future predictions out of their nether regions to wave in each others' faces – with no connection to reality.
Mrfreeze_2000:
Do you not find it beyond comical that you're trying to paint a picture that technologically inclined people that actually do their research prefer Blu-ray while Joe Schmoe who doesn't know any better grabs HD DVD because it's more readily available when in reality the HD DVD sections of tech forums (like AVS) and comment sections of tech blogs like here (basically making up the "technologically informed" and "educating purchasing decision" categories) are more highly populated than the Blu-ray sections while at the same time a huge portion of Blu-ray owners are PS3 owners who may or may not have even known about hi-def media prior to picking up the console?
(how's that for a run-on sentence by the way?)
I mean, you couldn't possibly have it more backwards. The only reason blu-ray is even still alive is because of the gobs of people that happened to get a player for free along with their game console, while the "technologically inclined" crowd seems to distinctly favor HD DVD.