Blu-ray releases on July 29th, 2008
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted Jul 28th 2008 12:07PM
posted Jul 28th 2008 12:07PM
Here we are just two years after the launch of Blu-ray and for the first time ever there are 24 titles released in one week. We wish this is a glimpse of what it's like to have almost every studio on board (Weinstein's first release is next week), but looking forward, we don't expect to have another week this big again until September. Either way, every studio has something this week, including a few day-and-dates from Sony, Universal, MGM, and Warner. Stargate: Continuum looks like it'll be the biggest Blu title this week, but the ones we're most looking forward to is the Jack Ryan Collection from Paramount. These are just a few of the titles that HD DVD fans had access to for some time, and are finally finding their way to Blu-ray. August looks like it'll breat records in the shear number of titles released, but none that really jump out at us as hot titles, but either way the holiday season can't get here fast enough for ol' Blu.Blu-ray
- The Band's Visit (Sony)
- Beowulf: The Director's Cut (2007) (Paramount)
- The Big White (Echo Bridge)
- Clear and Present Danger (Paramount)
- Dark City (New Line)
- Doomsday (Universal)
- Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay (New Line)
- Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (New Line)
- Human Body: Pushing the Limits (Image)
- The Hunt for Red October (Paramount)
- The Lost Boys (Warner)
- Lost Boys: The Tribe (Warner)
- Mortuary (Echo Bridge)
- Never Back Down (Summit)
- Patriot Games (Paramount)
- Perhaps Love (Tai Seng)
- Robin Hood: Season One (BBC)
- Salvage (Echo Bridge)
- Shine a Light (Paramount)
- Stargate: Continuum (MGM)
- The Sum of All Fears (Paramount)
- The Tiger Blade (BCI)
- Top Gun (Paramount)
- Vengeance (2006) (BCI)
Let me guess which title Ben got already. I'm thinking he's got a man crush on Jack Ryan.
Is anyone selling a Jack Ryan collection, or do I have to buy them all seperate???
Wow, that's a lot of releases in one week.
I've got Stargate and the Jack Ryan movies on my list.
This has gotta be a big week for Blu. Many of these are HD DVD carry-overs that are not coming out for the first time on DVD. Remember, Beowulf was the top-selling HD disc even after Toshiba called it quits.
Yeah, except for the moronic disc sales we get reported to us (by Home Media Magazine) are as a percentage of the Top 20 DVD disc sales. So, since the Beowulf DVD won't be in the top 20, the Beowulf Blu-Ray disc sales won't make any difference in the pie chart that is reported. There should be an actual percentage report -- it is not really in the mid- to high- single digits as reported. Let's see some actual percentages reported (i.e. 1% or 2% or 3%) -- then when it goes up and really become 5, 10, 15, 20% in a year or two (and 30, 45, 60% in 3 to 5 years) you can see that some progress has been made.
There is a Home Media Magazine chart with the top BDs and how they sold as a percentage of the DVD edition. That's how I saw that Batman Begins sold a pretty amazing 68% of all copies on Blu-ray the week it came out on BD. Granted it had already been out on DVD for quite awhile, but still nice to see.
Its the top 20 DVD vs the top 20 Blu-ray so beowulf would count.
We're seeing more and more in our local blockbuster. However, it seems to be more and more old movies and not too many new movies. My girlfriend only wants to rent blu-ray now. Didn't think she would care, but she cares more than I do.
Marry her... you really need to lock that down.
@DiCrapio - What are you talking about? If it's in the Blu top 20, Beowulf will count, right? I might be missing something...
Lots of titles this week but the only 1 that I'd even think about is Top Gun and even that is a pass.
I just can't understand why the big back catalog titles aren't on the forefront of the releases.
Where's Gladiator, Lord Of Thr Rings is next year, no word on Indiana Jones even though people are assuming to get all 4 when part 4 is released, Star Wars, The Matrix is taking long enough, even Batman Begins could have come sooner.
XDragon,
I suspect the reason they want to sell old movies now and newer movies later is that if the new movies are released, they might eat into sales of older movies.
It came to me when I saw how many really crappy movies they're releasing in Blu-ray while all sorts of great stuff languishes on the sidelines.
Exhibit A: They had Star Trek TOS as an HD-DVD package. They promised that they would release a Blu-ray version in the following few months, but then Paramount dumped Blu-ray. So no one can argue they don't have the show ready to burn onto discs. They're even running the shows HD on some CW stations. (Channel 5 in L.A. for one.) So why haven't the even announced a release date?
Because they want to release all sorts of crap at high prices first.
That makes scense except that I personally won't buy the crap movies because I'm waiting for a good one though I could see others doing this to tie them over. I'm not planning on replacing all my DVDs, just my few faves and few new movies I like. Even then, I'm only interested in Harry Potter 6, 7a, 7b, the next Transformers and The Dark Knight. Wow, add, the few back titles I listed in the 1st post and that's about it for me. Its pretty sad that theres so few movies that I want to own.
Wow, the number of releases is REALLY ramping up. I've been looking at the schedule Blu-Ray.com and the pace is pretty insane in September / October. Release announcements for Nov / Dec are a bit sketchy but I can't see it being any less.