Blu-ray Sales Up 351%

One of the reasons movie studios are hoping consumers adopt Blu-ray is in order to offset continually declining DVD sales. Since they plateaued three years ago, DVD sales have slowly decreased. The first quarter of this year was no different, showing an overall drop in DVD sales of 1.2% from Q1 2007. However, Blu-ray sales saved the day - just as studios have hoped they would - and when combined with DVD sales resulted in an overall increase in sales of 1% over last year.

Steve Beeks, president and co-COO of Lionsgate commented, "Blu-ray had its second-best week ever in the seven days ending March 23, and we anticipate Blu-ray sales of $800 million to $1billion-plus for all of 2008, up dramatically from approximately $300 million last year."

With the format war now over, studios are looking forward to the rest of the year as more and more consumers adopt the high definition format. [Source from Hollywood Reporter]