The ads are everywhere: “‘Casino Royale’—Now available on DVD and Blu-ray.”
Notice what’s missing: “HD DVD.”
With Toshiba lacking control of the popular James Bond film’s distribution rights for its HD DVD format, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has been hammering the “Casino” release as a title exclusively found in high-def via its parent company’s Blu-ray format.
The promotion has some analysts speculating that “Royale” could be a tipping point in the high-def format war that has waged for the past two years.
As previously reported, Blu-ray has opened up a lead on HD DVD in terms of home video release sales since the release of Sony’s Playstation3, which is bundled with a Blu-ray player. For the months of January and February, Blu-ray titles outsold HD DVD by a 2-to-1 margin. Toshiba defenders note that Blu-ray also had about twice as many new titles available during that period than HD DVD. Either way, the result is that more Blu-ray titles sold. Toshiba has still sold more stand-alone players, which are less expensive than the Blu-ray devices.
With the release of “Royale,” Sony’s home-video marketing campaign is driving home the message that the title is only found in high-def on Blu-ray.
In some ways, the title makes an ideal wedge issue. The movie scored with critics and audiences. It features exotic locales and action that is exciting in the HD format. And “Royale” hits the demographic bulls-eye for early HD adopters, who tend to skew older and male.
Sony is heralding the movie as the most popular high-def release yet. The company announced this week that “Royale” has become the first high-def title to ship 100,000 copies and the first to make the Amazon top 10 in DVD sales.
“As a point of comparison, the first DVD title to ship 100,000 units took approximately 11 months,” said David Bishop, president of worldwide entertainment for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. “‘Casino Royale’ on Blu-ray has done it in far less time and is clearly demonstrating the format’s robust growth in the marketplace.”
The popularity caused TVPredictions.com to wonder if “Royale” is “the HD DVD killer.” This Week in Consumer Electronics reported that Paramount Home Entertainment consultant Vito Mandato announced to a conference in early March that the format war could be determined in the next few months because studios in the Blu-ray camp control the release of several top home video titles—”Royale” being the first.
In the coming months, the Blu-ray editions of “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” “Cars” and “The Da Vinci Code” are expected.
Previously, Toshiba was able to put the squeeze on Blu-ray by having “Batman Begins” as an exclusive offering. In the coming months, Toshiba will also have first HD dibs on the release of “The Matrix” trilogy.