Casino Royale Helps Blu-ray Disc Sales

Battle of next generation disc formats, buoyed by strong sales of the latest James Bond title, continues to shake out in Blu-ray Disc's favor.

Data recently compiled by Nielsen VideoScan and distributed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment suggests the mid-March release of Casino Royale on Blu-ray Disc marked the best single format opening thus far on any next generation disc title to date. This includes releases on HD-DVD.

The latest James Bond film, released March 13 on to Blu-ray Disc, sold over 28,000 units, which was enough to have it debut in fifth places amongst total sales of next generation disc titles. For the week it released, it easily trumped the number two title, Departed, which sold just over 3,000 units.

With the nudge from Casino Royale, total Blu-ray Disc sales for the week of March 18 climbed nearly 75% from the previous week of reported data. Sales of HD-DVD discs, meanwhile, fell nearly 15%. The total in year to date sales for Blu-ray Disc vs. HD-DVD is 549,730 versus 249,451 units, representing a 7:3 ratio.