Universal Releases Blu-ray Plans (finally)

[NaitoSan]

Universal Studios Home Entertainment has released their plans for shifting their high definition focus from the defunct HD DVD format to Blu-ray. Beginning in July, Universal plans to release all new home video releases on Blu-ray day-and-date with their DVD releases. The first title receiving such treatment will be the Neil Marshall film 'Doomsday'.

That title will be followed by a slew of upcoming films, including 'The Incredible Hulk', 'Wanted', 'Hellboy II: The Golden Army', 'Mamma Mia!', and 'The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor'. You will notice that these films have not yet been released theatrically, meaning dates for their home video release are still a ways off.

On the catalog front, the first three Universal titles will be 'The Mummy', 'The Mummy Returns', and 'The Scorpion King', all which have been given a release date of July 22nd. No specs have been announced for these titles, nor any indication if they would be direct ports from the HD DVD or receive new transfers.

Also on slate for 2008 will be 'American Gangster', 'Knocked Up', 'The 40 Year Old Virgin', 'Miami Vice', 'End of Days', 'U-571', and 'Land of the Dead'. More catalog releases are planned, but were not announced at this time.

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=1219

Also they announced that Heroes Season One and Two are heading to Blu-ray this August.

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=1220

About time. Now, Paramount is next.

No news on Serenity?

[NaitoSan]

"More catalog releases are planned, but were not announced at this time." Maybe it's one of those?

[Lyme]

Blu-Ray is expensive to produce disc's for (compared to dvd), and the market share really isn't there yet (compared to dvd). I can completely understand how companies may decide to move slowly into the market (given the proliferation of online content).

[NaitoSan]

Maybe but then, maybe not. I'm not sure if Blu-ray Discs' expensive to produce now since we're seeing a lot of announcements from different studios almost everyday. Beside it has been a year or two since Blu-ray debuted.

Last week, there's an article saying that Blu-ray sales has gone up 351% while DVD sales is dropping by few percents. Also keep it in mind that Universal and Paramount used to be HD-DVD exclusive so they took their time to plan for Blu-ray releases after demise of HD-DVD.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/...4080ce44d7b5c4