The Dark Knight saved 2008 for packaged media
Even the most optimistic analysts didn't predict that The Dark Knight would be able to single-handedly save packaged media sales in 2008. But thanks to the 13.5 million units sold, packaged media income was only down 3% to $22.9 billion in revenues -- that's with a B. This is hardly the doomsday loses predicted and down right impressive when compared to the US economy as a whole and many in the industry are thanking Blu-ray for this. While some predicted that digital downloads would be the next saving grace, it is actually Blu-ray that is showing promise. Now to be fair it should be noted that The Dark Knight won't be available in HD on digital download services until tomorrow, but then again that is part of the problem. And while we know that the Blu-ray version of The Dark Knight brought in about $50 million in one week, we'd be very surprised if any of the download services anounced even a fifth of that next week.
