Paramount in hot water over Transformers record-breaking HD DVD claims
It seems that last week's claim from Paramount that Transformers sold 190,000 copies in its first week may be a bit of a porkie-pie.
Or, as Hollywood reporter Nikki Finke put it, a "big ass, fat, stupid lie".
Two unnamed Blu-ray studios (obviously) have claimed that Paramount boosted the numbers in order to make sales look good — something they needed to do after they were paid so much to go HD DVD exclusive.
The anonymous Blu-ray executive said:
"In an overreaching effort to make a press claim - the number one high def title position for any format - for Transformers, they've gone beyond exaggeration. Here's the dumb lie: they've claimed to sell 100K in one day and 190K in one week."
"Exact point of sale data from three retailers that make up 62% of the high-def market show sales of 73K units for the week. Being very generous, they could possibly reach 125K-130K, which would barely set a record for HD DVD. And they couldn't have flooded rental stores since Blockbuster doesn't stock HD DVD. It’s an outrage. They think they can say whatever they want and that no one will call them on it. They need to be called on it."
Paramount say that their figures include online retailers such as Amazon, Netflix, and Blockbuster Online, though the Blu-ray executive counters that, claiming that Paramount already knew that Nielsen's reporting included Amazon and BO.
The wrangling continues.
(Via Pocket-Lint)
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