DVD sales nosedive as downloads begin to lift

It was only a few short years ago that the DVD was seen as the saviour of the movie industry. A brief visit to your local home entertainment store (if you still have such a thing) will demonstrate that that era has long passed.

Stacks of disks, most at discount prices, tilt poignantly towards uninterested passers-by. Confirmation of the decline comes with the news that, in the first quarter of 2011, US sales of DVDs declined by a whopping 20 per cent in comparison with the same period last year.

The studios have pointed out that, in the first few months of 2010, a raft of blockbusters such as Avatar and Alice in Wonderland arrived in shops.

Nonetheless, this remains a shocking plunge. The good news is that consumer spending on subscription services and (legal) downloading rose – admittedly from a small base – by 33 per cent. However, not everyone in the business is happy with how the drift to video downloading is being handled. More than 20 distinguished directors – among them Kathryn Bigelow, Peter Jackson and James Cameron – have written a letter to Hollywood studios objecting to the decision to allow downloads while films are still in cinemas.

Cameron said: “The cinema experience is the wellspring. Why on Earth would you give audiences an incentive to skip the highest and best form of your film?”

This is truly an industry in transition.