Blu-ray leads the way as Hurt Locker sales surge

Sales of the Hurt Locker, the dramatic story of a U.S. bomb disposal team in Iraq, have surged following the film's success in eclipsing Avatar to pick up 6 Oscars at last Sunday's Academy Awards, including in the prestigious Best Picture and Director categories.

hmv - the UK & Ireland's leading DVD and Blu-ray retailer, reports that sales of the film on DVD across its 280-strong chain and online at hmv.com have more than trebled since Monday compared to the same period a week ago, when the film was first released and entered the Official UK charts at no.4.

The Hurt Locker is now hmv's best seller by far this week - well ahead of such new releases as Saw 6, Julie and Julia and An Education, and looks set to leap up to the no.1 spot in the Official Video Charts, when these are announced at the weekend.

However, perhaps the bigger story lies in the fact that 40% - or four out of every ten - purchases are being made on Blu-ray, the new high-definition format. This is one of the highest proportions for any film release since Blu-ray was launched, and demonstrates that increasing numbers of movie fans are now switching to the format as hardware penetration of Blu-ray players in people's homes grows and consumer awareness of the format's enhanced picture and sound capabilities continues to increase accordingly.

Rudy Osorio, Head of DVD at hmv comments: "The Hurt Locker barely took a million at the box office when it first came out over a year ago - in fact it's one of the lowest-grossing best picture winners of all time, so there's clearly a huge amount of people that haven't seen this fantastic film yet. DVD sales were therefore always going to surge following its Oscar success as people rush to see it - but it's great to see that so many of them are doing so on Blu-ray, so that they can enjoy its amazing visual and sound effects in the spectacular high definition quality that it deserves."