It Was a Dark and Stormy Knight

Holy Hollywood Hype! Claims that Avatar notched up record-breaking Blu-ray sales in its first four days of release in North America have been KAPOWED! by a rival studio.

Warner Bros has disputed 20^th Century Fox’s assertion that its Batman hit, The Dark Knight, sold only 2.5 million copies on Blu-ray, compared to Avatar’s 2.7 million.

WB says The Dark Knight sold 2.9 million copies (over 16 months), which makes it still the top-selling Blu-ray release — albeit probably not for much longer.

Expect the Sky People to be the limit for Avatar sales here, with one retailer, JB Hi-Fi, offering a free Blu-ray of the movie to whoever buys the three Lord of the Rings movies on Blu-ray.

Meanwhile, The Digital Bits has posted a fascinating interview with DVD producer Michael Pellerin on the Blu-ray release of the Rings trilogy.

He reveals how new HD masters had to be approved, the audio of The Fellowship of the Ring was fixed, and prospects for an “ultimate box set” of the Extended Editions that could include a movie-length documentary about the trilogy directed by Peter Jackson as well as about 20 hours of new extras.

The catch? “There has been a lot of interest in the release of the Extended Editions on BD [Blu-ray disc], but right now, there honestly isn’t anything to discuss.”