will avatar be the engine that drives blu-ray to the next level?

There has been plenty of talk of all the money Avatar has made, both in theaters and in home-viewing formats. Yet, while Avatar is the ‘highest grossing film of all time’, that is only due to the fact that those figures never adjust for inflation. Were actual attendance the only criteria, leveling the playing field regardless of the value of the dollar, then the highest grossing film of all time is and always will be Gone with the Wind, which by today’s standards would have made over $1.5 Billion (numbers courtesy of Box Office Mojo).

No, the place where Avatar is truly making history is in Blu-ray sales. So far, James Cameron’s little movie has sold, oh, only twice as many copies as any other Blu-ray.

This has had me thinking lately about whether or not Avatar and all its visual treats might be enough to power Blu-ray into everyone’s living rooms, ending forever the days when Blockbuster employees need to check to be sure you know what a Blu-ray player is before you leave the store with a Blu-ray disc.

The reason I am wondering this is because back when we were all making the switch to DVD, it was The Matrix that finally got everyone to cough up the money for a DVD player. It was a perfect storm of DVD players finally lowering in price to the point of affordability, and a movie that was visually thrilling enough that people wanted to be sure to see it in the best possible format. The result was that for some time, based on sales figures, more than half of the people who owned DVD players also owned a copy of The Matrix.

Could Avatar be the straw that finally breaks the proverbial back of the camel that is America’s apathetic attitude toward Blu-ray? Will the idea of watching all that high-tech sexiness on anything less than High-Def, combined with lowering costs for Blu-ray players finally get people excited about the wonderful world of 1080?

I sure hope so. The difference between Blu-ray and DVD is considerable… considerably awesome. It is high time we finally fully enter the era of Blu-ray. DVD is sooooo 1998. C’mon! Get with the times, Grandma.