125,000 movies sold in iTunes Store first week

It looks like a few people, other than me, are buying movies from the iTunes Store. Disney's Bob Iger (which I think is a great last name) says that Disney made $1 million in revenue during the first week that their movies were available in the iTunes Store. This translates to about 125,000 movies being downloaded, and keep in mind that there are no free movies, unlike TV shows. Each of those movies was bought and paid. Iger went on to say that he expects Disney will make $50 million during the first year of availability in the iTunes Store.
I imagine this will get other studios interested in getting their archives up on the iTunes Store sooner rather than later.

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
andy said 3:08PM on 9-19-2006
THAT BLOODY MOSQUITO IS BACK, COME ON TUAW, ARE YOU TRYING TO LOSE YOUR READERS!!!!!!!!!
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Daniel Bahl said 3:19PM on 9-19-2006
Andy>> hu? what do you mean?
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kip said 3:21PM on 9-19-2006
Sure, go ahead and support a corp that put's out a piece of biased propoganda like "Path to 9/11" a few months before the election, with no commercials, calling it the "truth" even though the 9/11 Commission head Mr. Ben-Veniste said it was seriously flawed in its' facts and conclusions.
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Travis Bell said 3:22PM on 9-19-2006
Aside from some weird mosquito reference that is completely lost on me...
Nice work Apple. Hopefully this will entice other movie networks to go ahead with Apple. The more content the better!
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Deerhoof said 3:27PM on 9-19-2006
There's an advert in the top right of this site that sometimes has a mosquito in it that buzzes. It is *very* annoying if you're listening to music and trying to read.
Hopefully the news of the movie downloads will ramp up Apple into making the iTV a bit quicker.
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Bert Goethals said 3:34PM on 9-19-2006
and now to get it in Europe :) ...
TV-shows in Europe would be nice as well....
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tofu713 said 3:38PM on 9-19-2006
Yay, now use that profit to make an awesome iTV and .mac free or worth paying for! :P
(sorry, i just had to.)
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Michael Kanyo said 3:38PM on 9-19-2006
That is a lot of Disney movies sold in a week. Does anyone know what movie had the most purchases for the opening week?
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Scott McNulty said 3:39PM on 9-19-2006
Hey all,
I reported the ad and our ad team will be removing it from circulation. Thanks!
Oh, and I corrected the millions error. :)
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Hammo said 3:40PM on 9-19-2006
Good news, that ought to send a nice STFU to all the doubters.
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Alex said 3:46PM on 9-19-2006
Interested??
They're going to be freaking screaming down the phone at Stevie J
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Farhan said 4:34PM on 9-19-2006
I bought two movies, The Lady Killers and Gun Shy, from iTunes Store. I can't wait for other studios to put up their movies on iTunes Store.
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Jason Liske said 6:10PM on 9-19-2006
the resolution sucks.... waste of money
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Christ said 4:45PM on 9-19-2006
I'm curious... what's the benefit of buying an itunes movie over buying the DVD?
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Dan said 4:55PM on 9-19-2006
Scott, seriously. This is the second time that blasted mosquito ad has been on TUAW. Can you talk to Jason about it? Can't AOL just tell its salespeople, "No sound in ads, unless the user turns it on."
It really destroys trust and makes TUAW seem very, very spammy. Except for MySpace and it's semi-porn ads, I don't block ads because I want to "pay with my eyes." I'm glad to do it. I don't want to block TUAW ads - I just don't want to HEAR them when I'm not expecting it.
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Scott McNulty said 4:59PM on 9-19-2006
Dan, as you might have seen in the comments above I have reported the ad to our ad team and they will remove it from circulation.
TUAW is part of an advertising network, we don't control (directly) what ads get placed there, but we can remove ads we feel are inappropriate (as we are doing in this case).
Thanks!
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topcat said 5:14PM on 9-19-2006
why do people bother with the itunes movies when they have a worse than DVD picture, no 5.1 sound, limited options to watch on big TV, and lock in via DRM. And thats not to mention that the DVD doesnt cost much more, and sometimes less, plus there is only a small selection at the moment.
If I want to watch a movie on a one off, I will walk down the road to Blockbusters, if I want to own the movie, I will buy the DVD. With iTunes I would not own the movie as it is controled by the DRM, so its practically rented, apart from the full price!
Apple need to get the movies and TV at atleast DVD resolution with 5.1 sound or it will not have mass market appeal in the long term.
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leny said 5:29PM on 9-19-2006
Where I can download these films?
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mac-lending said 5:29PM on 9-19-2006
I am very impressed at 125,000 I really didn't think they would sell that well with only Disney and 75 films available. That makes me wonder what kind of number Amazons store churned out...
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Ink Master said 9:40PM on 9-19-2006
@13 & 16 - people buy movies from iTS because its so convinient; you click buy and a minute later you can start watching the movie (just enough time to make some popcorn), now its gonna take you how long atleast half an hour to go to your blockbuster, come back this/that etc etc, and by the time you finish everything you dont even feel like watching the movie. Its just like with music, yes, you can go to your nearest Wal-Mart and buy all the cd's you want; and yes they'll be alot better quality then the ACC's that you're downloading from iTunes, but with iTunes, again, its click, and listen, there you go, you waste time, you purchase the whole album with bunch of songs you may not even want, you can preview the songs, ect etc...
Its all about convenience - and most people are willing to give up some quality and freedom for it.
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