And in the UK the British Video Association says disc sales fell 5.6 per cent during 2009, with analysts predicting a further fall of two per cent in 2010.
Now that an increasing number of TV, set-top box and games console manufacturers offer some form of access to web-based on-demand content, buying the latest box set is no longer quite such a pull. The recession has driven consumers towards cheaper rentals, depriving the Hollywood studios of their traditional profits from discs and lucrative box sets.
Viacom, the owner of Paramount Pictures, has reported a 43 per cent drop in home entertainment revenue this year, Time Warner (owner of Warner Bros) faced an 8 per cent decline and Lionsgate reported a 22 per cent drop, according to MediaGuardian.
It's all a far cry from the days when DVD, launched in 1998 and then the fastest-adopted consumer electronics product, became the film studios' biggest cash generator. The industry generated $14bn (£9bn) in sales by 2004, with more than 250 million discs sold each year in the UK alone.
However, there have been some bright spots: Avatar sold six million copies on Blu-ray in three weeks, prompting an 86 per cent surge in Blu-ray sales at the time.
The Top 10 selling Blu-ray discs to date are:
1 Avatar (20th Century Fox)
2 The Dark Knight (Warner Bros)
3 Star Trek 11 (Paramount)
4 Transformers 2 (Paramount)
5 Quantum of Solace (20th Century Fox)
6 2012 (Sony Pictures)
7 The Hurt Locker (Lionsgate)
8 Casino Royale (Sony Pictures)
9 Iron Man (Paramount)
10 Terminator: Salvation (Sony Pictures)
