Avatar DVD and Blu-ray smash sales records

First, James Cameron conquered theaters. Now the Avatar DVD and Blu-ray have become the fastest selling in history.

James Cameron can boast about a few more superlatives today. His sci-fi epic "Avatar" is already the biggest box-office hit ever – supplanting his previous opus, "Titanic."

Now we learn that the "Avatar" DVD and Blu-ray have also topped the charts. In its first four days in the US, "Avatar" sold 4 million DVDs and 2.7 million Blu-ray discs. That makes it the fastest-selling home video release in history, with sales totaling $130 million.

Good thing, too. One of the movie's other superlatives is most-expensive film ever made. The budget likely surpassed $300 million.

For the sake of comparison: The BBC reports that the "previous record holder in the US and Canada was The Dark Knight in 2008." It doesn't list a money figure. The video game "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" sold 4.7 million copies in its first 24 hours, earning $310 million. This sales figure isn't an apples-to-apples comparison because it counts both North America and the UK over a shorter period of time.

The "Avatar" DVD and Blu-ray have one curious omission: There's no 3D option. Even as 3-D TVs go on sale, Cameron isn't convinced that there are enough sets to make adding the extra dimension worthwhile.

In fact, he said last month that he foresees a problem for 3D TV sales. The technology is ready now. The content is still a ways off. As fellow Horizons blogger Matthew Shaer wrote, Cameron "argued that the gap wouldn't be filled by movies, because films take too long to produce in 3D. Instead, Cameron said, viewers should expect to see a range of live 3D television – baseball games, for instance, are a natural fit. And live 3D TV isn't expensive to make."