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Disney sells 125,000 films via iTunes in a week

Gary Gentile of the AP reports that The Walt Disney Studio has sold 125,000 films via iTunes in one week:

The Walt Disney Co. has sold 125,000 digital copies of films through Apple Computer Inc.’s iTunes store in less than a week, generating $1 million, Disney chief executive Robert Iger said Tuesday.

Disney expects revenue of $50 million in the first year from its iTunes partnership, Iger said at an investment conference in New York sponsored by Goldman Sachs.

“Clearly customers are saying to us they want content in multiple ways,” Iger said.

So far, Disney is the only studio selling films on iTunes. Disney was also the first studio to agree last year to sell television shows on iTunes. Other studios quickly followed suit.

The pressing question here is whether or not the big studios are ready to join the iTunes party. Christopher Campbell over at Cinematical thinks that they will as long as this isn’t just a blip:

I doubt that any more studios will announce a jump-on as soon as this week, but if the movies sell another million by this time next Tuesday, the rest of Hollywood should be quick to get in on the profits.

Clearly paid downloads via an established platform is the way forward but it will be interesting to see how it grows from this point, especially if rival studios sign up with different services.

> The AP story on iTunes & Disney
> Mike Snider of USA Today compares iTunes with rival Amazon Unbox
> Apple Insider with more on Apple’s multimedia plans