• by Wayne Friedman , November 1, 2011

Is there a silver lining in home entertainment revenue -- after a nearly four-year decline?

Third-quarter home entertainment spending grew 5% -- and that's the first increase since the first quarter of 2008 -- now amounting to $3.9 billion, per home entertainment association Digital Entertainment Group.

The reason is blockbuster movie titles. This list includes “X-Men: First Class,” “Star Wars: The Complete Saga,” “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” and “Thor.”

High-quality Blu-ray sales continue to be a bright spot -- but still a small share of the overall business at just over 10% of consumer spending. During the third quarter of this year,  Blu-ray disc sales are up 58%, expected to top $423 million for the third quarter.

This is a bit higher than the total revenue from kiosk rentals, at about $414 million. A year ago, that situation was reversed, with kiosks hauling in substantially more than Blu-ray. The group says those homes with Blu-ray technology grew 52% from a year earlier to 33.5 million. It notes that electronic sell through business is up 13% versus the third quarter of 2010.

The third-quarter survey also notes that 5.5 million HDTVs were sold to U.S. consumers in the third quarter of 2011, with HDTV U.S. homes now totaling 69.5 million.

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