James Camerons sci-fi blockbuster Avatar, which became the highest-grossing movie of all-time earlier in the year, has set new records for a North American home entertainment release after its launch on Blu-ray and DVD over the weekend. According to Deadline, Avatar(which hits UK stores today May 26th) had sold 2.7 million copies on Blu-ray alone by Sunday afternoon, easily outperforming the previous champion of the Blu-ray format, Christopher Nolans Batman sequel The Dark Knight, which took 1 ½ years to sell 600, 000 units. In fact The Dark Knight has so far only sold 2.1 million copies on DVD, so this Avatarlaunch is clearly a big deal for the Blu-ray format. Furthermore, there has apparently been a spike in the sales of Blu-ray players in the US, as people flock into stores desperate for the full HD Avatar experience. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment has said that Avatar is on track to do for Blu-ray what it did for 3D in theatres. But even if this film doesnt herald a mass-conversion to the Blu-ray format, it is looking likely that this home entertainment release will at least mimic the theatrical one in terms of the profit it generates. But the really exciting thing for 20th Century Fox, for James Cameron and for retailers, is that this release is only the 2D version of the film. Lets face it: most people went to see Avatar because of the hype surrounding the films use of pioneering 3D technology. So we can expect to see Avatarre-released on Blu-ray to similar (maybe greater?) sales when 3D televisions become standard over the next couple of years. All this talk about Blu-ray has overshadowed the fact that Avatar didnt do too badly on the old DVD format either, selling around 5 million units so far. This, again, shows that Camerons epic has outsold the total home entertainment gross of previous money-spinning movies like The Dark Knight after just a few days in one territory. Yikes! Is this release a triumphant rallying point for fans of physical media in the face of downloading and piracy? Or is it simply the last hurrah for a dying way of life?