The first Blu-ray movies will be released on May 23rd. Two leading distributors, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and Lionsgate, have announced the release of 13 titles to coincide with the launch of the first commercially available BD player by Samsung.

Sony will release 50 First Dates, The Fifth Element, Hitch, House of Flying Daggers, A Knight's Tale, The Last Waltz, Resident Evil Apocalypse and XXX; at the same time Lionsgate will ship Crash, Lord of War, The Punisher, Saw and Terminator 2.

Further titles will be released in June and July as Pioneer introduces its first BD player and Sony's computer division begins selling its first BD-equipped Vaio laptop.

"We are primed to ensure that a variety of Blu-ray Disc content is available at retail to support the introduction of the first BD players from Samsung Electronics and Pioneer, as well as the first BD player and compatible VAIO computer from Sony," said Benjamin S Feingold, president, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. "Sony Pictures further intends to provide additional titles to coincide with the launch of BD products from other manufacturers. We're thrilled that the Blu-ray Disc era is about to begin."

Lionsgate President Steve Beeks said that there has never been a home entertainment experience to match Blu-ray.

"Watching a film in your living room is about to radically change forever and we can't wait to maximize Blu-ray's technological capabilities and see for ourselves how far we can take the home movie-watching experience," he said.