If you have walked down the movie aisle at Best Buy or Wal-Mart recently, you have probably noticed a major physical change taking place. The shelves are being rearranged, and it could mean big things for the Widescreen Advocate community.

Earlier this year, Blu-ray officially won the high-definition format war. As a result, retailers are rapidly clearing out shelf space to make room for a massive influx of Blu-ray discs. Because Blu-ray is a natively high-definition, 16x9 format, the movies are presented exclusively in widescreen.

But retail shelf space is strictly limited. Store managers do not want to carry a Widescreen DVD, a Full Screen DVD, and a Blu-ray for every single new release. It takes up too much room and creates an inventory nightmare. Forced to make a choice, retailers are telling the studios to simplify.

As a result, we are seeing the very first cracks in the "Pan & Scan" wall.

Over the last few months, a handful of new theatrical releases from studios like Fox and Warner Bros. have hit store shelves without a "Full Screen Edition" counterpart. To save money on manufacturing and appease the big-box retailers, the studios are quietly testing the waters of releasing a single, Widescreen-only DVD alongside the Blu-ray.

On top of that, the hardware is finally catching up to us. LCD and Plasma flat-panel televisions are dropping in price, and more Americans than ever are putting 16x9 displays in their living rooms. When someone with a brand-new widescreen TV buys a "Full Screen" DVD, they are suddenly the ones complaining about black bars—this time on the left and right sides of their screen!

We haven't won the war just yet. The studios are still releasing plenty of chopped-up family films and comedies, and our OAR Watchdog list continues to grow. But for the first time since we started this fight in 2002, the economics are finally shifting in our favor.

This is a critical transition period. If a studio drops the dual-format release, we have to make sure they know Widescreen is the only acceptable survivor. Keep voting with your wallets. Keep explaining letterboxing to your friends upgrading to flat screens. The tide is turning, but we have to keep pushing!