Disney iTunes sales announced

nearly half a million films sold in about 2 months

Walt Disney Co. said on Thursday that it has sold nearly a half million films through Apple Computer's iTunes store since announcing the distribution deal a little less than two months ago.

They started by making 75 movies available on iTunes service in Sept and recently announced plans to add the No. 1 animated film of the year, Cars, and the No. 1 film of the year, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.

Disney said it expects movie downloads to generate $50 million in added revenue during the first year of the program.

With half a million sales in just under eight weeks, customers are purchasing approximately 62,500 movies from Apple's iTunes store each week, or just shy of 9,000 each day.