May 15th, 2015
It was another bad week on the home market with almost no first-run releases on the Blu-ray sales chart. The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death was the closest we had to a first-run release, while both Batman vs. Robin and The Babadook outsold it. This wasn't enough to keep pace with last week and the Blu-ray sales fell 19% in terms of units and 10% in terms of revenue. This week last year was Easter, so it should come as no surprise that the home market was much stronger last year. Blu-ray sales fell 76% in terms of units and 71% in terms of revenue. That's painful, but not unexpected. DVDs sales were down by roughly the same amount, so the overall Blu-ray share remained at 34%.
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May 15th, 2015
None of the new releases were able to top the DVD sales chart leaving The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies in first place with 73,000 units / $1.10 million over the week for a total of 1.13 million units / $16.92 million.
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May 15th, 2015
It was a bad week on the home market and none of the new releases sold more than 100,000 units on the Blu-ray sales chart. This includes the new number one release, Batman vs. Robin, which only sold 80,000 units / $1.34 million. This is much better than it performed on DVD and its opening week Blu-ray share was 65%.
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April 27th, 2015
Last week, the home market was boosted by Easter, but this week, the home market returned to Earth. It returned to Earth and crashed through the crust and halfway to the mantle. With no new releases in the top ten on the Blu-ray chart, while Interstellar had no legs on top. Overall, the Blu-ray market was down 66% in terms of units and 60% in terms of revenue when compared to last week. When compared to last year it was even worse down 66% in terms of both units and revenue. DVDs also fell, but were a lot stronger than Blu-ray were this week and the overall Blu-ray share slipped to 34%. That's really bad.
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April 14th, 2015
It is a slow week on the home market. It is a really slow week on the home market. This should have helped me get caught up on all of the late screeners that arrived, but on Saturday I had a coughing fit and heard a loud crack in my ribs. It hurt so much that I couldn't even type. I'm feeling much better now. As for this week's releases, there are none that will likely be huge sellers, but The Babadook on DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack is the best and the best-selling, at least according to Amazon.com. It is also the Pick of the Week.
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January 13th, 2015
Taken 3 earned first place at the box office, as expected, but it did so earning close to $40 million, which is much more than expected. Unfortunately, the rest of the box office wasn't nearly as strong as the overall number fell 19% from last week to $126 million. Compared to last year, the box office this year was 10% lower than the same weekend last year. Year-to-date, 2015 is behind 2014's pace by 1.8%. However, while 2014 was the worst year at the box office in nearly two decades, last January was the second-best January ever, so it is still way too early to panic.
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January 5th, 2015
2015 box office started off on a strong note with The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies leading the way with $21.73 million. More impressive, The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death earned fourth place with $15.03 million, which is significantly more than what most people were predicting. The overall box office was $155 million, which is 2% lower than last weekend. More importantly, it is 10% higher than the same weekend last year. Obviously it is far, far too early to judge 2015, but after what happened last year, I'll take any win and I'll be happy about it.
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January 2nd, 2015
The new year starts with just one new release, The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death. It's a horror film, which is a genre that is becoming common for early year releases. This is probably because these films are relatively cheap to produce, so they don't need a strong box office to break even. For example, this weekend last year, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, a horror film that cost $5 million to make, was the only wide release. I don't think Angel of Death will top The Marked Ones, but last weekend was strong in the year-over-year comparison, so perhaps the holdovers can help 2015 start on a winning note.
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