Blu-ray Sales: Games Scores Early
August 29, 2012
The short sales week didn't stop The Hunger Games from earning first place on the Blu-ray Sales Chart. It led all new releases with 1.67 million units / $33.33 million over two days. This is more than I thought it would sell and puts it in the top ten all time openings on Blu-ray. Its opening week Blu-ray share was 43%, which is a little low for a major blockbuster, but it was aimed more at women, who don't buy as many Blu-rays as men do.
Doctor Seuss' The Lorax was in second place with 366,000 units / $8.99 million for the week for a total of 2.03 million units / $42.18 million. It is still relatively rare for a film to sell 2 million Blu-rays, so the studio should be very happy with this result. Dexter: Season Six placed third with 80,000 units / $2.61 million, which is close to 70% more units than the previous season sold. Its opening week Blu-ray share was just 22%, which is weak for the format as a whole, but okay for TV on DVD. The Raid: Redemption opened in fourth place with 78,000 units / $1.62 million. Its opening week Blu-ray share was just shy of 60%, which is a fantastic result. Wrath of the Titans shot into fifth place with 63,000 units / $945,000 over the week for a total of 1.25 million units / $28.15 million after two months of release.
Glee: Season Three opened in ninth place with 27,000 units / $849,000 for an opening week Blu-ray share of 18%. It sold twice as many units as the previous season, which somewhat mitigates its decline on the DVD sales chart, but its combined home market debut was distressing. The Royal Tenenbaums made its Blu-ray debut in tenth place with 25,000 units / $635,000. This is a great start for a catalogue release.
The overall Blu-ray market was relatively flat compared to last week up just 5% in terms of units and 9% in terms of revenue. This makes sense, as the best new release was only out for two days. Compared to last year, Blu-ray sales grew 234% in terms of units and 208% in terms of revenue. Basically, the Christmas shopping season started the minute The Hunger Games was released. DVD saw stronger growth than Blu-ray compared to last week, partially thanks to the TV on DVD releases. Overall DVD sales grew dramatically from last year, but not as strong as the year-over-year growth on Blu-ray. It still saw triple-digit growth up 138% in terms of units and 139% in terms of revenue. The overall Blu-ray share did fall from last week, but it was still excellent at 39% in terms of units and 43% in terms of revenue, but when TV on DVD releases start to dominate the chart, and there were three in the top five on the DVD sales chart, this tends to happen. I suspect we will recover once the summer blockbusters start to come out in force.
Next week's new releases are again led by The Hunger Games, which will likely sell less during its first full week than it did during its first two days. However, it will still sell more than any other new release that week, and likely more than all releases from last year. Speaking of last year, the new releases can be summed up in one word. Ugly. The best new release on DVD was NCIS: Season Eight. The best new Blu-ray was Bambi II. Like this past week, The Hunger Games should earn more than the entire market did last year.
Filed under: Video Sales, The Royal Tenenbaums, Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, Wrath of the Titans, The Hunger Games, Serbuan maut