DVD Sales: Squeakquel Scores a Second Win
April 20, 2010
The week ending April 11 was one of the weakest weeks in a long time for new releases, with not a single one reaching the top five on the DVD sales chart. Only three reached the top 30. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel remained the best selling DVD with 394,000 units sold for the week, pumping its total sales to 2.93 million units after two.
Sherlock Holmes remained in second place with 327,000 units / $5.56 million for the week and 1.45 million units / $24.68 million after two. The Blind Side climbed a spot to third with 315,000 units for the week for totals of 3.81 million units / $62.11 million after three. The Twilight Saga: New Moon also climbed a spot to fourth with 179,000 units / $3.13 million for the week lifting its best-of-the-year sales to 6.23 million units / $142.46 million after just three weeks of release. The re-release of Alice in Wonderland entered the top five with 137,000 units for the week and nearly 500,000 units after two weeks of re-release.
The best new release was Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, which placed seventh with 107,000 units / $1.60 million, while The Collector opened in eighth with 61,000 units / $794,000. Well back in 26th place was The Lord of the Rings (1978 Animated Film) with 25,000 units / $413,000. That's not bad for a catalog release.
As I mentioned at the time, the selection of Blu-rays was particularly weak. It showed in the sales. Overall they were down 45% to $18.6 million, which was down 5.0% from the same week last year. That's right, down. There was a year-to-year decline in overall Blu-ray sales. This is the first time that has happened. Granted, the overall sales strength this week was terrible compared to this time last year and the total box office of all first-run releases were down nearly 95% compared to last year, so a drop of just 5% is amazing. The best-selling new release of the week was the Lord of the Rings trilogy at 165,000 units. Meanwhile, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans sold about 40,000 units and The Lord of the Rings (1978 Animated Film) chimed in with 20,000 units sold.
Filed under: Video Sales, The Collector, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, The Blind Side, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Sherlock Holmes, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel