Plenty of new releases did fantastic business this week, earning first place and three of the top five spots. That new number one release was The Incredible Hulk, which earned $51.33 million from 2.15 million units sold. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull slipped to second place with 1.11 million units sold for the week and a two-week total of 4.15 million units and $93.21 million in revenue. The Strangers opened in third place with 612,000 units for opening week sales of $12.68 million. Iron Man is still the biggest selling DVD of the year with 7.33 million units and $136.94 million in revenue, including 448,000 units / $7.70 million for this past week. The final release in the top five was not a film but a TV on DVD release. Family Guy - Volume 6 sold 271,000 units during its first week on DVD, which generated $7.04 million in consumer retail spending.

The best of the rest of the new releases was Linewatch in 13th place with 58,000 units sold for $994,000. Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed was right behind with 56,000 units sold, but thanks to a higher price it generated $1.02 million in spending. The final new release to chart was The Lazarus Project which placed 18th with 46,000 units / $789,000 in opening week sales.

Blu-ray sales slipped this week by just over 1% to $17.7 million. However, DVD sales were down even more and this led to an increase in Blu-ray's market share. Blu-ray represented 12.6% of total home market sales and 12% of the Top 20 comparison, and in both metrics it was the second best in Blu-ray's history. (Although it was a tie on the Top 20 comparison.) This was aided by unexpectedly strong Blu-ray sales for The Incredible Hulk, which sold an estimated 400,000 units in High Definition. That represents just a hair under 19% of total unit sales, which is the best ever for a day-and-date release. I'm not sure how to explain this, but one can only look at this as a good sign for Blu-ray going forward. If Tinker Bell does half as well on Blu-ray next week, I will be more than impressed.

- C.S.Strowbridge

Date posted: 2008-11-04