DVD Sales: Winning the Game

February 18, 2010

Half a dozen new releases reached the top 30 on this week's sales chart and one of them reached number one. Even so, it was a really weak list. Gamer opened in first place, but it only sold 346,000 units and generated $5.78 million in consumer spending at retail. That's mediocre, no matter what its ranking. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs remained in second place with 246,000 units over the week for a total of 1.67 million units sold after three. So far it has earned $29.91 million from DVD sales. The Hangover climbed to third place with 220,000 units / $4.17 million for the week for 7.43 million units / $140.75 million in total. Weeds: Season Five opened in fourth place with 189,000 units / $4.07 million. I Can Do Bad All By Myself fell from first to fifth with 169,000 units for the week and a total of 750,000 units after two, giving it a running tally of $14.24 million.

A quartet of new releases rounded out the top ten led by Pandorum in seventh place with 146,000 units / $1.60 million. The Invention of Lying opened eighth with 134,000 units / $2.24 million, which is not strong even compared to its poor theatrical run. Smokin' Aces 2: Assassins' Ball made its debut on the home market in ninth place with 120,000 units / $2.16 million during its opening week. For a Direct-to-DVD release, this isn't a bad start. The final new release to chart was Whiteout, which debuted in tenth place with 117,000 units / $1.88 million.

Blu-ray sales grew by 2.7% to $19.5 million, according to estimates by Home Media Magazine, which was 24% higher than the same weekend last year. Blu-ray releases were weak, as they usually are this time of year. The best Blu-ray release was Gamer, which sold about 160,000 units in High Definition, which was more than 30% of its total sales.

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Filed under: Video Sales, The Hangover, I Can Do Bad All By Myself, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Gamer, Whiteout, The Invention of Lying, Pandorum, Smokin Aces 2: Assassins Ball