DVD Sales: Easter Helps Older DVDs Spring Back

May 3, 2011

The combination of factors ranging from the Fanboy Effect to Easter sales were in relative balance, and this helped Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I remain strong. It led all new releases to earn first place on the DVD sales chart this week with sales of 1.99 million units / $27.89 million for the week for totals of 4.43 million units / $62.35 million. Tangled grew more than 100% thanks to Easter sales, selling an additional 1.04 million units for the week to give the film total sales of 5.59 million units / $85.30 million after a month of release. The King's Speech opened in third place with 893,000 units / $13.39 million, which is great for a limited release, but a little soft for the big Oscar winner. Megamind jumped back into the top five with 523,000 units / $3.88 million for the week and 3.37 million units / $42.51 million after two months of release. This means the three best selling DVDs of 2011 are currently in the top five this week. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader landed in fifth place with 317,000 units / $4.95 million for the week and 1.26 million units / $21.46 million in total.

Bambi's most recent DVD release opened in sixth place with 281,000 units / $4.05 million, but this number is low because it was released on Blu-ray just a few weeks ago. Gulliver's Travels was just behind with 265,000 units / $3.82 million. The final new release to chart this week was Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure, which placed ninth with 235,000 units, but fifth in terms of raw dollars at $4.10 million. Not a bad start for this type of release.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I remained in top spot on the Blu-ray chart as well with 850,000 units for the week and 2.3 million units so far. Tangled was well back with 230,000 units, but that's still a great number for a family film that's a month old. The King's Speech was in a virtual tie for second place, also with 230,000 units. Bambi being released on DVD actually boosted its Blu-ray sales to 140,000 units, while The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and Tron: Legacy were in a close battle for fifth place with both films selling between 110,000 units and 120,000 units.

The only other new releases to chart were Gulliver's Travels and Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure, both of which sold roughly 40,000 units. For a direct-to-DVD spin-off of a franchise aimed at kids, 40,000 Blu-rays sold is really good. But for a movie that cost more than $100 million to make, well, there's no positive way to spin that.


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Filed under: Video Sales, Bambi, Gulliver's Travels, Tron: Legacy, Tangled, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The King’s Speech, Megamind, Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure