Blu-ray Sales: Muppets Find it Easy to be Blu
April 4, 2012
New releases really dominated the Blu-ray sales chart taking the top four spots and five of the top six. Leading the way was The Muppets with 967,000 units / $24.16 million. Its opening week Blu-ray ray share was 52%, which is stunning for a live action family film. In fact, it's would good for a visually impressive action film.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo opened in second place with 773,000 units / $15.45 million for an opening week Blu-ray share of 55%. This is also unexpectedly strong for the genre. Granted, David Fincher film's tend to be visually stunning, but it is still a drama, so I wasn't expecting a 50% Blu-ray share. Hop was further back in third place with 400,000 units / $7.20 million. Its opening week Blu-ray share was 36%, which is more inline with expectations. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy debuted in fourth place with 145,000 units / $2.91 million. An opening week Blu-ray share of just over 50% is impressive for a drama. The only holdover in the top five was The Adventures of Tintin with 141,000 units / $3.24 million over the week for totals of 562,000 units / $12.49 million after two.
The only new release to chart was The Sitter, which earned sixth place with 119,000 units / $2.73 million. The film managed an opening week Blu-ray share of 36%, which is good for a comedy.
Overall the Blu-ray market was strong compared to last week, last year, and when compared to DVD sales. Compared to last week, Blu-ray sales were up 67% in terms of units and 46% in terms of dollars. Impressive as that was, they were up 196% in terms of units and 193% in terms of dollars when compared to last year. DVD sales also grew in comparison to last week and last year, but by a smaller margin and the overall Blu-ray share still rose to 42% in terms of units and 49% in terms of dollars.
Looking towards next week, we have some bad news and some bad news. The slate of new releases for next week is pathetic. The biggest release is Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chip-Wrecked and I don't expect it be a major seller on high definition. Worse still, last year's new releases were led by Tangled, which sold 1.6 million Blu-rays during its first week of release. There's nothing this year that's going to come close to that. In fact, we won't have a release that potent till Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol comes out in a couple weeks.
Filed under: Video Sales, The Adventures of Tintin, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Sitter, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Muppets, Hop