Blu-ray Sales: Expendables Bravely Challenge Holdovers
January 17, 2013
Men in Black 3 led all new releases earning first place on the Blu-ray sales chart with 241,000 units / $6.75 million during its opening week of release. Its Blu-ray share was just under 40%, which is low for this type of release.
Brave slipped to second place with 195,000 units / $5.47 million for the week for totals of just under 2.00 million units / $42.79 million after three weeks of release. This is an excellent figure for a kids movie. ParaNorman opened in third place with 125,000 units / $2.88 million for the week. It only managed an opening week Blu-ray share of 29%, which is on the low end of expectations. The Expendables 2 fell to fourth place with 94,000 units / $1.89 million for the week giving it totals of just 585,000 units / $10.71 million after two weeks of release. Lawless opened in fifth place with 83,000 units / $1.95 million for an opening week Blu-ray share of 28%. This is okay for a drama, but really weak for an action film. Since the film is a hybrid of the two, it is should have been on the higher end.
The only other new release to chart this week was Sparkle, which only managed 24th place with 24,000 units / $477,000. Its opening week Blu-ray share was just 14%, which is weak, even for a drama.
The overall Blu-ray market was... not good. There's not much you can say to spin the results in a positive light. It was the week after Thanksgiving, so it is not surprising total sales fell, but they fell by 66% in terms of units and 33% in terms of revenue. That's really bad. Compared to last year, the numbers were a little more mixed, as 9% fewer units were sold, but 19% more revenue was generated. DVD sales also saw declines from last week, albeit by smaller margins of 36% in terms of units and 23% in terms of revenue. DVD sales saw significant growth from last year up 39% in terms of units and 34% in terms of revenue. This left the overall Blu-ray share down significantly to just 23% in terms of units and 39% in terms of revenue. The Thanksgiving sales tend to throw things off, but this is not a good result.
Next week, the new releases will be led by The Dark Knight Rises. If there isn't a massive increase from this week, we will be in serious trouble. Last year, the new releases were led by a one-two punch of The Help / The Hangover II. The former led the DVD sales chart with 1.59 million units, with the latter leading the Blu-ray sales chart with 754,000 units. The Dark Knight Rises should beat either of those numbers individually, but the depth might hurt 2012's chances in the year-over-year comparison.
Filed under: Video Sales, Brave, The Dark Knight Rises, Men in Black 3, The Expendables 2, ParaNorman, Lawless, Sparkle