DVD Sales: People Staying Home with Social

January 25, 2011

While there were not many new releases on this week's sales chart, one of them, The Social Network, dominated the sales chart with 1.08 million units / $14.06 million during its opening week. Alpha and Omega opened in a distant second place with 337,000 units / $5.85 million. Given its struggles theatrically, this is not a bad start. Despicable Me remained in third place with 314,000 units for the week and 6.50 million units / $112.28 million after about a month of release. Machete fell from first to fourth with 267,000 units / $4.28 million for the week and 930,000 / $14.88 million after two. It will hit 1 million units this week, while it will eventually surpass its theatrical run. Dinner for Schmucks fell to fifth place with 208,000 units / $3.54 million for the week and 768,000 units / $13.05 million, also after two.

Piranha missed the top five by the narrowest of margins, selling 205,000 units while generating $3.48 million in sales. That's not a great start, but it did relatively better on Blu-ray.

Leading the way on Blu-ray was The Social Network with a better than expected 880,000 units. For a drama to nearly sell 1 million units during its opening week is amazing. For it to sell almost as many Blu-rays as it did DVDs is phenomenal. Granted, The Social Network is aimed at the internet crowd, which is a demographic that is far more likely to be on the cutting edge of technology, but this is still impressive. Inception was in second place with 250,000 units, which is significantly more than it sold on DVD this week. The Other Guys and Piranha were in a virtual tie for third place, with the latter leading the former at 200,000 to 180,000. Rounding out the top five was The Expendables at 170,000 units. It is worth noting that all of the holdovers in the top five sold more Blu-rays than they did DVDs.

Alpha and Omega missed the top five during its opening, but still managed to sell 90,000 units. For a second tier kids movie, this is a great start.


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Filed under: Video Sales, Inception, Despicable Me, The Expendables, Dinner for Schmucks, Piranha 3D, The Other Guys, Alpha and Omega, The Social Network, Machete