Blu-ray Sales: Hanging Out on Top

December 21, 2011

The Hangover II was the first of three new releases on top of this week's Blu-ray sales chart, selling 951,000 units while generating $16.89 million. Its opening week Blu-ray share was 42%, which was good for a comedy. Cowboys and Aliens earned second place with 666,000 units / $13.32 million. Its overall performance is disappointing for a film that cost $100 million to make, but the studio can't complain about a 54% opening week Blu-ray share. The Help only managed third place, despite opening on top of the DVD sales chart. Its opening week numbers of 547,000 units / $15.31 million gave it a Blu-ray share of just 24%. This is low for the format as a whole, but given its target demographic, not surprising. The Smurfs fell to fourth place with 256,000 units / $6.68 million for the week and 611,000 units / $15.56 million after two. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 continues its march to $100 million in total sales. This week it added 167,000 units / $3.32 million for the week giving it totals of 4.37 million units / $94.11 million after more than a month of release.

Mr. Popper's Penguins just missed the top five with 128,000 units / $3.21 million for an opening week Blu-ray share of just 18%. Live action family films rarely do well on Blu-ray. The only other new release to chart was The Debt in 17th place with 60,000 units / $1.51 million. Its opening week Blu-ray share was 33%, which is good for a drama aimed at a more mature target demographic.

The overall Blu-ray market was mixed. It grew from last week, up 49% in terms of units and 34% in terms of dollars. However, this was lower than last year, albeit by tiny margins of less than 1% in terms of units and 7% in terms of revenue. This was predicted, as this time last year saw the release of Inception, which is still one of the best selling Blu-rays of all time. (By Christmas it will reach 4 million units sold.) DVD sales were also mixed growing much faster from last week, but falling much more from last year. The overall Blu-ray share was 33% in terms of units and 42% in terms of dollars, which is better than last year and that's the most important result.

Next week should be a banner week on Blu-ray with not one, but two releases that should do really well on Blu-ray. Last year, Despicable Me sold 3.75 million DVDs and I don't think any release will come close to that this year. However, it sold 1.16 million Blu-rays, which is a fantastic figure, but beatable this week. In fact, both of the two main releases next week might top 1 million units. If that happens we will have spectacular growth.


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Filed under: Video Sales, The Smurfs, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II, The Debt, The Hangover Part II, Cowboys and Aliens, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Help, Mr. Poppers's Penguins