DVD Sales: How to Tops the Chart

October 26, 2010

We had a new number one release on this week's sales chart, with How to Train Your Dragon dominating with 1.87 million units sold / $39.63 million in opening week sales. That was more than four times what The Karate Kid sold during its second weekend of release (421,000 units / $7.52 million). In fact, it was more than the second place film has sold in two weeks (1.65 million units / $28.32 million). Iron Man 2 was in third place with 385,000 units over the week for totals of 4.31 million units and $96.29 million. It may have already become just the third release of 2010 to reach $100 million in sales, but in might take a couple weeks till we get conformation on that. Jonah Hex opened in fourth place with 183,000 units / $3.11 million, which is weak, but not as weak as the film's box office run. Rounding out the top five was Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue with 156,000 / $2.85 million for the week and 1.71 million units / $31.72 million. This is a very strong result for a direct-to-DVD release; in fact, it compares well to saturation level theatrical releases. For instance, at its peak, Clash of the Titans was playing in just over 3800 theaters, but it sold fewer DVDs than this title. (There are other mitigating factors here, but that's still impressive.)

The Tudors' final season just missed the top five with 125,000 units, but its TV on DVD pricing meant it placed fourth in terms of dollars with $3.12 million. The only other new release to chart was The Lost Boys: The Thirst with 65,000 units / $654,000, which was enough for 12th place.

After two weeks of unbelievable Blu-ray sales, the overall market returned to Earth with $30.5 million, which was down 43% from last week. However, that's still 22% higher then the same week last year and represents 16% of the total market and 34% of the top twenty comparison. How to Train Your Dragon topped Blu-ray this week with just over 800,000 units, which is fantastic for a kids movie. Meanwhile, Beauty and the Beast added more than 600,000 units its second week of release, while Iron Man 2 added nearly 300,000 units.

One final note, it appears being a kids movie is no longer a detriment to Blu-ray sales. The Blu-ray share of sales for films like How to Train Your Dragon and Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue are better than the average comedy or drama. Granted, it will likely be an effects heavy action film that first breaks the 50% barrier in terms of total sales, but having a kids movie as the number one selling DVD shouldn't mean a bad week for Blu-ray sales.


-

Filed under: Video Sales, Beauty and the Beast, Jonah Hex, The Karate Kid, How to Train Your Dragon, Iron Man 2, Lost Boys: The Thirst, Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue