DVD Sales - All Max and No Payne
February 3, 2009
New releases were all over the top 30 this week, including Max Payne, which took first place with 543,000 units sold for the week and $12.92 million in sales.
Another new release, Saw V, was just behind with 515,000 units and $12.42 million in sales. Pineapple Express slipped another spot to third place added 204,000 units and $3.95 million this week for totals of 1.78 million units and $37.06 million. Igor opened in fourth place with 176,000 units / $3.51 million, which is not bad compared to its theatrical run. The Family that Preys fell from first to fifth with 169,000 units for the week for a total of 660,000 after two.
The bets of the rest of the new releases was City of Ember, which struggled in ninth place with 105,000 units and $2.10 million in sales. The Express just missed the top ten during its opening with 98,000 units and $1.95 million in sales. The final new release to chart was Moonlight - The Complete Series, as that DVD sold 57,000 units landing in 22nd place.
It was an ... interesting week on the Blu-ray charts. Despite lackluster growth on the DVD side of the equation, Blu-ray sales shot up 48% to $15.7 million. This represents 12.6% of total sales and 17% of the top 20 comparison. Percentwise that is the fifth best showing ever, but only the third best of the first four weeks of the year, while 17% is a record for the top 20 comparison. The number one seller on High Definition was Max Payne with an estimated 150,000 units. This is almost as much as The Dark Knight and Iron Man combined sold for the week. Of course those two releases have been out for a lot longer than Max Payne, but even so, this time last year an opening week of 150,000 Blu-ray units would have been near record-breaking. So for a decidedly mediocre box office draw like Max Payne to perform this well, shows amazing growth in the market. However, it is just one week and one result, so we should try not to read too much into it.
Filed under: Video Sales, The Dark Knight, Iron Man, Pineapple Express, Saw V, Max Payne, The Family That Preys, Igor, The Express, City of Ember