DVD Sales - People Take Home Taken
May 27, 2009
Taken wasn't the only new release to chart this week; in fact, there were nine that reached the top 30.
However, it was comfortably the best-selling with 2.31 million units and $37.96 million in consumer spending at retail.
It is already the tenth best-selling DVD of the year.
Second place went to Underworld - Rise of the Lycans, which earned a still healthy $25.05 million from 1.25 million units sold.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button landed in third place, adding 449,000 units and $7.51 million to take its two-week total to 1.93 million / $32.10 million.
Hotel for Dogs held up better than most, but it still fell to fourth place with 177,000 units for the week and 1.45 million units after three.
Bride Wars went from second place to fifth with 149,000 units sold, while after three weeks of release it has generated $24.39 million from 1.53 million
The slew of other new releases to chart starts with Two and a Half Men - Season Five, which placed ninth with just over 97,000 units / $2.82 million.
Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy with just under 97,000 units; however, its lower price led to revenue of $1.54 million.
Passengers opened in 12th place with 74,000 units / $1.32 million, which is better than its theatrical run.
In 13th place we find The Underworld Trilogy with 70,000 units / $2.45 million.
Next up are two direct-to-DVD releases with S.Darko placing 15th with 67,000 units / $1.24 million, while The Grudge 3 placed 22nd with 58,000 units / $1.12 million.
Finally, the Star Trek - Motion Picture Trilogy opened in 27th place with 51,000 units sold and $1.52 million in spending.
Over on the Blu-ray front, sales were again strong, up 43% to $23.7 million for the week, which was a stunning 285% more than the same weekend last year.
This is the sixth triple-digit gain in that metric in the past eight weeks.
Compared to DVD, it was 11.2% of total revenue and 15% of the top twenty comparisons.
Compared to the previous weeks, this was the third best total revenue, the second best percentage revenue, the third best top 20 comparison, and finally the best year-to-year growth we've seen all year.
The best selling Blu-ray of the week was Taken, which sold by my calculation over 500,000 units.
That seems very high, but the math is sound.
Underworld - Rise of the Lycans sold 250,000 units, plus another 50,000 from the Blu-ray Box Set.
Star Trek had three releases place in the top ten starting with the Original Movie Collection in fifth place with 50,000 units, while the Motion Picture Trilogy was right behind with 25,000 units.
Finally, The Original Series - Season One added 20,000 units in sales during its third week of release.
At this point, it has likely sold more than 50,000 units, which is the minimum needed to show profitability for this type of release.
Filed under: Video Sales, Taken, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Hotel for Dogs, Bride Wars, Underworld 3: Rise of the Lycans, Passengers, The Grudge 3, S. Darko