Blu-ray Sales: Avengers Begin To Rewrite Record Book

October 12, 2012

The Avengers became one of the best selling Blu-rays of all time after just one week of release. Its opening week sales were outstanding at 3.39 million units / $67.69 million. This was by far the biggest new releases of the week and it crushed the competition on the Blu-ray sales chart. In fact, it was easily the best single week on the chart and places the Blu-ray in the top ten on the all-time list. (More on that next week.) Its opening week Blu-ray share was 62%. I suspect by the end of the Christmas shopping season, a 60% opening week Blu-ray share will be the norm for any major release. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 1 opened in second place on the Blu-ray chart, which with 97,000 units / $1.50 million, was much better than its DVD debut. Its opening-week Blu-ray share was also 62%. It was a Fanboy release, so that partially explains its strength on Blu-ray, but also the format is simply taking over from DVD. Snow White and the Huntsman remained in third place with 53,000 units / $1.32 million for the week, giving it totals of 1.21 million units / $25.60 million after three. Bond 50 opened in fourth place with 44,000 units / $6.61 million. This is good for a box set, but it's such a big box set that selling a lot of units would have been too much to ask. Thor rose into the top five with 34,000 units / $508,000 for the week for a total of 1.78 million units / $42.99 million after more than a year of release.

Resident Evil: Damnation opened in seventh place with 31,000 units / $586,000. Its opening-week Blu-ray share was 48%, which is actually disappointing given the type of release this was. Movies aimed at video gamers should do very well on Blu-ray. American Horror Story: Season One earned ninth place with 30,000 units / $975,000. An opening-week Blu-ray share of 27% is pretty good for a TV-on-DVD release. The Tall Man just managed a spot in the top 20 with 8,500 units / $132,000. On the one hand, an opening week Blu-ray share of just 26% is disappointing. On the other hand, a lot of similar releases don't even chart.

One last note, The Hunger Games fell out of the top ten, but it topped 4 million units in total, while it has generated $80 million in total revenue. That's an incredible run.

It should come as no surprise that the overall Blu-ray market was very strong with The Avengers earning a a record-breaking opening. Compared to last week, there were 171% more Blu-rays sold while revenue rose by 92%. Compared to last year, there were 111% more Blu-rays sold and 90% more revenue generated. The overall DVD market was also strong growing by 28% in terms of units and 21% in terms of revenue when compared to last week. Compared to last year, there were 67% more DVDs sold and 63% more revenue generated. The Overall Blu-ray Share was amazing at 53% of units and 58% in terms of revenue. The overall Blu-ray share being over 50% is impressive, but it is even better as the overall DVD market has also been strong.

Next week won't be nearly as good, as the new releases were only mixed. Dark Shadows might do okay, while Cinderella should do well for a catalogue release. However, last year's new releases were led by The Lion King, which sold 1.54 million Blu-rays and nothing is going to touch that this year. Fast Five came in second place with 1.10 million Blu-rays and even that seems out of reach. Hell, Fast Five's DVD numbers liked won't be matched by the new releases on Blu-ray.

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Filed under: Video Sales, Thor, The Avengers, Dark Shadows, The Hunger Games, The Tall Man, Snow White and the Huntsman, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1, Resident Evil: Damnation