Our DVD and Blu-ray sales estimates are based on weekly retail surveys, which we use to build a weekly market share estimate for each title we are tracking. The market share is converted into a weekly sales estimate based on industry reports on the overall size of the market, including reports published in Media Play News.

For example, if our weekly retail survey estimates that a particular title sold 1% of all units that week, and the industry reports sales of 1,500,000 units in total, we will estimate 15,000 units were sold of that title. The consumer spending estimate is based on the average sales price for the title in the retailers we survey.

We refine our estimates from week to week as more data becomes available. In particular, we adjust weekly sales figures for the quarter once the total market estimates are published by the Digital Entertainment Group. Figures will therefore fluctuate each week, and totals for individual titles can go up or down as we update our estimates.

Because sales figures are estimated based on sampling, they will be more accurate for higher-selling titles.

DVD Sales: Tangled Straightens Out the Competition

April 11th, 2011

It was an awesome week for new releases on the sales chart, or should that be "new release". While there were five new releases to chart, one of them, Tangled, dominated selling 3.46 million units while generating $51.92 million in sales. It is already the biggest selling DVD of 2011. More...

DVD and Blu-ray Releases for March 29th, 2011

March 30th, 2011

It's a very busy week for DVD and Blu-ray releases with several top-tier releases, as well as plenty of interesting catalog titles. Paradoxically, this week's list could be rather short, as I've previously reviewed most of the major releases, while I'm still waiting on about half of the catalog titles to show up. So this week's list is mostly just links to the reviews already done and notices of what reviews to look forward to if / when late screeners arrive. In the meantime, the best of the best is a three-horse race between Tangled, Black Swan, and Mad Men: Season Four. All three are absolutely worth picking up, but for Pick of the Week I'm going with the Mad Men: Season Four on Blu-ray. More...

Featured Blu-ray / DVD Review: The Ten Commandments

March 26th, 2011

The final film by legendary director Cecil B. DeMille, whose name in practically synonymous with the term "Epic". And The Ten Commandments is arguably his greatest movie ever earning seven Oscar nominations, including one win for Best Special Effects. (The Greatest Show on Earth did earn the Best Picture Oscar, but now it's widely considered one of the least deserving Best Picture winners and its reviews are middling, at best.) Now some 55 years after its theatrical debut, and some five years after its special edition DVD release, it's coming out on Blu-ray. ... However, I only received a copy of the film on DVD. It's a bit anti-climactic. More...