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.

Home Market Numbers: New Releases Get Lost on the Way

October 10th, 2013

Given the terrible new releases, it should come as no surprise that the overall Blu-ray market was terrible the week of July 28th 2013. In fact, it was the worst week for the entire year at just 492,000 units / $10.58 million in total sales. This was 20% lower in terms of units and 22% lower in terms of revenue when compared to last week. Compared to last year, it was 12% lower in terms of units and 8% lower in terms of revenue. DVD sales were relatively stronger, so the overall Blu-ray share fell to 21% in terms of units and 30% in terms of revenue. Hopefully this is just an anomaly and we will never see these weak levels again. More...

Blu-ray Sales: New Releases are Broken Down

October 10th, 2013

There was only one new release to chart on the week of July 28th, 2013 edition of the Blu-ray sales chart and it only managed fourth place. This left 42 in first place with 109,000 units / $2.67 million for the week giving it two-week totals of 336,000 units / $7.89 million. More...

DVD Sales: Life is Not a Beach for New Releases

October 10th, 2013

There were quite a few new releases on the DVD sales chart for the week of July 28th, 2013; however, none were big sellers and only really placed well due to a lack of competition. 42 remained in first place with 308,000 units / $4.62 million over the weekend for totals of 798,000 units / $11.95 million after two weeks of release. More...

DVD and Blu-ray Releases for July 23rd, 2013

July 23rd, 2013

This week's new releases are so bad that I'm tempted to hold on to this story till I finish the review for Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season Four on Blu-ray, just so I would have a real contender for Pick of the Week. According to Amazon.com, the best-selling new release of the week is an Anime title. Most weeks, Anime titles are filler, because of their are niche appeal. There are a few foreign releases and limited releases worth checking out, but there are not many contenders for Pick of the Week. The two best are Ginger & Rosa on DVD and Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XXVII on DVD. I'm going with the former for Pick of the Week. Meanwhile, Starbuck's DVD earns Puck of the Week. See it before Hollywood ruins it with a bad remake. More...