Blu-ray Sales: John Carter Acts Up

June 20, 2012

New releases dominated the Blu-ray sales chart just as much as it did the DVD sales chart. Two Blu-rays, John Carter and Act of Valor topped the list. John Carter led the way in terms of units with 965,000 units / $19.30 million. Its opening week Blu-ray share was just shy of 60%. The film is still going to lose money, but its high definition run should at least cut the loses a bit. Act of Valor was second in terms of units with 958,000 units, but first in terms of dollars with $19.83 million. Its opening week Blu-ray share was 58%, whixh is certainly worth celebrating. Safe House was next with 798,000 units / $15.94 million for an opening week Blu-ray share of 54%. At this point, this is a good, but not great run on Blu-ray. Every action film should sell more Blu-ray than DVDs. Journey 2 Mysterious Island didn't reach that level with 433,000 / $12.12 million for a Blu-ray share of 42%. However, to be fair, it is a family friendly film, and these tend to sell better on DVD than Blu-ray regardless of genre. Breaking Bad: The Complete Fourth Season placed fifth during its first week of release with 115,000 units / $2.87 million. Its Blu-ray share was 32% and that's fantastic for a TV on DVD release.

There were no other new releases in the top ten, but a few more that landed lowered in the charts. Machine Gun Preacher was the best of the rest landing in 12th place with 39,000 units / $827,000. Its opening week Blu-ray share was 40%, which is acceptable for a limited release, but not spectacular. Falling Skies: The Complete First Season opened in 13th place with 38,000 units / $865,000 for a Blu-ray share of 42%. This is fantastic for a TV on DVD release and shows that soon Blu-ray will take over TV on DVD releases as well. Workaholics: Seasons 1 & 2 Combo Doggy opened in 19th place with 30,000 units / $443,000.

The overall Blu-ray market was incredible this past week. In fact, it was the second best in terms of units sold (3.99 million) and third best in terms of revenue ($90.47 million). I have to say, I wasn't expecting that. This is 199% more units sold than last week and 147% more revenue. The increases from last year are even more impressive with 218% more units sold and 255% more revenue generated. DVD sales were also much stronger than they were last week and last year, growing by 60% to 84%, depending on the time frame and the metric. At this time of year, TV on DVD releases tend to take over as the summer shows have their premieres and the weaker winter / spring releases hit the home market, so the overall Blu-ray share tends to shrink, but that didn't happen this week. In fact, they grew to just shy of 50% in terms of units and 55% in terms of revenue. This bodes very well for the upcoming Christmas season, assuming the global economy doesn't implode in the meantime.

Next week the Blu-ray sales should be led by Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. The film wasn't as big a hit in theaters as some were expecting, but it should sell very well on Blu-ray. It could top 1 million units during its opening week. Last year, the best new release was Battle: Los Angeles, which only managed second place on DVD while topping the chart on Blu-ray. We should see solid growth in the year-over-year comparison.


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Filed under: Video Sales, John Carter, Machine Gun Preacher, Safe House, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, Act of Valor