Blu-ray Sales: Battleship Sinks Competition

September 12, 2012

Battleship was one of four new releases to reach the top five on the Blu-ray Sales Chart this week scoring first place with 584,000 units / $11.67 million. Its opening week Blu-ray share was 61%, which is fantastic. The Hunger Games slipped to second place with 288,000 units / $6.37 million for the week, giving it totals of 3.71 million units / $74.68 million. While this is clearly the best selling Blu-ray of the year so far, there are at least two more first run releases that will top it before the year is done. The Walking Dead: Season Two managed third place with 215,000 units / $13.57 million during its first week of release, which is stunning for a TV on DVD release. Likewise, its opening week Blu-ray share was well above the average for a TV on DVD release at 51%. In fact, that's above average for the format as a whole. The Lucky One only managed fourth place on the Blu-ray sales chart as compared to first place on the DVD sales chart. Even so, 163,000 units / $2.94 million and an opening week Blu-ray share of 24% is acceptable for this type of release. The same can be said of Think Like a Man, which sold 131,000 units and generated $2.61 million during its first week of release. Its opening week Blu-ray share was 24%, which is good for this type of film.

Sons of Anarchy: Season Four opened in sixth place with 101,000 units / $2.53 million. An opening week Blu-ray share of 26% is great for a TV on DVD release. Pirates! Band of Misfits landed in eighth place with 95,000 units / $2.37 million. An opening week Blu-ray share of 46% is very strong for a kids movie, although its overall home market run is not strong. Boardwalk Empire: Season Two was next with 54,000 units / $1.90 million. Again, TV on DVD rarely does as well on Blu-ray as it does on DVD, but an opening week Blu-ray share of 45% is still an excellent result. Once Upon a Time: The Complete First Season just missed the top ten with 44,000 units sold and $1.97 million in revenue generated. Its opening week Blu-ray share was strong for a TV on DVD release at 28%. Homeland: The Complete First Season was right behind with 41,000 units / $1.02 million. Its opening week Blu-ray share was 32%. While TV on DVD is still lagging behind the format as a whole, it is clear that the trend is in the right direction and more studios will be releasing high definition TV on DVD releases in the future. The final new release to chart was Starship Troopers: Invasion, which placed 17th with 28,000 units / $452,000. It didn't even reach the top 30 on the DVD sales chart.

The overall Blu-ray market fell 23% in terms of units and 4% in terms of revenue when compared to last week. However, its growth compared to last year remained incredible, up 438% in terms of units and 446% in terms of review. Again I feel the need to point out that this week last year was one of the worst during all of 2011, so this comparison is a little misleading. The overall DVD market was also a little lower than last week down 9% in terms of units and 4% in terms of revenue. On the other hand, the overall DVD market was much stronger when compared to last year, up 129% in terms of units and 112% in terms of revenue. I thought DVD was dead? The overall Blu-ray share dipped a little to 38% in terms of units, but was stable at 45% in terms of revenue.

Next week will not be as strong as the new releases are dominated by TV on DVD. Granted, that's been true for the past few weeks, but we've usually had at least one major first-run release to compensate for the weak Blu-ray release. This time around, the biggest such release might be Safe, which earned less than $20 million theatrically. The Five-Year Engagement earned more in theaters, but it isn't the type of film to do well on high definition. By comparison, this week last year was led by X-Men: First Class, which sold 386,000 DVDs and 448,000 Blu-rays. Nothing will match that this year, but hopefully we will have better depth.


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Filed under: Video Sales, Battleship, The Five-Year Engagement, The Hunger Games, The Lucky One, Safe, The Pirates! Band of Misfits, Think Like a Man, Starship Troopers: Invasion