Blu-ray Sales: White Shines on Blu
September 25, 2012
New releases took the top four or five spots on the Blu-ray Sales Chart this week, it depends on which measure you take, units or revenue. Snow White and the Huntsman led the way in both with 893,000 units / $17.86 million. Its opening week Blu-ray share was 55%, which is excellent, even for a visually impressive film like this. In fact, given its slightly more female demographic, this is an even more impressive result.
Titanic opened in second place with 340,000 units / $8.50 million. It's rare for catalogue titles to sell that well. The Big Bang Theory: Season Five debuted in third place with 93,000 units / $2.78 million. Its opening week Blu-ray share was 20%, which actually isn't bad for a sitcom. Spartacus Vengeance: Season Two was right behind in fourth place with 87,000 units / $2.18 million. Its opening week Blu-ray share was a stunning 44%. Granted, it's a big epic TV show, but it is still a TV show and these tend to lag behind the format as a whole. The Hunger Games fell to fifth place with 78,000 units / $1.78 million for the week giving it 3.92 million / $79.63 million after a month of release. It will cross 4 million units shortly.
What to Expect When You're Expecting opened in seventh place with 45,000 units / $902,000. Given its target demographic, an opening week Blu-ray share of 24% isn't terrible, but it isn't great either. The Vampire Diaries: Season Three earned tenth place with 30,000 units / $1.18 million. Like the previous release, its opening week Blu-ray share wasn't bad, but 22% is not groundbreaking either. For Greater Glory opened in 14th place with 16,000 units / $265,000. This is better than its opening on the DVD sales chart, relatively speaking, and its opening week Blu-ray share was 42%, which is much better than expected. The final new release to chart was Harry Potter Wizard's Collection. In only managed 17th place with 13,000 units; however, it generated $4.50 million in revenue, which was enough for third place by that measure.
The overall Blu-ray market saw huge growth from last week selling 97% more units and generating 83% more revenue. However, when compared to last year, its was merely mixed. There were 27% more Blu-ray sold, but total sales were 19% lower. The reason for this is simple: Star Wars: The Complete Saga. That is still one of the best selling Blu-rays of all time. DVD sales were more consistent. Compared to last week, 36% more units were sold and 11% more revenue was generated. Compared to last year, DVD showed similar growth up 36% in terms of units and $16% in terms of revenue. The Overall Blu-ray Share was 38% in terms of units and 45% in terms of revenue.
I'm not sure how next week will go. There are a lot of new releases, but not much in the way of first run releases. Cabin in the Woods should be the best selling Blu-ray. However, I don't think it will top last year's best new release, Bridesmaids, which sold 1.25 million DVDs and 528,000 Blu-rays. A year-over-year decline is unfortunately likely.
Filed under: Video Sales, Titanic, The Hunger Games, Snow White and the Huntsman, What to Expect When You're Expecting, For Greater Glory: The True Story of Cristiada