DVD Sales - Sleeping Beauty has Lively Opening Week Sales

October 20, 2008

New releases were again dominant on this week's DVD sales chart with three in the top five, five in the top ten, and nine in total. This includes the new number one selling DVD, Sleeping Beauty, which generated $22.43 million in revenue from 1.34 million units sold. Second place went to last week's number one film as Iron Man plummeted more than 76% to 1.22 million units sold. However, that's still an impressive figure, as are its two-week totals of 6.34 million units and $119.23 million. The Happening opened in third place with just 653,000 units sold for opening week sales of $14.99 million, which is in line with the film's theatrical run. On the other hand, You Don't Mess With the Zohan only managed fourth with 499,000 units / $11.43 million; I was expecting more out of Mr. Zohan. Rounding out the top five was Sex and the City with 268,000 units / $5.80 million for the week and 2.62 million units / $57.89 million after three.

Of the six other new releases to chart, five were from the TV on DVD category, starting with The Simpsons - The Complete Eleventh Season in seventh place with 156,000 units and $4.67 million in sales. The lone exception was Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead, which placed ninth with 72,000 units and $1.72 million in consumer spending. Robot Chicken - Season Three placed 12th, which is amazing for a non-network show, selling 51,000 units and earning $1.12 million during its first week of release. 30 Rock Season Two was close behind in 14th place with 45,000 units / $1.22 million. How I Met Your Mother - Season Three placed 19th with 42,000 / $1.10 million while South Park - Cult of Cartman was right behind in 20th place with 38,000 units / $760,000.

As expected, Blu-ray sales collapsed this week, down 46% to $14.4 million. However, in order to judge this correctly one must first take into account the fact that this is the week after Iron Man smashed records. Secondly, this is the second best week on record for Blu-ray sales, in terms of raw numbers and percent of total sales (10.2%), while its Top 20 Percentage was at 10%, which is higher than all but a few weeks in the past. Speaking of Iron Man, it sold 161,000 additional units in High Definition to lift its total to 943,000 while it has generated nearly $25 million in consumer spending. Both of those are records. Also, Sleeping Beauty sold roughly 100,000 units to place second, which is also impressive, especially for a catalogue title.

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Filed under: Video Sales, Iron Man, Sex and the City, You Don't Mess With the Zohan, The Happening