Home Market Numbers: Hitmen vs. Vampires
February 22, 2015
New releases grabbed the top two spots on the Blu-ray sales chart for the week ending February 8, with John Wick taking the top spot and Dracula Untold taking a close second place. Two other new releases debuted in the top ten: The Best of Me took fifth place, and Ouija took eighth.
This welcome shot of sales helped fuel a strong increase over last year for Blu-ray sales. Compared to last year, 21% more units were sold, and revenue jumped 17%. Overall, the Blu-ray share of home market sales ticked up a percentage point, to 43%.
While this week's Blu-ray numbers do represent a drop from last week, sales were down only 0.7% in terms of units sold and 7.5% in revenue, perhaps suggesting that slightly lower prices helped maintain sales of units and supported the increase from last year.
DVD sales for the week of February 8 were not nearly as strong, down 6.1% in terms of units and 16% in revenue from the previous week. Compared to last year, DVD sales were down even more, dropping 13% in terms of units and 20% in revenue.
Whether Blu-ray will continue to grow its home market share next week is an open question. Next week's new releases are not strong, and could be led by the Blu-ray debut of an old movie, 101 Dalmatians. However, that does not necessarily portend disaster: Disney's carefully timed re-releases can be very strong. In fact, in the same week last year, The Jungle Book led the way on the Blu-ray sales chart.
Filed under: Video Sales, Dracula Untold, Ouija, The Best of Me, John Wick