DVD Sales - Mamma Hot on Sales Chart
January 1, 2009
There were only three new releases to chart this week, sort of. Call in three and a half new releases, but we will get to that in a bit. On the top of the sales chart this week was Mamma Mia!, which sold 3.72 million units for $77.68 million in consumer retail spending.
The Dark Knight was pushed into second place with 2.99 million units / $60.81 million. However, it was down just 60%, which was better than expected, and it has so far sold 10.49 million units for $219.54 million in spending, which puts it ahead of WALL-E and into top spot for 2008. The Mummy - Tomb of the Dragon Emperor opened in third place with 1.67 million units / $30.50 million. Horton Hears a Who was aided by last minute holiday shopping and was down just 25% to 1.44 million units for the week, while after two it has now sold 3.37 million units and generated $59.02 million in sales. Speaking of last minute holiday shopping, Kung Fu Panda grew by more than 60% to capture fifth place over WALL-E 825,000 units to 780,000.
However, the latter leads in total sales 10.19 million to 8.64 million.
The only other December 16th release to chart was Traitor, which pulled in $4.56 million in sales from 245,000 units, and earned 16th place in the process. Additionally, The House Bunny placed 20th with 185,000 units / $3.27 million. However, that film wasn't released on DVD until the 19th, which undoubtedly hurt opening week sales.
Overall, Blu-ray sales were down just under 24% to $46.5 million, but it was the weekend after the biggest hit of the year was released, so this was expected. In fact, sales didn't fall as much as expected and with DVD sales down just over 24%, so it remained at just under 12% of total sales. The top 20 comparison number fell to 11%, but this is not surprising as The Dark Knight again led the way over newcomer Mamma Mia! (In fact, that film finished in third place behind The Mummy - Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.) This was not a surprise; I don't think the musical was a major draw for High Definition, as early adopters tend to be young males, which are not among the target demographic of that film.
Filed under: Video Sales, The Dark Knight, WALL-E, Kung Fu Panda, Horton Hears a Who, Mamma Mia!, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, The House Bunny, Traitor