DVD Sales - Twilight Doesn't Set
April 8, 2009
Another weird week for new releases as the top two DVDs on the sales chart are both new releases and holdovers. Twilight had its first full week of sales adding 2.46 million units to its running tally of 6.03 million, which is the best for 2009 so far. It also become the film DVD to cross the century mark with $108.32 million in sales so far.
Second place went to Bolt with 1.43 million units over the week and 1.49 million units in total. Quantum of Solace was the best truly new release of the week earning third place with $1.21 million units for $21.89 million in sales. This is weaker than expected; however, it showed strength on Blu-ray. Madagascar climbed to fourth place, but was well back with 168,000 units for the week and 4.95 million in total bringing its sales to $80.34 million. Rounding out the top five was Pinocchio with 147,000 units this week and just over 2 million for the latest re-release of the title.
Lilo & Stitch was the best of the rest of the new releases, but it failed to make much of an impact with just 76,000 units sold for $1.53 million in sales, just missing the top ten in the process. Next up was The Venture Bros. - Season Three, with 75,000 units sold and $1.43 million in sales. Another TV on DVD releases placed 14th as Star Wars - The Clone Wars - A Galaxy Divided opened with 70,000 units / $906,000 during its first week of release. Secrets of the Furious Five was released separately on DVD landing in 17th place with 53,000 units and $530,000 in sales. That's likely largely sold to people who bought the Blu-ray. Next up was Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter and Under the Hood, which just missed the top 20 with 42,000 units sold generating $833,000 in sales. The final new release to chart was Happily N'Ever After 2: Snow White with 37,000 units / $442,000 giving it 24th place in the process.
The overall Blu-ray sales again grew this week... Wow, that's an understatement. The total Blu-ray market generated $24.0 million in sales, which is about 30% than last week. It is also 165% more than the same weekend last year. So we went for the lowest year-to-year growth since we've had the numbers to compare to the highest year-to-year growth. I assume next week it will return to the normal 60% growth. Compared to DVD sales, Blu-rays represented 10.9% of total sales and 13% of the top 20 comparison. Individual titles were led by Quantum of Solace, which disappointed on DVD; however, it sold just shy of 500,000 units on Blu-ray. Percent wise, it was the best ratio for a day-and-date wide release. Twilight and Bolt each added nearly 200,000 units in High Definition over the week. Bolt's sales were 13% in Blu-ray, which is better than average for this type of movie, and that shows Blu-ray is starting to become mainstream and not the sole realm of the early adapter.
Filed under: Video Sales, Twilight, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Quantum of Solace, Bolt