Our DVD and Blu-ray sales estimates are based on weekly retail surveys, which we use to build a weekly market share estimate for each title we are tracking. The market share is converted into a weekly sales estimate based on industry reports on the overall size of the market, including reports published in Media Play News.

For example, if our weekly retail survey estimates that a particular title sold 1% of all units that week, and the industry reports sales of 1,500,000 units in total, we will estimate 15,000 units were sold of that title. The consumer spending estimate is based on the average sales price for the title in the retailers we survey.

We refine our estimates from week to week as more data becomes available. In particular, we adjust weekly sales figures for the quarter once the total market estimates are published by the Digital Entertainment Group. Figures will therefore fluctuate each week, and totals for individual titles can go up or down as we update our estimates.

Because sales figures are estimated based on sampling, they will be more accurate for higher-selling titles.

DVD Sales: Hero Saves the Day

March 15th, 2015

New releases earned the top three spots on the DVD sales chart this week. This includes Big Hero 6, which opened in first place with 963,000 units / $14.44. This isn't at the same level as Frozen opened with, but it is already the second best selling DVD in 2015. More...

Blu-ray Sales: Hero is Bigger than Big

March 15th, 2015

While Big Hero 6 wasn't the only new release on the Blu-ray sales chart this week, it might as well have been. Not only did it crush the competition for the week, it is already the best selling Blu-ray of 2015 by a massive margin. It sold 1.99 million units generating $37.59 million in the process. Its opening week Blu-ray share was 67%, which is stunning. This would be stunning for a visually intensive action film aimed at Fanboys. For a family film, it is hard to comprehend. More...

DVD and Blu-ray Releases for February 24th, 2015

February 24th, 2015

This list is going to be a little shorter than I wanted... a lot shorter actually. My Internet Provider decided it would be a good idea to do maintenance tonight, so I was without internet access for several hours. There are two first-run releases that are contenders for Pick of the Week: Big Hero 6 (DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack) and Whiplash (DVD or Blu-ray). The other contender is the Criterion Collection release for Watership Down (Blu-ray). All three are worth owning, but Big Hero 6 is the Pick of the Week. More...