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.

Contest: Ring In the New Year

January 9th, 2015

There are four wide releases / wide expansions next weekend with American Sniper and The Wedding Ringer leading the way. I'm not sure which film will come out on top; however, since American Sniper is expanding wide, The Wedding Ringer is the much better choice for the target film for this week's box office prediction contest. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for The Wedding Ringer.

Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going over, will win a copy of the Ong Bak Trilogy on DVD. Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will also win a copy of the Ong Bak Trilogy on DVD. Finally, one additional entrant will be chosen and they will also win a copy of the Ong Bak Trilogy on DVD. Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay! More...

DVD and Blu-ray Releases for July 29th, 2014

July 28th, 2014

I is not a bad week on the home market, as we do have a $100 million hit coming out on DVD and Blu-ray. Unfortunately, this $100 million hit is Noah, which is a good movie, but not a Pick of the Week contender. Worse still, it is a very shallow week and on the first page of Amazon.com's new releases list, there are releases that on a normal week would be filler. There are a trio of Pick of the Week contenders: Finding Vivian Maier - Buy from Amazon; It Felt Like Love - Buy from Amazon; and Marty - Blu-ray Buy from Amazon. All three are worth picking up, but in the end I went with Marty as Pick of the Week. More...

Featured Blu-ray Review: Ong-Bak Trilogy

July 27th, 2014

The first Ong-Bak film looked like it would propel Tony Jaa to super stardom. That hasn't worked out just yet, but there were two other films made in the franchise, which is being released this week. It is just the previous Blu-rays being released in a box set, but I only reviewed one of these films previously, so I jumped at the chance to see the other two. Are they worth picking up if you don't have them already? More...

DVD Sales: Zombies Storm to the Top

March 3rd, 2010

New releases were able to take four of the top five spots on this week's sales chart. This includes Zombieland, which took the top spot with 975,000 units and $16.15 million in opening week consumer spending at retail. Michael Jackson's This Is It was pushed into second place with a solid weekly total of 562,000 units, to lift its total to 2.08 million units and $33.22 million. Love Happens opened in third place with a mere 236,000 units for a total of $4.72 million during its opening week. Amelia also struggled with debut sales of just 205,000 units ($3.69 million). The direct-to-DVD release Planet Hulk opened in fifth place with 153,000 units / $2.32 million, which is strong for this type of release. More...

DVD and Blu-ray Releases for February 16th, 2010

February 16th, 2010

One of the weakest weeks on the home market for a long while, with only one wide release of note. Granted, Law Abiding Citizen's performance at the box office was much better than expected, but it still only managed to become a midlevel hit. The best of the best is Good Hair, which would be a clear Pick of the Week if the DVD had all the extras they mentioned on the audio commentary track. Alas, there's just the audio commentary track. More...

Featured Blu-ray Review: Ong-Bak 2: The Beginning

February 12th, 2010

In 2003, Tony Jaa broke onto the scene with Ong Bak, which was a surprise hit with critics, even if it didn't find an audience during its theatrical run. He followed that up with Tom Yum Goong, a.k.a., The Protector, which earned mixed reviews, but performed better at the box office to become the biggest Thai hit of all time. For Ong-Bak 2: The Beginning, not only did Tony Jaa star in the movie, he also directed. With him behind the camera, will Ong-Bak 2 return to the level of Ong Bak, or will it be closer to The Protector? More...

DVD and Blu-ray Releases for February 2nd, 2010

February 2nd, 2010

It's still a slow time of year for home market releases. It's too late for the Christmas shopping rush, while it is still too early for Awards Season releases to come out. There are a few limited releases, direct-to-DVD releases, TV on DVD releases, and catalogue titles that are of interest, but the best of the best is Zombieland. While both formats are worth checking out, the Blu-ray is the Pick of the Week. More...

Deal with the Devil on the Per Theater Chart

October 27th, 2009

Antichrist was the only new release to reach the $10,000 club over the weekend earning a strong average of $11,900 in six theaters. An Education was just $49 behind at $11,851, which is about 5 or 6 tickets per theater. Finally, Paranormal Activity was able to reach first place on the overall chart while maintaining an average $10,850 in nearly 2000 theaters. More...

Anti-limited Releases

October 23rd, 2009

After a couple of weeks of too many releases, the list this week is a lot more manageable and hopefully that will prevent the huge list of films that miss the Mendoza Line like we've had the past two weeks. On the other hand, none of the five films on this week's list are opening in just one theater and more than half are opening in ten or more. The theater count could work against them and really stifle their box office chances. More...