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.

Home Market Numbers: Massive Update: May 12th, 2013

June 22nd, 2013

There was a one-two punch when it came to new releases with Safe Haven topping the DVD chart, while Jack Reacher reached top spot on Blu-ray. Safe Haven sold 558,000 units / $9.54 million on DVD and 227,000 units / $5.22 million on Blu-ray. Its opening week Blu-ray share was 29%, which is better than expected, given its target demographic. In total, the film has sold 941,000 units / $16.09 million on DVD, while its Blu-ray running tallies are 373,000 units / $8.53 million. Jack Reacher opened in second place on the DVD chart with 320,000 units / $5.46 million, but earned first place on Blu-ray with 248,000 units / $5.01 million. An opening week Blu-ray share of 44% is good, but not great. After four weeks of release, the film has sold 539,000 units / $9.26 million on DVD and 383,000 units / $7.95 million on Blu-ray. I think the studio was expecting more. More...

DVD and Blu-ray Releases for May 7th, 2013

May 7th, 2013

While there are a lot of new releases listed on Amazon.com, it isn't long before you run into filler. Worse still, the top two selling movies, Jack Reacher and Save Haven, are just mediocre movies. The Great Escape is coming out on Blu-ray this week, which would normally be a reason to celebrate. However, a lot of reviewers are complaining about the poor video quality. The film needed, and deserves, a full restoration, but that didn't happen. We need to look further down the list to find a Pick of the Week contender, and we find one in 30 Rock: Season Seven. More...