Blu-ray Sales: Overall Sales are in Remission
January 19, 2012
The Blu-ray sales chart was both busy and slow this week. On the one hand, there were five new releases that charted this week, including three in the top ten. On the other hand, only one of those new releases, Contagion, did any significant business. It was able to sell 274,000 units while generating $4.93 million in revenue, giving it an opening week Blu-ray share of 40%. That's a very good share for a drama, but its overall home market run is disappointing.
The Hangover II rose to second place with 158,000 units / $2.28 million for the week. After more than a month of release, the film has sold 1.76 million units and earned $29.40 million in revenue. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 remained in third place with 91,000 units / $1.46 million for the week, while it now has sold 4.81 million units and generating $100.78 million after two months of release. Transformers: Dark of the Moon rose into fourth place, as if to emphasize how weak the new releases were. It added 82,000 units / $1.82 million to its totals, which now sit at just under 3.00 million units / $64.21 million. Cowboys and Aliens was right behind with 82,000 units / $1.78 million for the week and 1.14 million units / $25.12 million after a month.
The next best of the new releases was Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, which placed seventh with 55,000 units / $1.09 million and an opening week Blu-ray share of 32%. That's a little low for a horror film, but acceptable. Justified: Season Two debuted in ninth place with 52,000 units / $1.43 million. Normally, TV on DVD releases do quite poorly on high definition, but this release managed an opening week Blu-ray share of 28%, which is much better than the average TV on DVD release manages. Further down the list we find Shark Night in 19th place with 34,000 units / $720,000. Its opening week Blu-ray share was just 30%, which was disappointing. Then again, it has been disappointing every step of its journey. I Don't Know How She Does It was the final new release, which only managed 23rd place with 12,000 units / $257,000. Its opening week Blu-ray share was a miniscule 14%, which is bad, even given the genre and target audience.
The overall Blu-ray market was again terrible compared to last week falling 41% in terms of units and 40% in terms of dollars. Worse still, it was down from the same week last year, by significant margins of 7% and 18% respectively. DVD sales hung on better compared to last week, but fell faster compared to last year. This overall Blu-ray share slipped this week to 34% in terms of units and 38% in terms of dollars, but so far this has proven to be a bad time of year for high definition. The releases that come out tend to be secondary releases, as opposed to visually impressive blockbusters.
Next week, prominent Blu-ray releases include Moneyball, Boardwalk Empire and really that's it. Neither of these releases are what you would call prime releases for high definition, so odds are it will be another slow week. The biggest hit of last year was The Social Network, which is a great movie, but not the kind that does well on high definition. It could be hard for 2012 to eke out a win.
Filed under: Video Sales, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, The Hangover Part II, Cowboys and Aliens, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, Contagion, Moneyball, I Don't Know How She Does It, Shark Night 3D