Blu-ray Sales: Puss Rises Above Tower
March 7, 2012
Like it did on the DVD Sales Chart, Puss in Boots opened on first place on the Blu-ray sales chart. It sold 571,000 units generating $15.99 million in sales, and that's just from Friday through Sunday. Its opening Blu-ray share was 40%, which is excellent for a kid's movie.
Tower Heist opened in second place with 255,000 units / $5.10 million giving it a Blu-ray share of 39%, which is merely good, but not great. Lady and the Tramp slipped a spot to third with 207,000 units / $5.22 million over the week giving it a total of 1.38 million units / $34.46 million after three. This is an excellent run for a catalog title. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1 fell from first to fourth with 154,000 units / $3.55 million for the week giving it totals of 1.40 million units / $32.13 million after three. It is performing much better on DVD. J. Edgar opened in fifth place with 69,000 units / $1.73 million. Its opening week Blu-ray share was just 18%, which is low even for a drama.
Weeds: Season Seven opened in sixth place with 46,000 units / $921,000, which was enough for an opening Blu-ray share of 27%. This is better than most TV on DVD earn. The rest of the new releases were well back with The Son of No One opening in 15th place with just 22,000 units / $410,000. Its opening week Blu-ray share was 46%, which is surprisingly high. Downton Abbey: Season One placed 24th with 11,000 units / $244,000. The Way only manged 26th place with 9,000 units / $178,000. It is a limited release and a drama, so it wasn't a prime Blu-ray release, but an opening week share of 14% is soft.
Overall Blu-ray sales rebounded this week up 54% in terms of units and 65% in terms of dollars when compared to last week. It was also higher compared to last year, albeit with gains of 8% / 30%. DVD sales were essentially flat versus last week, while it was down versus last year, as has usually been the case for a long, long time. The overall Blu-ray share rose to 35% in terms of units and 45% in terms of dollars, which is a solid number all things considered. (There were no visually intensive Blu-ray Blockbusters, for instance.)
Next week new releases include Hugo and mostly nothing else. Puss in Boots might lead the way during its first full week of release. This is bad. Granted, last year's DVD sales were not super strong, but Bambi made its Blu-ray debut and sold more than 1 million units. I don't see 2012 matching that.
Filed under: Video Sales, Lady and the Tramp, Puss in Boots, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1, The Son of No One, J. Edgar, Tower Heist, The Way