Blu-ray Sales: Our Darkest Hour
April 25, 2012
This literally could turn out to be the worst week of the year on the Blu-ray sales chart. The best-selling new release was The Darkest Hour, which only managed 158,000 units / $3.17 million. The only good news is the film's opening week Blu-ray share, which was an impressive 54%.
War Horse was pushed into second place with 105,000 units / $3.16 million for the week and 435,000 units / $11.39 million after two. The Iron Lady opened in third place with sales of 93,000 units / $1.82. million. Its opening week Blu-ray share was only 29%; however, while that is low for the format, it is actually better than average for the genre. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo rose from tenth place to fourth place with 66,000 units / $1.24 million and for the week, giving it a total of 891,000 units / $18.28 million after four. We Bought a Zoo rounded out the top five with 52,000 units / $1.51 million for the week giving it totals of 249,000 units / $6.03 million after two.
There were no other new releases to chart.
Like I already said, this might turn out to be the worst week on the Blu-ray sales chart for the entire year. There's a chance that late in summer when TV on DVD dominates new releases we will see worse sales, but this is as bad as we've seen it all year thus far. Compared to last week, Blu-ray sales were down 54% in terms of units and 53% in terms of dollars. Compared to last year, sales were even worse, if you can imagine that. Blu-ray plummeted 70% in terms of units and 68% in terms of dollars. If there is any consolation, it's that DVD sales were almost as bad and the overall Blu-ray share wasn't too badly shaken, although it was down to 31% in terms of units and 38% in terms of dollars.
Next week we will finally see some good news on Blu-ray, as we will get the first home market numbers for Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. I am a little worried the Best Buy Exclusive will mess with the numbers, but if it doesn't, then that one release should sell more than the entire market did this week (or roughly 850,000 units / $21 million). By comparison, last year's new releases were led by The King's Speech, which didn't sell a lot of Blu-rays. Unfortunately, last year the DVD sales and the Blu-ray sales were led by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 and 2012 might wind up on the losing end of the year-over-year comparison yet again.
Filed under: Video Sales, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Darkest Hour, War Horse, Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol, We Bought a Zoo, The Iron Lady