Blu-ray Sales: Rio Returns to the Top
September 14, 2011
While Rio fell to third place on the DVD sales chart this week, it remained in first place on the Blu-ray sales chart with 70,000 units sold and $1.40 million in sales. Its totals reached 1.58 million units sold and $34.63 million in total sales.
The best new release was Sons of Anarchy: Season Three, which sold 55,000 units, while its opening week sales of $2.50 million was number one one the chart. Its opening Blu-ray ratio was just 17%, but while this is low for the format as a whole, it is not terrible for a TV on DVD release. Madea's Big Happy Family opened in third place with just 37,000 units / $832,000. It's the wrong genre for Blu-ray, but its opening week ratio was just 9%, and that's still lower than expected. Priest added 27,000 units / $667,000 to its running tallies, which now sit at 275,000 units / $6.11 million. The Vampire Diaries: Season Two opened in fifth place with 25,000 units / $1.07 million. An opening week Blu-ray ratio of 16% is what you would expect for a TV on DVD release with this target demographic.
A couple of catalog titles also opened in the top ten. The Nightmare Before Christmas was boosted by the release of the 3D Edition and earned seventh place with 20,000 units / $743,000. Top Gun's Anniversary Edtion helped it grab eighth place with 19,000 units / $205,000. Further down the list we find House, M.D.: Season Seven in 15th with 12,000 units / $526,000. Its opening week Blu-ray ratio was 12%, but it's a TV on DVD release, and a drama as well, so this was not unexpected. Spice and Wolf: Season Two debuted in 19th place with 11,000 / $531,000 and its rare for an Anime release to chart. Finally we get to Prom in 26th place with just 8,000 units / $206,000. It opened with a Blu-ray ratio of 20%, which is quite good for this genre / target demographic.
Blu-ray sales were mixed compared to last week down 6% in terms of units, but up 11% in terms of dollars. Compared to last year, Blu-ray sales were up 46% in terms of units and 25% in terms of revenue. DVD sales were significantly higher than last week, which led to the total Blu-ray ratio falling to just 21% in terms of units and 24% in terms of dollars. However, this is arguably the worst time of year for this comparison, as many DVD releases are TV on DVD, which tend to not have Blu-ray equivalents, or if they do, they don't sell nearly as well. By comparison, DVD fell compared to this week last year so the Blu-ray ratio did show considerable growth from the 12% / 15% earned last year.
The Blu-ray prospects for next week are a lot more impressive, as the new releases will include the first three days of X-Men: First Class's release. On the other hand, this week last year was arguably the worst week of the year when it came to Blu-ray releases. (The week ending April 18th sold more units, but generated less revenue.) There's a chance X-Men will sell more Blu-rays during its opening day than the entire market sold last year (about 337,000 units).
Filed under: Video Sales, Top Gun, , Priest, Rio, Madea’s Big Happy Family, X-Men: First Class, Prom