DVD Sales - Hulk Feeling Blu
November 4, 2008
Plenty of new releases did fantastic business this week, earning first place and three of the top five spots. That new number one release was The Incredible Hulk, which earned $51.33 million from 2.15 million units sold.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull slipped to second place with 1.11 million units sold for the week and a two-week total of 4.15 million units and $93.21 million in revenue. The Strangers opened in third place with 612,000 units for opening week sales of $12.68 million. Iron Man is still the biggest selling DVD of the year with 7.33 million units and $136.94 million in revenue, including 448,000 units / $7.70 million for this past week. The final release in the top five was not a film but a TV on DVD release. Family Guy - Volume 6 sold 271,000 units during its first week on DVD, which generated $7.04 million in consumer retail spending.
The best of the rest of the new releases was Linewatch in 13th place with 58,000 units sold for $994,000. Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed was right behind with 56,000 units sold, but thanks to a higher price it generated $1.02 million in spending. The final new release to chart was The Lazarus Project which placed 18th with 46,000 units / $789,000 in opening week sales.
Blu-ray sales slipped this week by just over 1% to $17.7 million. However, DVD sales were down even more and this led to an increase in Blu-ray's market share. Blu-ray represented 12.6% of total home market sales and 12% of the Top 20 comparison, and in both metrics it was the second best in Blu-ray's history. (Although it was a tie on the Top 20 comparison.) This was aided by unexpectedly strong Blu-ray sales for The Incredible Hulk, which sold an estimated 400,000 units in High Definition. That represents just a hair under 19% of total unit sales, which is the best ever for a day-and-date release. I'm not sure how to explain this, but one can only look at this as a good sign for Blu-ray going forward. If Tinker Bell does half as well on Blu-ray next week, I will be more than impressed.
Filed under: Video Sales, Iron Man, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Incredible Hulk, The Strangers, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed