Blu-ray Sales: Rio Returns to the Top
September 7, 2011
As bad as it was on the DVD sales chart this week, it was worse on the Blu-ray sales chart. The best new release was a catalog title for a direct-to-DVD sequel, which is a terrible sign. As for the only bit of bright news on the chart, Rio returned to first place with 69,000 units / $1.48 million for the week and 1.51 million units / $33.23 million after four.
Priest slipped to second place with 61,000 units / $1.20 million for the week and 248,000 units / $5.44 million after two. The Big Lebowski remained in third place with 39,000 units / $780,000 for the week and 130,000 units / $2.32 million after two. Bambi II opened in fourth place with 36,000 units / $976,000. Its opening week Blu-ray average was quite high for this type of film at 46%; however, since it made its Blu-ray debut concurrent with a DVD re-release, this is not a good indicator of the overall strength of the market. Paul repeated in fifth place with 31,000 units / $634,000 for the week and 313,000 units / $6.47 million.
Blitz was the only other new release to chart as it placed 13th with just 15,000 units / $303,000. Its opening week Blu-ray ratio was just 25%, which is unremarkable, at best.
Christmas shopping season can't come soon enough, as Blu-ray sales continued to dive, reaching the lowest they've been all year. Compared to last week, sales was down 48% in terms of units and 49% in terms of dollars. Compared to last year, Blu-ray sales were up 36% in terms of units, but down 27% in terms of revenue. This disparity can be explained quite easily; this time last year Lost: The Complete Series was released on Blu-ray and sold nearly 40,000 units at close to $200 a shot. DVD sales were also down compared to last year, but didn't fall as fast as Blu-ray sales did on the week-to-week comparison. This resulted in a decline in the overall Blu-ray ratio to 25% in terms of units and 29% in terms of dollars.
Looking ahead, next week's selection of Blu-ray releases is not that much better than this week's selection was, but at least there should be significant gains from last year, which was brutal.
Filed under: Video Sales, The Big Lebowski, Priest, Rio, Bambi II, Paul, Blitz