DVD Sales - A Prince's Ransom
December 15, 2008
New releases dominated the top of the sales chart this week, earning the top three spots. This included The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, which sold 3.34 million units and generated $54.72 million in revenue.
Wanted was well back, at least in terms of units sold with 2.34 million; however, thanks to a higher per unit price, its revenues were much closer to the top at $49.32 million. The third film of the trifecta of new releases was Step Brothers with 1.60 million units and $29.38 million in opening week sales. Hancock was pushed from first to fourth with 1.02 million units and $20.21 million for two-week totals of 4.02 million units and $80.85 million. WALL-E was the final film in the top five, selling an additional 840,000 units for sales of $13.34 million.
It is now just a rounding error behind Iron Man for top seller in 2008 at 8.83 million units. On the other hand, it is a least a couple of weeks away in terms of raw dollars with $153.81 million compared to $163.84 million.
The best of the rest of the new releases was X-Files - I Want to Believe, which placed seventh with 353,000 units sold for opening week spending of $7.56 million. This is not bad considering its struggles at the domestic box office, and it could help it show a profit, eventually. The final new release to chart was The Longshots with $3.47 million in sales from 174,000 units sold.
The post Black Friday week saw Blu-ray sales slump 14.6% to $23.6 million. However, that was the third best week in the history of the format. Also, DVD sales slumped by a much greater percentage leaving Blu-ray with nearly 9.0% of total home market sales, which is better than any week outside the fourth quarter of 2008. On the Top 20 comparison, Blu-ray grabbed 11%, which is tied for fifth best ever. With reports suggesting The Dark Knight will sell more than 1 million copies on Blu-ray during its first week of release, the news in fantastic for the format.
Filed under: Video Sales, The Dark Knight, Hancock, WALL-E, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Wanted, Step Brothers, The X-Files: I Want to Believe, The Longshots