Blu-ray Sales: Easter Week was Out of This World
April 20, 2015
It was Easter the week the March 31st new releases came out and this had an effect with several, mostly family friendly films earning a boost on the Blu-ray sales chart. Even so, Interstellar opened in first place dominating the rest of the market. The film sold 732,000 units and generated $14.46 million in revenue, for an opening week Blu-ray share of 72%. Granted, this is a film that relies heavily on its special effects to draw in the audience, but that is still a shockingly high percentage.
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies was well back in second place with 209,000 units / $5.85 million for the week giving it totals of 1.02 million units / $28.62 million after two weeks of release. These films were a financial success for the studio, but they didn't quite live up to expectations. Big Hero 6 was one of the family films that earned a boost thanks to Easter. Its sales more than tripled to 168,000 units while its revenue grew to $3.07 million. After two months of release, the film has sold 2.42 million units and generated $45.95 million in sales. Penguins of Madagascar remained in fourth place with 100,000 units / $1.42 million for the week and 433,000 units / $8.09 million in total. The Imitation Game opened in fifth place with 95,000 units / $1.90 million. This is great compared to most limited releases; however, most limited releases don't earn $95 million at the box office and compared to its theatrical run, the film struggled during its first week of release on the home market. It did earn an opening week Blu-ray share of 44%, which is great for a drama.
There were two other wild new releases to chart this week. Wild earned 12th place with 47,000 units / $943,000. Its opening week Blu-ray share was 27%, which is weak for the market as a whole, but fine for a drama. The final new release to chart was Wild Card, which opened in 16th place with 21,000 units / $329,000 for an opening week Blu-ray share of 23%. That's surprisingly low for an action film.
Filed under: Video Sales, Interstellar, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, Penguins of Madagascar, Big Hero 6, Wild Card, The Imitation Game, Wild