Our DVD and Blu-ray sales estimates are based on weekly retail surveys, which we use to build a weekly market share estimate for each title we are tracking. The market share is converted into a weekly sales estimate based on industry reports on the overall size of the market, including reports published in Media Play News.

For example, if our weekly retail survey estimates that a particular title sold 1% of all units that week, and the industry reports sales of 1,500,000 units in total, we will estimate 15,000 units were sold of that title. The consumer spending estimate is based on the average sales price for the title in the retailers we survey.

We refine our estimates from week to week as more data becomes available. In particular, we adjust weekly sales figures for the quarter once the total market estimates are published by the Digital Entertainment Group. Figures will therefore fluctuate each week, and totals for individual titles can go up or down as we update our estimates.

Because sales figures are estimated based on sampling, they will be more accurate for higher-selling titles.

DVD and Blu-ray Releases for February 8th, 2011

February 8th, 2011

Wow. It's a bad week for DVD / Blu-ray releases. While there are a number of first run releases, none of them exactly shout Pick of the Week. The best bet as far as first run releases goes is Paranormal Activity 2, but the screener hasn't arrived yet. Same goes for Thelma & Louise, which is making its Blu-ray debut this week. So in the end I went with Doctor Who: Story 63: The Mutants as the pick of the week. Great story, powerful message, and lots of extras. More...

Featured Blu-ray / DVD Review: Death Race 2

February 2nd, 2011

Death Race 2000 is one of my favorite movies. The remake, Death Race, was not so good, reducing the cool of the original to merely mindless action. Death Race 2 is a prequel to a remake of a really good movie. But each step like this tends to dilute the cool, and there's a chance that by the time we get to this stage, there's nothing left of the original's essence. Is that the case with this franchise? Or were they able to squeeze a little more life out of the idea? More...

DVD Sales: New Release Takes Top Spot

February 1st, 2011

Takers led a list of four new releases that reached the top 30 on this week's sales chart. It won the race with relative ease selling 714,000 units and generating $11.42 million in opening week consumer spending at retail. The Social Network was pushed into second place with 469,000 units for the week and 1.51 million units after two. Its total sales of $19.57 million are a little on the low end, but with its performance during Awards Season heating up, it could last on the chart for a long time. Speaking of which, Despicable Me remained in third place, again, with 253,000 units / $5.09 million for the week giving it totals of 6.74 million units / $117.10 million after six weeks of release. Death Race 2 opened in fourth place with 218,000 / $4.04 million, which is good for this type of release. More...

DVD and Blu-ray Releases for January 18th, 2011

January 17th, 2011

It's a very slow week on the home market with Takers being the biggest first-run release. Admittedly, it did perform better than expected at the box office, but was still only a midlevel hit. The best bet in terms of new releases is Buried, which is coming out on a Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack, but without a DVD only option. However, while that movie is amazing, there are not enough extras to be considered pick of the week material. For that honor we have to go to Futurama: Volume Five, even though it didn't come out this week, or even this year. However, the screener arrived really late, and it is the best release on this week's list. More...