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.

Contest: Prizes of Nightmare Proportions

April 22nd, 2010

A Nightmare on Elm Street will likely be the only saturation level release next week and it is clearly the best shot at top spot. But I think the studio would agree, more importantly, it is the target film in this week's box office prediction contest. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for A Nightmare on Elm Street. Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going over, will win a copy of Planet Hulk on Blu-ray. Meanwhile, whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will win a copy of Wolverine & X-Men: Fate of the Future on DVD. Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay! More...

DVD and Blu-ray Releases for March 23rd, 2010

March 23rd, 2010

An excellent week with at least four releases that are worthy of Pick of the Week honors: The African Queen, Mad Men: Season Three, and both Toy Story Blu-rays. (In addition, there are several other releases that are worth picking up.) I found it impossible to limit my pick to just one, so I'm going with the Toy Story and Toy Story 2 Blu-ray / DVD Combo sets as the Pick of the Week. More...

Featured Blu-ray / DVD Review: Planet Hulk

March 18th, 2010

Lionsgate has released a number of direct-to-DVD Marvel movies in the past. Of those, many would call Hulk vs. the best. So there are high expectations for Planet Hulk to be at least as strong as the previous Hulk release. More...

DVD Sales: Zombies Storm to the Top

March 3rd, 2010

New releases were able to take four of the top five spots on this week's sales chart. This includes Zombieland, which took the top spot with 975,000 units and $16.15 million in opening week consumer spending at retail. Michael Jackson's This Is It was pushed into second place with a solid weekly total of 562,000 units, to lift its total to 2.08 million units and $33.22 million. Love Happens opened in third place with a mere 236,000 units for a total of $4.72 million during its opening week. Amelia also struggled with debut sales of just 205,000 units ($3.69 million). The direct-to-DVD release Planet Hulk opened in fifth place with 153,000 units / $2.32 million, which is strong for this type of release. More...