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 Sales: How to Tops the Chart

October 26th, 2010

We had a new number one release on this week's sales chart, with How to Train Your Dragon dominating with 1.87 million units sold / $39.63 million in opening week sales. More...

DVD and Blu-ray Releases for October 12th, 2010

October 11th, 2010

A strange week for the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report, as there are only five featured reviews for releases coming out this week. However, there are also eight featured reviews for releases that arrived late, plus another eight or so that came out this week where the screener is late. (There's a couple where I don't know if they will or will not arrive.) The Pick of the Week is one such release, How to Train Your Dragon on Blu-ray / DVD Combo, but be warned, that movie isn't released to the home market till Friday. More...

Toys Remain Brisk Sellers

June 28th, 2010

It was no surprise that Toy Story 3 was able to remain on top of the box office chart for the second weekend in a row. Also, the new releases combined did about as well as expected. Unfortunately, "as well as expected" still left the box office down 17% from last weekend at $165 million. Coincidentally, it was also down 17% from last year. 2010 is still leading 2009, but its margin is slipping and, as of the end of the weekend, it is just 2.1% ahead at $5.22 billion to $5.11 billion. More...

Weekend Estimates: Toy Story Holds Off Impressive Debut by Grown Ups

June 27th, 2010

As expected, Toy Story 3 won a second straight weekend at the box office, and its decline of 47% wasn't bad for a movie that opened with over $100 million -- in fact, it's slightly better than WALL-E managed in its second weekend. The story of the weekend, however, is the $41 million opening for the critically mauled Grown Ups, which showed that Adam Sandler and gang still have an impressively loyal following. The day-by-day performance of the movie doesn't look particularly strong though, and the weekend estimate might prove to be a little optimistic. More...

Century Mark for Oldest Digital Franchise

June 21st, 2010

It has been 15 years since Pixar essentially created the digital animation market. In that time, it has proven to be the most consistent studio both in terms of quality and box office success. That was reinforced this weekend, as Toy Story 3 easily won the box office race, setting a few records along the way. Overall, the box office brought in $199 million, which was the best weekend of 2010 since the first weekend of the year (when Avatar was still dominating the chart). Box office was up nearly 32% from last weekend, and more importantly, up just over 32% from last year. 2010 has now earned an impressive $4.95 billion, which is is 4% higher than last year's pace. However, a lot of this is due to the inflated 3D ticket prices and attendance is still down more than 2% from last year. More...

Weekend Estimates: Toy Story 3 Has Best Opening Ever for Pixar

June 20th, 2010

As expected, Toy Story 3 is dominating this weekend at the box office, and it is heading for a record opening for Pixar. Disney is projecting a $109 million opening weekend, which is significantly ahead of the $70 million opening posted by The Incredibles back in 2004. 3D tickets sales and general ticket price inflation helped the cause, of course, but it's still a very impressive result, to go with Disney's success with Alice in Wonderland earlier in the year. More...

Weekend Preview: Pixar Turns it Up to Eleven

June 17th, 2010

Pixar releases its eleventh feature-length film this weekend. And considering its previous ten have all opened in first place (assuming you discount prestige limited releases) this is reason for Disney to celebrate. In fact, it could be reason for the industry as a whole to celebrate, considering more than 10 million tickets could be sold for this movie, which means more than 10 million people watching trailers for upcoming releases, seeing posters for new movies, etc. Compared to last year, Toy Story 3 could make more than the top five combined, which should help boost 2010's lead over 2009. More...

2010 Preview: June

June 1st, 2010

So far this summer the disappointments are outnumbering the pleasant surprises by a disturbing margin. Granted, we've only just finished May, but none of the May wide releases met expectations. None. Iron Man 2 was still a massive hit, but no film since then has come close to matching its box office prowess and we are coming close to hitting the panic button at the box office. Worse still, June of 2009 was better than expected with two massive hits that came out of nowhere. Plus, there was the release of the Revenge of the Fallen, which for much of the year looked like it would be the biggest hit of 2009. So, do we have any films likely to do as well as Revenge this June? Maybe. And hopefully we will have more depth, because outside those three films, the rest of June 2009 struggled. More...