Blu-ray Sales: Potter Still Has Life on High Definition
May 12, 2011
While no new release made much of an impact on the Blu-ray sales chart this week, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I was still able to show some strength on top with 313,000 units sold for the week and 2.62 million units sold after three. Its total revenue is now $60.37 million and by comparison, only Avatar has been able to crack $100 million in Blu-ray sales.
The King's Speech was well back in second place with 102,000 units sold for the week and 317,000 units after two. Tron: Legacy rose to third place with 87,000 units sold for the week, while its totals reached 1.33 million units / $32.10 million. This is slightly more than it has sold on DVD in terms of units, and much better in terms of dollars, which is impressive; however, I was hoping for more. Tangled was roughly 100 units behind in fourth place, but its running tally is now 2.39 million units / $56.64 million, which shows that being a kids movie is not longer a detriment for a High Definition release. Rounding out the top five was Life with 47,000 units, which is substantially more than is sold on DVD for the week for the week, while thanks to its high per unit price common to TV releases, it was fourth in terms of dollars at $1.98 million.
The best new release of the week was well back in tenth place. Human Planet opened with 32,000 units, which was a little more than what it sold on DVD. The only other new release to crack to the top 20 was South Park: Season 14 in 16th place at just under 23,000 units.
In terms of units sold, the overall Blu-ray market was down 12.5% from last week and 47% from last year. There were multiple factors for this sharp declining, including, as I mentioned before, a particularly brutal week in terms of new releases. It was also the week after Easter, and the sales that accompany that holiday. Meanwhile this week last year Avatar was still selling great, and as we've seen at the box office, it's really unfair to expect sales to be the same without the highest grossing film of all time. However, because of the strength of a few TV releases, Blu-ray was not as weak in terms of dollars down 39% from last week, but up 1% from last year. Blu-ray did score a solid 26% of the total market in terms of units sold and 34% in terms of dollars.
Filed under: Video Sales, Tron: Legacy, Tangled, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I, The King’s Speech