DVD Sales: Holiday Wrap-Up
January 20, 2010
Thanks to the holidays, DVD sales numbers were not reported on our usual schedule, but next week we should be back to normal, so it's a perfect time to wrap up some of the interesting notes from over the holidays.
The week after Black Friday saw the release of Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian and Terminator Salvation, neither of which matched expectations, although made up for their poor DVD performance somewhat by selling well on Blu-ray.
Battle of the Smithsonian sold 1.63 million units, which was roughly a third of what the original sold during its first week in stores.
That's not third less, but only a third of.
Salvation was even weaker with just 1.01 million units; granted, the movie wasn't as big a hit as expected, but it still reached $125 million at the box office, so it should have sold more than this.
Its DVD sales were offset by unbelievable Blu-ray sales, as it sold 740,000 units in High Definition.
Overall Blu-ray sales were outstanding at $46.8 million for the week, which was 157% higher than the same week the year before.
The following week saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Price open with an easy win, selling 4.20 million units.
This was below the 6.99 million sold by Order of the Phoenix, but Half-Blood Prince also managed to sell 1.3 million Blu-ray units, which was part of a $79.9 million Blu-ray week.
That was a record for the format.
No other movies sold more than 1 million units, but Julie & Julia and Public Enemies both came close.
The Hangover led the next week with 3.90 million units sold, which was almost as much as the next three releases combined.
It also added 1.23 million in sales on Blu-ray, which was part of a second consecutive record-breaking, $86.1 million, week for the format.
Other new releases to shine this week were Inglourious Basterds at 1.51 million units and G-Force with 1.02 million units sold.
The final full week of the year saw The Hangover remain in top spot with 2.05 million units sold, while District 9 opened in second place with 1.08 million.
The real story of the week were the Blu-ray sales for District 9, which were at 870,000 units.
This is not a record level, but it did represent nearly 45% of total sales, which was a record for a day-and-date theatrical release.
Next week we will be back in the swing of things with the first numbers from 2010.
Filed under: Video Sales, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, The Hangover, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Terminator Salvation, G-Force, District 9, Inglourious Basterds, Public Enemies, Julie & Julia