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.

Weekend predictions: will Avatar get an Oscar boost? Can Infinity Pool or Left Behind break through?

January 27th, 2023

The box office performance of Avatar: The Way of Water certainly won’t be harmed this weekend by its 4 Oscar nominations (including Best Picture). How much it will help is the pertinent question for our weekend predictions. It’s the only film from last weekend’s top 10 that looks likely to get a bump from the nominations. One film that wasn’t in the top 10 last weekend could be revived by its Oscar noms: The Fabelmans will add a thousand theaters and try to ride its seven nominations to the best weekend of its run so far. Other Oscar hopefuls expanding this weekend include The Banshees of Inisherin (back in 1,205 theaters), Women Talking (adding 553 locations to play in 707 theaters), Elvis (rereleased in 841 theaters), and Tár, which expands from 106 to 537 movie theaters. Going up against all that are three new releases: Infinity Pool, Left Behind: Rise of the Antichrist, and Fear. That’s a lot of competition in the lower reaches of the top 10, but Avatar is in little danger of losing its top spot. More...