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: Cowboys and Gods: Winning Announcement

August 3rd, 2011

The winners of our Cowboys and Gods contest were determined and they are... More...

DVD and Blu-ray Releases for July 26th, 2011

July 25th, 2011

Summer time at the box office is amazing. From the first weekend in May until sometime in August, there is usually an average of one $100 million dollar movie released per week. This year will have at least three months in a row with at least one $100 million film. On the home market, on the other hand, summer time is crappy. This year has been particularly tiresome, as the spring wasn't a fun time at the box office. The biggest release this week is Source Code, which was only a midlevel hit. To be fair, it is one of the best-reviewed wide releases of the year. On the other hand, neither the DVD nor the Blu-ray are exactly overloaded with extras. More...

Contest: Cowboys and Gods

July 22nd, 2011

Summer is starting to come to a close and that makes the box office prediction contest a little more difficult to set up. For instance, next week there are three wide releases, but quite frankly, none of them seem like big box office hits, so which one should be the target film? Cowboys and Aliens is opening the widest, so that's the film we are going with. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for Cowboys and Aliens. 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 Thor: Tales of Asgard on Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack. Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will also win a copy of Thor: Tales of Asgard on Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack. Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay! More...

Featured Blu-ray / DVD Review: Thor: Tales of Asgard

July 21st, 2011

Thor: Tales of Asgard made its DVD debut just a couple weeks after Thor hit theaters, which was great timing. On the other hand, I had to wait almost two months before the Blu-ray finally arrived on my desk. Was it worth the wait? More...

Blu-ray Sales: The Fix is in for The Mechanic

June 1st, 2011

While The Mechanic had to settle for second place on this week's DVD Sales Chart, it led the way with ease on the Blu-ray Sales Chart with 230,000 units / $3.90 million. Its Blu-ray sales ratio of 37% is strong for a decidedly second-tier release. More...