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.

Theater counts: Black Adam easily repeats while Prey for the Devil arrives for Halloween

October 27th, 2022

To no great surprise, Black Adam will once again be the week’s widest release in North America as the superhero feature will retain all of the 4,402 theaters from its debut weekend in its second outing. The Dwayne Johnson movie snagged a very respectable $67 million over its first three days and has settled in with just over $80 million in domestic earnings and a global take of nearly $156 million so far. This week sees two new films opening in wide release: the pre-Halloween horror flick Prey for the Devil and Call Jane. More...

Theater counts: Black Adam bolts into a stellar 4,402 theaters

October 20th, 2022

As has been the case with many films during the pandemic era, this week’s widest release was originally scheduled to hit theaters last year. Debuting in 4,402 locations, Black Adam positions itself comfortably between Minions: The Rise of Gru (4,391 theaters), and The Dark Knight Rises (4,406 theaters) as the 21st-widest release in history and the fifth widest film to debut this year. Meanwhile, finally making its arrival to North American cinemas, is the George Clooney and Julia Roberts romantic comedy, Ticket to Paradise. The Ol Parker-directed film will show in a respectable 3,543 locations. More...

Weekend predictions: Halloween Ends eyes $50-million opening

October 14th, 2022

After 44 years and 14 films, the Halloween franchise ends this weekend with the appropriately-titled Halloween Ends. Of course, horror franchises have a habit of rising from the grave, so the demise of the franchise is a very tentative prediction. Its box office prospects look a little clearer though, with an opening around $50 million looking very much on the cards. More...

Theater counts: Dune makes landfall in North America

October 21st, 2021

After premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival last month and rolling out in 36 international markets, Dune has finally reached domestic theaters. The feature adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 sci-fi novel showcases an all-star ensemble cast that includes Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson and Jason Momoa, among others. The film, directed by Denis Villeneuve, has a budget of $165m will open in an estimated 4,000 theaters, including IMAX locations and streaming via HBO Max. Dune has scored just over $116 million internationally. More...

Weekend estimates: Halloween kills it with $50.4-million debut

October 17th, 2021

Halloween Kills is continuing the good run of results at the domestic box office this weekend with a very solid opening, which Universal is projecting will just clear $50 million. That’s easily ahead of Friday morning’s predicted $41.2 million, and the second-best weekend for the 43-year-old franchise, only surpassed by the 2018 incarnation. It also means a hat-trick of $50-million-plus weekends to start October. More...

Weekend predictions: Halloween Kills headed to weekend win

October 15th, 2021

Halloween Kills, the 12th installment in the virtually un-killable Halloween franchise, should comfortably top the box office chart this weekend, even it falls well short of the $76.2-million opening weekend earned by its predecessor, simply titled Halloween, back in 2018. It has already banked a respectable $4.850 million from previews in 2,950 theaters on Thursday, and adds another 755 locations today. Here’s what our model has to say about its likely opening, based on what we know so far. I’ll also dig into the prospects for The Last Duel, and see how the weekend as a whole is stacking up. More...

Theater counts: Bond stays the widest release as Halloween Kills and The Last Duel slash into theaters

October 14th, 2021

No Time to Die debuted last weekend with the widest release in nearly two years. Playing in 4,407 locations, the latest in the 007 franchise racked up a solid $55.22 million during its first weekend, and currently sits at $71.6 million after six days of release. Worldwide, the film has brought in an impressive $328 million, and has yet to open in two key markets, China (Oct. 29) and Australia (Nov. 11). This week, No Time to Die keeps its count from last week, which once again makes it the widest release. Also opening this week is fellow franchise film Halloween Kills. The Universal Pictures slasher, starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer and Andi Matichak arrives in 3,705 theaters. More...

Theater counts: Bond is back, and in 4,407 theaters this weekend

October 7th, 2021

The latest Bond movie has finally reached North American shores and hits theaters in large fashion, arriving in a massive 4,407 theaters, which places it 14th on the all-time widest openings list (coming in one spot, and one theater more than 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker). No Time to Die’s opening count also towers over its predecessor, Spectre by nearly 500 theaters. Worldwide, the film has already scored over $121 million ($35 million in the United Kingdom alone). More...

Home Market Releases for January 15th, 2019

January 16th, 2019

The big fall releases are starting to come out on the home market. This week we get Halloween, which was a $100 million domestic hit. However, it is not among the best films on this week’s list. There are three Pick of the Week contenders on the week’s list. There’s the award-nominated Indie film, Madeline’s Madeline, the classic Notorious, and Bad Times at the El Royale, for which I finally got the review done. It was a coin-toss, but in the end, Madeline’s Madeline on Blu-ray won. More...

Weekend Wrap-Up: Halloween Repeats on Top, New Releases are Barely Seen

October 30th, 2018

The month of October ends on a soft note with only one of the new releases we talked about in our prediction reached the top ten over the weekend. And even that film, Hunter Killer, didn’t quite reach our low expectations. Fortunately, Halloween came within a rounding error of predictions with $31.42 million and the overall box office wasn’t too bad at $104 million. Granted, this is 37% lower than last weekend, but this is to be expected for Halloween weekend. More importantly, the overall box office was 37% higher than the same weekend last year. Year-to-date, 2018 has pulled in $9.55 billion, putting it ahead of 2017’s running tally of $8.45 billion. At first glance, this looks like 2018 has a $1 billion lead, but it was actually $999 million, according to our numbers. It will certainly get there by the end of business on Monday. This is a fantastic result, but a short-lived one, as November and December won’t be able to maintain this lead. More...

Weekend Prediction: Will Halloween Boost Horror Holdovers?

October 26th, 2018

There’s only one true wide release of the weekend, Hunter Killer, which isn’t expected to make much of an impact at the box office. (Indivisible and Johnny English Strikes Again are both opening in several hundred theaters and one of them could reach the top ten, but probably not both.) This means Halloween will have no trouble repeating on top, while Venom could hold on better than most, thanks to Halloween being less than a week away. This weekend last year, Jigsaw opened in first place with $16.64 million, while Tyler Perry’s Boo 2 was the only other film to earn more than $10 million. Halloween should earn more than those two did giving 2018 yet another win. More...

Weekend Wrap-Up: Halloween Fastest Horror Opening of 2018, Won’t have a Quiet Run

October 23rd, 2018

Halloween opened on the high end of expectations earning $76.22 million during its opening weekend. This tops The Nun’s previous best opening for a horror film released this year of $53.81 million. Both The Hate U Give and The Old Man and the Gun expanded into the top ten, which also helped the overall box office a little but. Speaking of the overall box office, it rose 21% from last weekend, hitting $165 million. More impressively, this was 72% higher than the same weekend last year. Normally, a year-over-year change this dramatic only happens when there is a misalignment in holidays, but this has been happening a lot this year. Year-to-date, 2018’s lead over 2017 climbed to $960 million or 11.3% at $9.39 billion to $8.44 billion. There’s no way this lead will remain this high at the end of the year, but it would take a serious collapse for 2018 to not finish with a higher total box office than 2017. More...

Weekend Estimates: Halloween Scores Franchise-Best Start, Second-Best October Debut

October 21st, 2018

According to Universal’s numbers, Halloween is going to debut with $77.75 million over the weekend. This is by far the biggest opening in the franchise; in fact, it is the biggest worldwide hit in the franchise after just three days at the domestic box office. Its reviews are 80% positive, while it earned a B plus from CinemaScore, and both of those suggest better-than-average legs, for a horror film. Plus, with actual Halloween just 10 days away, it could hold better next weekend than it otherwise would. I don’t expect it to get to $200 million domestically, but it will become Universal’s second-biggest hit of 2018, at least so far. Internationally, the film looks to pull in $14.3 million in 23 markets. It wasn’t able to match its opening here in any major market, which isn’t surprising given its start here. It will come the closest in Mexico, as it is estimated to make $4.99 million over the weekend. It only managed second place in the U.K. with a projected $3.61 million over the weekend, which is equivalent to a $20 million opening here. More...

2018 Preview: October

October 1st, 2018

September turned out to be a solid month. The Nun beat expectations to become a $100 million hit, while there were also several midlevel hits in the mix. Granted, it lost ground when compared to last September, but last September broke records, and this September held on better than expected. Hopefully this means October will be able to continue 2018’s winning ways. There are several potential $100 million hits, starting with Venom and A Star is Born, which open the first weekend. Meanwhile, both First Man and Halloween could break the century mark later in the month. By comparison, last October, no movie topped $100 million, with Blade Runner 2049 coming the closest. 2018 should extend its lead over 2017 during the full month, potentially by a significant margin. More...

Home Market Releases for September 25th, 2018

September 25th, 2018

This week, Solo: A Star Wars Story hits the home market and while the film missed expectations at the box office, it is still a big enough hit to scare away most of the competition. There are a number of releases on this week’s list that are worth picking up, like Pin Cushion, Welcome to the Dollhouse, as well as Solo itself. As for contenders for Pick of the Week, it is Fraggle Rock: The Complete Series on Blu-ray and nothing else. More...

2014 - Holiday Gift Guide - Part I

November 26th, 2014

This Thursday is Thanksgiving, which means this is Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and a ton of shopping. It also means the first installment of our Holiday Gift Guide. Over the next month, we will talk about TV on DVD releases, independent releases, foreign language releases, classics, etc. but this week we start with Major Movie Releases. These are first run releases, franchise box sets, etc. In some ways, this is better than last year, as there were a wider number of big releases that would make great gifts. However, in other ways it is much weaker. I can't think of a single big franchise box set that came out this year. There are some smaller ones, like the Halloween Box Set, but while the franchise has lasted ten installments and 30 years, how many can you really say are worth repeated viewing? Fortunately, there were plenty of great films to come out this year, starting with what is currently the biggest hit of the year. More...

DVD and Blu-ray Releases for September 23rd, 2014

September 23rd, 2014

This is both a great week on the home market, as well as an amazing week on the home market. There are by my count, at least a dozen releases that could be considered must haves or perfect Christmas gifts, which is great. What makes it amazing is the lack of filler. There are a couple of weak releases here and there, but the hit to miss ratio is as good as I can remember. The biggest release of the week, according to Amazon.com, is the Halloween Complete Collection, but it is not the best release. Contenders for Pick of the Week include a couple of limited releases: Ida - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray and We Are the Best! - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray. However, in the end I went with a TV on DVD release, Modern Family: Season Five - Buy from Amazon: DVD. More...

Note: This list contains actors who appeared in at least two movies in the franchise.

Note: This list contains people who contributed to at least two movies in the franchise.