DVD Sales: Machete Cuts Through the Competition
January 18, 2011
A total of four new releases reached the top 30 on the sales chart this week. One of those films, Machete, topped the charts with 691,000 units sold and $11.05 million in opening week sales.
Dinner for Schmucks was relatively close behind with 583,000 units / $9.91 million during its opening week. Meanwhile, Despicable Me held on well, slipping to third place with 484,000 units for the week and 6.21 million after four. In total it has sold $106.31 million and hitting the century mark in DVD sales is quite a feat these days. Resident Evil: Afterlife fell from first to fourth with 308,000 units / $5.24 million for the week and 875,000 units / $14.94 million after two. Salt rounded out the top five with 281,000 units / $4.68 million for the week, giving it three-week totals of 1.33 million units / $21.52 million.
The Last Exorcism missed the top five during its opening, landing in seventh place with 236,000 units / $3.98 million, but this was more than it cost to make, so the studio should be happy. Finally, Case 39 opened in 15th place with 155,000 units / $2.79 million and given its struggles theatrically, this should be seen as a respectable result.
Machete led the way on the Blu-ray chart with 475,000 units, which was nearly as much as the next two Blu-rays combined. Resident Evil: Afterlife remained in second place with 265,000 units for the week and close to 750,000 units after two. Inception was in a virtual tie for third place, also with 265,000 units, which is more than it sold on DVD this week. In fact, it might sell more Blu-rays than DVDs by the time is slides off the top 30 chart. That's very impressive, but it is just the beginning of a trend and by this time next year, I believe most visually impressive first run releases will be performing at the same level. (In fact, one or more of the Transformers or the trio of Marvel summer releases might have Blu-ray releases that outsell the DVD releases by a two-to-one margin during the opening week. Something to look forward to.) Despicable Me remained relevant with sales of 215,000, which was enough for fourth place. Finally, Dinner for Schmucks opened in fifth place with 205,000 units. Its Blu-ray share was 26%, which is low compared to most summer blockbusters, but very high for a character driven comedy.
Filed under: Video Sales, Inception, Despicable Me, Salt, Resident Evil: Afterlife, Dinner for Schmucks, Case 39, The Last Exorcism, Machete