DVD Sales: New Releases Fail to Overtake Avatar
May 12, 2010
This week's selection of new releases were relatively slim, leaving Avatar on top of the DVD Sales Chart. Over its first full week of release, the film sold 1.77 million units, lifting its total to 5.73 million units and $96.22 million in consumer spending at retail. It is already the second best selling DVD of 2010 and it might take top spot in as few as two weeks.
It's Complicated opened in second place with 711,000 units / $12.09 million. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel rose to third place with 115,000 units / $1.84 million for the week and totals of 3.52 million units / $59.34 million after five. Crazy Heart fell to fourth place with 102,000 units, giving it totals of 475,000 units / $8.97 million after two weeks of release. The Blind Side remained in fifth place, adding 101,000 / $1.59 million to its running tally of 4.26 million units / $69.20 million.
The best of the rest of the wide releases was The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, which sold 97,000 units, generating $1.74 million in opening week sales. The only other new release to chart was The Descent: Part 2, which opened in 11th place with 46,000 units / $982,000. This is much weaker than the original, but not bad comparatively for a direct-to-DVD release.
As expected, Blu-ray sales plummeted this week, down 51% to $32.5 million. This is explained by the decline in Avatar's weekly number and the lack of new releases to compensate. However, this is still 115% more than the same weekend last year, while it represents 15% of the total market and 25% of the top twenty comparison. To emphasize, while the Blu-ray sales were weak compared to last week, they are very strong compared to the overall history of the format. Avatar remained the best-selling Blu-ray of the week with 1.25 million units for the week and about 4 million units in total. It's Complicated opened in second place with 75,000 units, which is strong for its target demographic. Likewise, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus opened with 40,000 units sold, which is good for a limited release. Meanwhile, Tombstone opened with just over 30,000 units and Armageddon opened with just under 30,000 units. These are good results for catalog releases.
Filed under: Video Sales, The Blind Side, It’s Complicated, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Avatar, Crazy Heart, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, The Descent: Part 2