DVD Sales - Twilight Shines Bright
March 31, 2009
It was a strange week on the sales chart, as the best new release didn't come out last Tuesday.
Twilight came out on Saturday, sold an estimated 3 million units on its first day and 4.65 million units over two.
And with that, it instantly became the second-best-selling DVD of 2009 in terms of units sold, and the best in terms of raw dollars.
Pinocchio was pushed to second place with 470,000 units for the week to give the film a total of 1.87 million units sold and $31.78 million.
Barbie Presents: Thumbelina opened in third place with 364,000 units and $5.38 million, which is very strong for a direct-to-DVD release.
Role Models landed in fourth place with 325,000 units for the week, giving it 1.39 million units and $23.54 million in revenue after two weeks of release.
In the meantime, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, has made $42.42 million after three weeks, including $4.19 million from 262,000 units this past week.
Just missing the top five was Punisher: War Zone with 251,000 units sold for $4.56 million.
Bolt placed 13th with just 72,000 units / $1.20 million in sales.
However, it was released on Sunday, meaning this was just one day's worth of sales, and it was supposed to be released on Blu-ray only, although obviously that wasn't the case, or there would have been no DVD sales.
The final new release to chart was JAG - The Eighth Season, which placed 19th with 52,000 units, while its sales of $2.05 million was 10th best for the week.
Overall Blu-ray sales again grew this week, this time up 12% to $18.8 million.
Strangely, while this was the second best total for the year, the year-to-year growth was the weakest at just 5.9%.
Why was this?
Simple.
This time last year I Am Legend came out on Blu-ray and was one of the biggest hits at that time.
This year the biggest hit was Twilight, which was not released on Blu-ray in all stores, but as an exclusive at Best Buy and Target.
However, estimates have the film selling anywhere from 150,000 units to 350,000 units, depending on which source is accurate.
(I've seen three different sets of numbers, and none even come close to agreeing.)
Other highlights for the week include Punisher: War Zone at 60,000 units while Bolt sold 18,000 units in just one day.
Next week it's Bond, lots of Bond, and that will make for an interesting week for High Definition.
Filed under: Video Sales, Twilight, Bolt, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Role Models, Punisher: War Zone