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.

Home Market Numbers: Aladdin Shakes Things Up

November 11th, 2015

It was a strange week on the home market, as there were two new releases that could legitimately say they won on the combined DVD and Blu-ray chart for October 18th. San Andreas sold 801,000 units / $16.42 million for an opening week Blu-ray share of 40%. This put it on top of the chart; however, Aladdin arguably had the better week, as it sold 706,000 units / $13.92 million, all of which was on Blu-ray. More...

Home Market Releases for October 13th, 2015

October 13th, 2015

There are two $100 million movies on this week's list of Home Market Releases: Spy, which earned more than $100 million domestically, and Tomorrowland, which merely cost more than $100 million to make. Spy is arguably the best release on this week's list, but the Blu-ray was already named Pick of the Week, so that honor is going to Aladdin's Blu-ray debut this week. More...

Weekend Wrap-Up: Jurassic Still Roaring

June 30th, 2015

As expected, there was a race for the top spot on the box office chart over the weekend; however, it was only a two-way race. Jurassic World and Inside Out both earned more than $50 million over the weekend and were in a relatively tight race for first place. On the other hand, Ted 2 struggled somewhat in third. To be fair, it still made enough to become a hit, but not enough to justify a third installment in the franchise. Meanwhile, Max did fine, assuming it didn't cost more than reported. Overall, the box office fell 25% from last weekend, but it still earned $184 million, which is 2.2% higher than the same weekend last year. Year-to-date, 2015 is ahead of 2014 by 5.1% at $5.37 billion to $5.11 billion. This is a great turnaround for a year that looked like it was going to drop below last year's pace. More...

Weekend Wrap-Up: Jurassic World Maintains Record-Breaking Run

June 23rd, 2015

It looks like Jurassic World is on pace to top The Avengers to become the biggest movie ever, not directed by a Canadian. It earned over $100 million at the weekend and has already passed $400 million. Meanwhile, Inside Out had the second-best opening for a Pixar film. It was a great weekend at the box office and we really needed it. The overall box office was down 9.5% from last weekend, but it was still at $248 million, which is the ninth-biggest combined weekend box office. Compared to last year, the box office was 70% higher this year. Year-to-date, 2015 has pulled in $5.08 billion, which is 5.2% or $250 million over 2014's pace. More...

Weekend Estimates: Pixar’s Second-Best Not Enough to Topple Jurassic World’s Second Weekend

June 21st, 2015

Getting almost perfect reviews, a prime Summer slot, and no direct competition will be enough to propel Inside Out to the second-best opening ever for a Disney-Pixar film, and their best ever for a non-sequel (Toy Story 3 is their best ever with $110.3 million in 2010). But it won’t be enough for the animation house to record its 15th consecutive opening weekend win, thanks to the continued monster performance of Jurassic World. The monster movie is projected to earn $102 million, the second-biggest second weekend of all time. More...

Friday Estimates: Lots of Upside to Inside Out

June 20th, 2015

Inside Out earned first place during its first day of release with an estimated $34.238 million on Friday. By comparison, the most recent Pixar film, Monsters University, pulled in $30.47 million during its first day of release. With Jurassic World in second place with $29 million on Friday, could Inside Out pull off a surprise weekend win? More...

Weekend Predictions: Inside Out and Upside Down

June 19th, 2015

For the past few months, 2015 had been struggling to keep pace with 2014. Worse still, 2014 wasn't a great year at the box office either. However, that changed with the record-breaking release of Jurassic World. Even if the film falls 60% this weekend, it will still lead the way over Inside Out. For the first time in their history, a Pixar film is expected to open in second place, but they have a good shot of continuing their record of having an opening weekend between $62.58 million and $70.47 million (which has been true of all but three of their films since 2001). That's incredible reliability. Dope is the other wide release, but it is barely opening truly wide and the worst case scenario has it failing to reach the top five. This weekend last year, there were five films that earned $10 million or more. This year, there might be just two. However, last year, Think Like a Man Too was the top film with under $30 million. Jurassic World might earn three times than and Inside Out should at least double that. 2015 should be carried on Jurassic World's wave and easily come out on top of the year-over-year competition. More...

Contest: Documenting Your Success

June 12th, 2015

While there are technically two wide releases coming out next week, Inside Out and Dope, Inside Out is by far the bigger of the two releases. As such, is is the target film for this week's Box Office Prediction contest. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for Inside Out.

Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going over, will win a Frankenprize featuring one of the three documentaries we are giving away this week: If You Build It on DVD. Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will win a Frankenprize featuring The Swirl on DVD. Finally, we will be choosing an entrant from the group of people who haven't won, or haven't won recently, and they will also win a Frankenprize featuring Where Was God? on DVD. Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay! More...

2015 Preview: June

June 1st, 2015

May turned out to be softer than anticipated with The Avengers: Age of Ultron missing expectations by about $100 million. Additionally, only Pitch Perfect 2 really topped expectations. May 2015 kept pace with May of 2014, more or less. June doesn't have any films as strong as Age of Ultron, but there are two films that should have no trouble getting to $200 million. Those two films are Jurassic World and Inside Out and I'm not sure which one will turn out to be the biggest hit of the month. Last June, the biggest hit was Transformers: Age of Extinction, but both Jurassic World and Inside Out should top that film, albeit by small margins. On the other hand, last June had four other films that reached $100 million, while this time around only Spy! and Ted 2 have a real shot at that milestone. 2015 is stronger at the top, but has weaker depth. It will be interesting to see if 2015 will keep pace with 2014 over the course of the full month. More...