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.

DVD Sales: Prince is the King of New Releases

September 28th, 2010

New releases flooded the sales chart this week, taking the top nine spots, plus a couple more in the top 30. Leading the way was Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time with a disappointing opening week of 664,000 units and consumer spending at retail of $15.05 million. It was relatively better on Blu-ray, however. Letters to Juliet opened in second place with 486,000 units and $8.26 million, which is fine given the film's theatrical run. Barbie: A Fashion Fairytale opened in third place with $283,000 units / $3.95 million, which is huge for a direct-to-DVD franchise. More...

Featured Blu-ray / DVD Review: Just Wright

September 11th, 2010

Just Wright was never expected to be a blockbuster hit, but I think it is safe to say the studio was expecting more than $21.52 million theatrically. Personally, I was expecting double that amount. So is this a case of a good film being unfairly overlooked, or was is destined to struggle at the box office. More...

Summer Continues to be Soft

May 25th, 2010

I'm starting to get a little concerned about summer. Granted, we are only three weeks in, but so far we have had two films that came short of high expectations and another that was expected to struggle at the box office and did. This time around, the number one movie failed to meet even the low end of expectations and the overall box office managed just a hair under $150 million. This was 8% more than last weekend, but 15% lower than the same weekend last year. Granted, this time last year was Memorial Day long weekend, so the comparison isn't entirely fair. But still troubling. Year-to-date, 2010 has amassed $4.04 billion, which is 4.8% higher than last year, but the boom in 3D films and the higher ticket prices that go with it means that attendance is down 1.7%. More...

Robin Hood Rich, but Can't Top Tony Stark

May 17th, 2010

The overall box office this past weekend was adequate. While three of the top five films were unable to match Thursday's predictions, none were off by a significant degree. All combined, the box office brought in $139 million, which was down 22% compared to last week. Again, this was expected. Compared to last year it was higher, but by a mere 1.3%. Not enough to keep pace with inflation. Year-to-date, 2010 is still ahead of 2009 at $3.85 billion to $3.62 billion. However, due to the influx of 3D ticket sales and the much higher ticket prices they command, attendance is actually down by a fraction of a percent. It's nothing to worry about at the moment, but it is still interesting. More...

Weekend Estimates: Iron Man Sees Off Robin Hood

May 16th, 2010

This Summer's first blockbuster face-off ended with a victory for Iron Man 2 as the superhero actioner saw off the medieval actioner, Robin Hood. Both movies enjoyed weekends roughly in line with expectations. Iron Man 2 posted a respectable 59% drop from its opening weekend to earn $53 million, and take its domestic box office total to $212 million. With another $210 million internationally, the movie is well on its way to topping Iron Man's $582 million worldwide tally. Robin Hood couldn't match that level of performance, but posted a decent $37.1 million opening in North America, and earned an estimated $77 million internationally, to take it past $100 million worldwide on its first weekend. More...

Robin Hood Ready to Steal the Box Office Crown?

May 13th, 2010

The second weekend in May tends to be weak at the box office; for instance, it was the second weekend of May that saw the release of Speed Racer and Poseidon, just to name two recent examples. It is unlikely that Robin Hood will do that poorly at the box office; in fact, it might open with more than Speed Racer made in total. If it can, it will go a long way towards helping 2010 keep pace with last year. But even if it does, it will likely have to settle for second place. More...

2010 Preview: May

May 1st, 2010

It's summertime! April started off okay, but ended with a thud. In fact, How to Train Your Dragon was arguably the biggest box office draw of the month, and it opened in March. That said, it's May, and that means there's a clean slate for the box office, as even under the best of circumstances holdovers mean very little at the beginning of the month. As long as the overall box office is healthy, we should be fine. And given the number of $100 million hits that have opened in 2010 so far, plus the $300 million hit that is Alice in Wonderland, I think it is fair to say that we will be fine. The real question is how well May 2010 will compare to last year, when we had six $100 million movies including two that reached $200 million. This time around there's one less weekend, so we will need help from some of the counter programming to match that number. Since there are only three films that you could call counter programming, this could be a problem. More...