Home Market Numbers: March 3rd, 2013: Twilight Sends Mixed Signals
April 19, 2013
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2 was one of four releases from the franchise to come out this week on Blu-ray. Normally it would be great news for the Blu-ray market when a monster hit like this comes out; however, the target demographic isn't the prime demographic for Blu-ray. The overall sales actually fell when compared to last week, albeit by less than 2% in terms of units and 15% in terms of revenue. Additionally, sales of 1.61 million units / $37.46 million for the week were 94% / 79% higher than the same weekend last year. You can't complain about that. The overall Blu-ray share took a beating falling to 27% in terms of units and 32% in terms of revenue. This is just an anomaly given the top release(s).
The DVD market was a lot stronger this week when compared to last week. There were 54% more units sold reaching 4.43 million, while revenue rose 62% to $78.14 million. Growth from last year was very similar at 42% in terms of units and 65% in terms of revenue.
One last note for the week... Our combined (Blu-ray and DVD) sales estimate for Breaking Dawn, Part 2, is 2.76 million units, which is quite a bit lower than Lionsgate's report of 3.85 million units. There are a couple of reasons for this difference. First, Lionsgate may have counted the WalMart exclusive 2-disc set, which sold another 590,000 units or so. Second, our tracking is for the US, and Lionsgate probably included Canadian sales in their figure. If one assumes Canadian sales were 8% of US sales, combining all the numbers together gives an estimated 3.62 million units in total for the week -- very close to Lionsgate's figure.
Wreck-It Ralph was the biggest release from next week's crop of new releases and could lead both DVD and Blu-ray. On the other hand, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2's first full week on the home market might be enough to keep it in first place. Last year, The Immortals led on new releases on DVD and Blu-ray, if you go by units. If you go by revenue, Game of Thrones: Season Two was the champion. It will be interesting to see if 2013 can win again.
Filed under: DVD and Blu-ray Releases, Video Sales, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2, Twilight