Blu-ray Sales: Parrots Hold Off Alien Invasion
August 24, 2011
Despite six new releases in the top ten on the Blu-ray sales chart this past week, Rio was able to remain on top with 261,000 units / $7.30 million over the week and 1.29 million units / $28.67 million after two.
Paul was close behind in second place with 228,000 units / $4.71 million. Its opening week Blu-ray ratio was 48%, which is absolutely fantastic. Granted, this film was aimed at the perfect demographic to sell well on High Definition, but this is still a great start. The Fox And The Hound franchise made its Blu-ray debut and landed in third place with 132,000 units / $3.33 million. This is more than it sold on DVD, but it is more accurate to call it a Blu-ray catalog release and not a concurrent release, so this measure is not as useful. Your Highness opened in fourth place with 125,000 units / $2.60 million, giving it a Blu-ray ratio of 48%. Mars Needs Moms debuted in fifth place with 85,000 units / $2.28 million. Its opening week Blu-ray ratio was a surprisingly strong 46% and is further evidence that High Definition is beyond early adapters and while it hasn't overtaken DVD, it's coming closer and closer.
The next best new release was Jumping the Broom; however, while the film debuted in second place on Blu-ray with just 52,000 units / $1.23 million in sales. Its opening week Blu-ray ratio was a mere 14%, which is low even compared to other releases aimed at the same target demographic. The only other new release to chart was Super, which opened in eighth place with 32,000 units / $494,000. Its opening week Blu-ray ratio was 46%, meaning four of the five first run releases that charted earned Blu-ray ratios in the high 40% range.
The overall Blu-ray market slipped a bit from last week, down 23% in terms of units and 18% in terms of dollars. Compared to last year, Blu-ray sales were up an astounding 119% in terms of units and 82% in terms of revenue, which is great news as we near the Christmas shopping season. On the other hand, DVD sales were actually down when compared to last year, which really helped the Blu-ray ratios for the week. Nearly 33% of all units sold were on Blu-ray, while the format accounted for 42% of all revenue, which was virtually identical to the results from last week.
Looking ahead, this week last year saw a couple of new releases that did well on the DVD sales chart, but really struggled on Blu-ray. Unfortunately, the same will likely be true this year, as next week's batch of new releases is also very weak. We should still see growth compared to last year, but not compared to this week.
Filed under: Video Sales, The Fox and the Hound, Your Highness, Rio, The Fox and the Hound 2, Mars Needs Moms, Paul, Jumping the Broom, Super