Nielsen VideoScan/Home Media Magazine: Blu-ray/DVD/HD DVD Stats (Updated Weekly)

[admin]

Stats:

For the week ending 23rd August 2009, here are the stats:

Percentage of revenue:
Blu-ray vs DVD: 7.89% vs 92.11%

Blu-ray sales down 15.81% compared to last week, total spending: $13.26 million
DVD sales up 19.24% compared to last week, total spending: $154.87 million

You can read the latest digital edition of HMM (August 31 Issue) with the above stats here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom333278DCB/index.php?startid=2

Top 10:

Hannah Montana: The Movie was the top title for the week, comfortably beating the second place The Last House on the Left. Last week's top title, I Love You, Man, dropped to third place.

Other new releases in the top 10 this week include the TV Blu-ray titles Dexter: Season 3 and Sons of Anarchy: Season 1, at 5th and 8th respectively. True Blood: Season 1, although not a new release, was 9th.

The rest of the top 10 were titles released in the past few weeks, including Watchmen which is still going strong at 4th. Fast & Furious, Coraline and 17 Again round off the list at 6th, 7th and 10th.

Market Share:

Watchmen was this week's top Blu-ray title in terms of market share, getting a strong 33.68%, practically double that your typical Blu-ray new release - it's not bad after nearly a month after its original release. Discount probably accounted for True Blood hitting the top 10 charts again, it was second place with 26.49%. In a blog I wrote recently, I discussed the relative value of various forms of digital entertainment, including Blu-ray TV boxsets, which represent very good value for money, even better value than your typical DVD movie based on an analysis on price versus the number of minutes of entertainment you get. For the other TV on Blu-ray titles, they did less well. Sons of Anarchy: Season One got a respectable 12.92%, but Dexter: Season Three only managed 7.4%. My blog also mentioned that TV on DVD was even better value than TV on Blu-ray, and it seems some other people agree as well.

Hannah Montana: The Movie wasn't on the list because it came in Disney's now common Blu-ray + DVD combo sets, which makes it hard to report on market share figures without it heavily distorted towards DVD (in fact, counting the BD+DVD combo, there are actually 3 DVD editions of the movie, as opposed to just a single Blu-ray version, that also came with the DVD version). The Last House on the Left didn't suffer from this, but it only had 13.39% market share. Couple this relatively low market share figure, and the fact that it was the second best selling Blu-ray title of the week, it suggests that the DVD version did huge business which then added to the Hannah Montana figures, meant a good week for DVD (which saw a 19% jump in sales compared to last week, compared to a 15% drop for Blu-ray).

The recently released hit titles like Fast & Furious, Taken, Gran Torino, Push, Knowing ... continue to do well on Blu-ray as compared to on DVD, despite not selling as well on either format anymore.

The complete Top 20 best sellers and Blu-ray market share tables can be seen here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom333278DCB/index.php?startid=8

[admin]

Stats:

For the week ending 30th August 2009, here are the stats:

Percentage of revenue:
Blu-ray vs DVD: 7.13% vs 92.87%

Blu-ray sales down 20.66% compared to last week, total spending: $10.52 million
DVD sales down 11.49% compared to last week, total spending: $137.08 million

You can read the latest digital edition of HMM (September 7-13 Issue) with the above stats here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom189767DVB/index.php?startid=3

Top 10:

This week's number one spot was closely fought over by Fighting and Adventureland, with Fighting narrowly (and I mean narrowly) beating out Adventureland. Smallville: The Complete Eighth Season was third place, selling well for a TV show boxset, which is increasing in popularity as shown by the frequency in which such boxsets appear in the top 10.

The fifth placed title, Duplicity, just behind Watchmen, which is maintaining it's run in the top 10 much like The Dark Knight or Iron Man of last year.

The rest of the top 10 were titles from recent weeks, and a place for an old favourite (and a must-have for Blu-ray fans), Planet Earth at 7th. Last week's number one, Hannah Montana: The Movie, slipped to 6th, while Fast & Furious, The Last House on the Left and I Love You, Man rounded off the list at 8th, 9th and 10th respectively.

Without big hitters in the new release column, this week's Blu-ray numbers are fairly average compared to recent weeks.

Market Share:

Taken topped this week's market share charts with just slightly more than 1 in 3 copies of the movie sold being on the Blu-ray format. Watchmen was closely behind on 31%.

Of this week's new releases, Adventureland was the highest placed title, at 14.96%, lower than what you would normally get with other titles which are considered more major releases. Fighting did even worse with only 11.08%, and Duplicity barely made the list with only 7.59% market share. These three titles explain why Blu-ray's overall market share dropped to 7%, from the recent high of 16%.

The complete Top 20 best sellers and Blu-ray market share tables can be seen here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom189767DVB/index.php?startid=9

[admin]

Stats:

For the week ending 6th September 2009, here are the stats:

Percentage of revenue:
Blu-ray vs DVD: 11.32% vs 88.68%

All sales by $ volume (Percentage of Total Sales):
Blu-ray sales up 49.81% compared to last week, total spending: $15.76 million
DVD sales down 9.94% compared to last week, total spending: $123.46 million

You can read the latest digital edition of HMM (September 14-20 Issue) with the above stats here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom236779SVB/index.php?startid=3

Top 10:

The box office smash Gladiator, topped this week's charts. Being a new to Blu-ray only release, this pushed the Blu-ray numbers higher without adding anything to the DVD version, which explains the big difference between this week's results and last week's (which were poor for Blu-ray). In addition, Braveheart was also released for the first time on Blu-ray.

The third place was Disney's Earth, followed by State of Play.

Continuing the theme of TV show boxset doing well, Heroes: Season 3 managed to grab 5th place and Supernatural: Season 4 managed a 7th place finish as well. While not a new release, True Blood: Season 1 just got in there at 10th as well.

The rest of the top 10 were well occupied by recent releases, including Watchmen at 6th, Fast & Furious at 8th and The Dark Knight back in the top 10 at 9th.

The fact that the top 5 were all new releases, and that the top 2 were both "Blu-ray only" releases, it helped to push the Blu-ray numbers up compared to last week, but still well short of recent highs.

Market Share:

The Dark Knight led the market share charts, most likely due to a sale of some kind. Watchmen was second with 29% of the sales belonging to the Blu-ray version.

Of this week's new releases, as mentioned above both Gladiator and Braveheart were Blu-ray only releases, and so does not belong in the market share charts which only includes concurrent DVD + Blu-ray releases. Earth was third place on both the sales and market share charts, with an impressive 25.73%. State of Play and Heroes: S3 did less well, both at around 13% each, below the average of around 18% for new releases.

The complete Top 20 best sellers and Blu-ray market share tables can be seen here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom236779SVB/index.php?startid=13

[admin]

Stats:

For the week ending 13th September 2009, here are the stats:

Percentage of revenue:
Blu-ray vs DVD: 10.4% vs 89.6%

Blu-ray sales down 23.54% compared to last week, total spending: $12.05 million
DVD sales down 15.87% compared to last week, total spending: $103.87 million

You can read the latest digital edition of HMM (September 21-27 Issue) with the above stats here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom777565RDE/index.php?startid=1

Top 10:

More of a case of which format dropped the most in sales compared to the previous week, in which DVD sales dropped by a smaller number than Blu-ray sales, thus giving it slightly more market share.

Crank 2: High Voltage was this week's number one selling Blu-ray title, comfortably outselling last week's number one, and this week's number two, Gladiator (Braveheart slipped to 6th). The Office: Season 5 was closely behind in third place, while fourth place was also a TV boxsetL: Fringe - Season 1.

And that was it for new releases. Earth, The Dark Knight, State of Play, Iron Man and Watchmen rounded off the list at 5th, and 7th through 10th.

The lack of new releases meant overall sales were down.

Market Share:

The Dark Knight again leads the market share charts, with 55% of all sales of the movie belong to Blu-ray. Watchmen, Iron Man, were second and third.

Of this week's new releases, Crank 2 got 22.04%, which is quite good for a new release. Another new release, Fringe: Season 1, got 20.22% as well, and high for a TV show boxset.

The complete Top 20 best sellers and Blu-ray market share tables can be seen here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom777565RDE/index.php?startid=9

[dr_ml422]

Some of the numbers for sales and market share regarding Blu-ray are pretty consistent to their following. So even though they'll be smaller compared to DVD unless there's a dramatic drop it still shows some promise as a slow taking of a new product.

Time is flying by. Stats compared to this year and last along w/next year's will definitely give us a clearer picture of where it's heading.

[admin]

Stats:

For the week ending 20th September 2009, here are the stats:

Percentage of revenue:
Blu-ray vs DVD: 12.45% vs 87.55%

Blu-ray sales up 111.54% compared to last week, total spending: $25.49 million
DVD sales up 72.52% compared to last week, total spending: $179.20 million

You can read the latest digital edition of HMM (September 28-October 4 Issue) with the above stats here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom781386HGB/index.php?startid=3

Top 10:

The sales are back and like the week in which Watchmen was released, it's yet the story of a single title that totally dominates the sales charts: X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

The latest X-Men movie managed to outsell The Dark Knight in second place by a margin of more than 30:1, and this could have been greater if the TDK hadn't spiked for one reason or another. Against last week's number one title, Crank 2: High Voltage, Wolverine managed to hold a near 37:1 sales ratio.

The Wolverine dominance was so much that it's almost not worth talking about the other titles in the week, most of which were not new releases as it's becoming quite common for other studios to avoid weeks with big profile releases.

Going through the list anyway, Gladiator was 4th, followed by Iron Man, Earth, Braveheart, the quite cheap An American Werewolf in London: Full Moon Edition, Army of Darkness: Screwhead Edition (both tied for 8th place), and finally Watchmen.

So Wolverine apart, there wasn't really any notable new releases in the top 10.

Market Share:

The Dark Knight again leads the market share charts, with 60% of all sales of the movie belong to Blu-ray. Iron Man and Earth were second and third. I think you can attribute the high numbers for TDK and Iron Man down to new Blu-ray owners buying the older, but "must-have" titles, something that DVD cannot experience. The rest of the high ranking titles are either hit new releases, or releases that benefit from being on Blu-ray, like Earth and Planet Earth from before.

Wolverine managed to get 26.8% market share, which is not unheard of, but it is still in the high range for new Blu-ray releases. The other two new release titles were catalogue titles with Blu-ray only releases, so there was not market share data available for those.

The complete Top 20 best sellers and Blu-ray market share tables can be seen here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom781386HGB/index.php?startid=13

[dr_ml422]

By all sales by $ vol. you mean everything that was sold Blu-ray/DVD including top 20 correct?

Also I can't understand why the other studios won't release what they have. If someone likes it they're going to get it regardless whether or not it's released later. What's the difference between enjoying money now or later if it's going to sell however it sells. I would think later unless a new release would account for less revenue on a title as the older a flic usually, but not always, will cost less.

[admin]

"All sales by $ volume" refers to counting up all the sales (not just in the top 10/20) by how much money was spent. It does not take into account things like profit, or the price of each disc, so obviously this stat will favour the more expensive format.

[dr_ml422]

The price of the discs is what amounts to all sales no? Or are you referring to what they spend on the discs before retail/wholesale that's not counted? I'm confused. Even though Blu-ray costs more at the end of the day if it brought in less money than DVD it's still behind in sales. Unless you mean that it brought in less money, but compared to the amount of DVDs sold it's pretty good. Idk.

[admin]

The figure would be the total retail spending, or what consumers forked out for either formats. Obviously, if one format was more expensive, then this figure would be higher for that format per disc purchase.

You would expect Blu-ray costs to be higher than DVD, but the margins (the profit) may be higher for Blu-ray as well per disc (a 50 cent increase in cost, but $2 increase in price at retail, for example), but it's all hard to say and it varies from movie to movie, and studio to studio.

[dr_ml422]

I get it now. Since you break up total spending between both formats, Blu-ray is going to be higher in that regard. You think it'll steadily increase, and eventually be the primary format in the time span Sony has given it to grow? It was about 5 yrs. correct? I noticed in regards to Rule 19 that even the Studios have lightened up a bit w/the fight against decoding. I almost sense much concern over their investment in Blu-ray than anything else. Lots of $$$ at stake.

[admin]

Stats:

For the week ending 27th September 2009, here are the stats:

Percentage of revenue:
Blu-ray vs DVD: 10.14% vs 89.86%

Blu-ray sales down 46.41% compared to last week, total spending: $13.66 million
DVD sales down 32.48% compared to last week, total spending: $120.99 million

You can read the latest digital edition of HMM (October 5-11 Issue) with the above stats here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom187356DFG/index.php?startid=1

Top 10:

It's a race to the bottom, and Blu-ray wins (or is that DVD). Anyway, Blu-ray sales dropped faster than DVD sales, and also DVD gained back some market share, not the most healthy method to achieve this to be honest.

There were quite a few new releases this week, but none that can be considered to be "A list", and so sales naturally fell from last week's high thanks to X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which is still the number one Blu-ray title for this week, and still managed to outsell the second place title by almost 4 to 1.

The second placed title was the Star Trek: TNG Movie Collection. There was room in the top 10 for another Star Trek themed released, and that was the Star Trek: TOS - Season 2 box set at 5th.

Observe and Report was third, followed by Ghosts of Girlfriends Past.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - Season 2 at 6th was the only other new release title in the top 10. The rest of the titles, from 7th onwards, were all previously released titles including The Dark Knight, Gladiator, Crank 2: High Voltage and Earth.

But despite the 2nd to 6th places all occupied by new releases, Blu-ray sales dropped and market share decreased due to the fall of Wolverine sales after the first week of release, and a few other reasons.

Market Share:

The other reasons may be because of market share, or not. The TNG movie collection managed a stunning 82.27% market share, meaning that more than 4 in 5 purchases of the boxset were done so on Blu-ray, with only a single purchase for the DVD version. This may be because the DVD versions of these movies are currently in their 3rd (or is that 4th) editions, having been re-released many times over before. This is, however, the first time these movies have appeared on Blu-ray. But it didn't really help Blu-ray all that much since the number of purchases of the box set was quite low, no doubt due to the price of the set compared to your average movie. The second season of the Sarah Connor Chronicles also sold well with 32.81% market share.

For the other new releases, Observe and Report had a very average 16.83% market share, just missing out on a place in the top 10. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past did even worse at only 6.16%.

The complete Top 20 best sellers and Blu-ray market share tables can be seen here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom187356DFG/index.php?startid=9

[admin]

An overview of Blu-ray sales stats posted in this thread from the start right until the last set posted above. See if Blu-ray sales has actually increased, and if so, by how much from May 2008 to September 2009:

http://www.digital-digest.com/blog/DVDGuy/2009/10/17/the-state-of-play-blu-ray-sales-analysis/

[admin]

Stats:

For the week ending 4th October 2009, here are the stats:

Percentage of revenue:
Blu-ray vs DVD: 11.59% vs 88.41%

Blu-ray sales up 59.66% compared to last week, total spending: $21.81 million
DVD sales up 37.57% compared to last week, total spending: $166.44 million

You can read the latest digital edition of HMM (October 12-18 Issue) with the above stats here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom279884VBB/index.php?startid=1

Top 10:

Two titles are responsible for this week's improvement in Blu-ray sales, Monsters vs Aliens at number one, and Wizard of Oz in second place. The actual gains to Blu-ray for these two titles are the reverse of their placed finish, as Wizard of Oz had more Blu-ray market share than the Monsters vs Aliens, which actually was did quite poorly in terms of Blu-ray market share for a new title (but we'll get to that).

As for the other new releases in the top 10, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies did well at 5th, Labyrinth at 8th and the similarly themed The Dark Crystal at 10th.

The rest of the top 10 were previously released titles, including X-Men Origins: Wolverine still holding onto 3rd place, The Dark Knight back in the top 5 at 5th, Earth at 6th, a relative oldie The Kingdom at 7th (must have been a sale), and Gladiator is still in the top 10 at 9th.

Market Share:

Of the new releases, The Wizard of Oz was the best, scoring 35.22% market share. This beat best sales Monsters vs Aliens's 12.87%, which as mentioned before, is quite poor. New releases should be getting at least 18%, possibly more than 20%, in the first week (see Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, which managed 21.34%). The only exceptions are when the title is universally popular like The Dark Knight, which means DVD sales will hold up, or if titles are those that do not fit perfectly into Blu-ray core demographic. Monsters vs Aliens seems to belong to the latter category, since DVD sales were average as well. Labyrinth/The Dark Crystal are not in the market share charts because they were Blu-ray exclusive releases. Blu-ray will benefit from having many of these exclusives from time to time (you should see next week's results!), something that DVD simply cannot compete with.

The week's top title in terms of market share was actually The Dark Knight, which has been heavily discounted (here in Australia, it's RRP has been slashed by 50%).

The complete Top 20 best sellers and Blu-ray market share tables can be seen here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom279884VBB/index.php?startid=11

[admin]

Stats:

For the week ending 11th October 2009, here are the stats:

Percentage of revenue:
Blu-ray vs DVD: 17.25% vs 82.75%

Blu-ray sales up 49.93% compared to last week, total spending: $32.70 million
DVD sales down 5.78% compared to last week, total spending: $156.82 million

You can read the latest digital edition of HMM (October 19-25 Issue) with the above stats here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom894435PHL/index.php?startid=3

Top 10:

Another big week for Blu-ray, but it wasn't your typical Hollywood blockbuster that was responsible. Instead, it was the animation classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, available on home video for the first time in a long time (since the DVD version was discontinued). And to rub salt into the wounds of the DVD format, the release of the equivalent DVD-only version has been delayed until next month, and so if people wanted the DVD version right now, they *had* to buy the Blu-ray version which also came with the DVD version. This double whammy (home video exclusive, plus no DVD only version) is probably what made Blu-ray's sales ratio so high this week, a record by my calculations (based on $ volume Blu-ray vs DVD comparisons).

But it was only this title which sold in great quantities on Blu-ray, as the next most popular one, last week's number one Monsters vs Aliens only sold just over one twentieth (1/20) of the number of copies Snow White shifted.

There weren't that many new releases in the top 10 either, most likely trying to avoid the Snow White-Out. Year One debuted at 5th, Trick 'r Treat at 8th, was all that was new for the week.

The rest of the titles were X-Men Origins: Wolverine at 3rd, Wizard of Oz at 4th, The Dark Knight at 6th, Watchmen makes it back into the top 10 at 7th, Interview With the Vampire discounting earned it a 9th place finish and Gladiator rounded off the list.

Market Share:

As mentioned above, Snow White is not in the list because there was no DVD equivalent to compare it to. What was interesting was the the top 5 were all Warner titles, including one of the week's new releases, Trick 'r Treat, at 28.26% (above average for a new release). Year One fared worse, at only 11.10%, again highlighting the fact that certain titles that fit into the core Blu-ray demographic (action, horror, sci-fi) do well, while others do not (comedy, kids, romance, drama). It's actually a sign that your average Blu-ray buyer is quite savvy when it comes to determining the types of movies that should be viewed in HD, and the types that won't benefit much from the enhanced visual and audio quality - 7 times the number of pixels won't make Year One funnier beyond a couple of jokes.

Watchmen, The Dark Knight, and Wizard of Oz, continue to help increase Blu-ray's market share, the former two actually selling more copies on Blu-ray than on DVD!

The complete Top 20 best sellers and Blu-ray market share tables can be seen here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom894435PHL/index.php?startid=9