As a result of the December holiday season, far fewer new films hit the home media format during the month's last week, a condition that allowed for some older titles to score the top sales figures on both the Blu-ray-only and overall package media charts.
At number one on both lists is The Dark Knight Rises; director Christopher Nolan's final entry in his Academy Award-winning Dark Knight trilogy, which has generated a healthy revenue in the four weeks since its small-screen debut, resurged from the second sales position to the top. It continued to thrive in the top five sales positions - and the full Dark Knight Trilogy boxset performed decently, too, with a thirteenth-place ranking on the Blu-ray only chart and a seventeenth-place ranking on the overall package media chart - and had a good HD market share of 44%.
Second place in the Blu-ray-only and overall package media charts belonged to Universal Studios' Ted. The first live-action feature from Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, Ted grossed over $500 million worldwide after its theatrical premiere last June and then maintained a strong foothold in the package media market, never falling out of the top three spots in its first three weeks of sales. The film sold 77% as many Blu-rays (and enjoyed an HD market share of 39%) and 86% as many total units as Christopher Nolan's superhero epic.
Finally, Pixar and Disney's Finding Nemo rounded out the last of the top three spots on the Blu-ray-only list. One of the HD format's most anticipated titles and the last of Pixar's feature-length films to receive a Blu-ray release, Finding Nemo sold 58% as many Blu-rays as The Dark Knight Rises (and had a market share of 100% on that format) and 25% as many total units. Interestingly, the animated adventure ranked much lower on the overall package media chart - there, the musical-comedy Pitch Perfect came in third place, moving 65% as many total units as The Dark Knight Rises.
What is interesting is that the 3-film Dark Knight set is selling well. Without anything "extra" you would think most folks have the previous two films in blu already. Perhaps the good sales are those folks who waited to go blu with their Nolan set until the final film in the trilogy.
I thought TDKR was allright. I was debating if I should buy it with my best buy gift card but, just couldn't do it. Maybe during the next upgrade and save promo.
@llcruize, most people dont own the first 2 because most people just switched over to bluray this past xmas.. WB was smart putting out that set just to cash in on the new blurayers
Rises, for me, was one of those movies that is initially disappointing but then after you have seen it you just keep thinking about it for some reason. Now I kinda love it.
The one thing that has irritated me about Nolan's Batman films disk releases has been the lack of a "Play All" feature. There have been nice extras on the disks, TDKR included. But having to individually select the production features is a pain. That said, TDKR has one of the best extras ever; "The Batmobile". You get the history on all of the incarnations of the vehicle from the comics, TV series (live action and animated) and theatrical versions.
