For the week ending 12/18/2011, Rise of the Planet of the Apes easily
reached the No. 1 spot on both the Blu-ray and the overall package media sales charts.
Produced with a modest budget of $93 million, the latest installment in the
Planet of the Apes franchise went on to become a surprising hit and finished its
worldwide theatrical box office run with a total of $481 million. In its first week in stores,
Blu-ray disc buyers accounted for 49% of the total package media sales achieved by
Ceasar and the rest of the apes.
Debuting at No. 2 on both of the disc charts was Kung Fu Panda 2. The second showing from Po and friends did not prove to be as commercially successful as the original in terms of domestic box office revenue. However, when the total worldwide box office receipts from both films are considered, the sequel comes ahead by about $35 million and finished its theatrical run with a massive $666 million in total ticket sales. Kung Fu Panda 2 had a strong showing for Blu-ray as it received 36% of its home video sales from the HD format.
Last week's number one selling Blu-ray title, The Hangover Part II, dropped two spots to end its second week in stores at No.3 on the Blu-ray bestsellers chart. The wolf pack managed 33% of its disc sales from Blu-ray buyers.
I haven't yet seen Rise nor Panda 2, but I heard that they were really good and I'll buy both on the day after Christmas. I'll however rent Hangover 2 to see if its any good. I've heard nothing but negative things from friends and family about it. They only described it in 4 words
1. Bloated
2. Unnessesary
3. Rehashed
4. Unfunny
But I'll judge it for myself...
Kung Fu Panda 2 is awesome, we may watch it tonight. I'm hoping Santa brings ROTPOTA. My buddy made us watch Hangover 2, I went in with basement expectations and I was pleasantly surprised. If you laughed at the first, you'll laugh again.
I thought everyone was predicting this was the year Blu Ray market sales would reach over 50% for new releases? Here it is the end of the year and all the big sellers are still in the 35 to 49% range and few have earner higher than that. At least catalog releases have been better but I seriously am concerned over the overall sales picture if movies still can't top their DVD counterparts in sales.
Why are you concerned? Why would you expect them to be outselling DVDs so quickly? The members who frequent this forum are not a representative statistical sample of the average disc media purchaser. The simple fact is there are hundreds of thousands if not millions of consumers out there who couldn't care less whether they are getting a Blu-ray or a DVD. They are simply going to purchase whichever version is cheapest. And there is nothing wrong with that...it works for them.
Blu-rays available for purchase on Amazon = 17,383; DVDs = 533,791. With there still being approximately 30 times as many DVD as Blu-ray choices in the market it is amazing Blu-ray is selling as well as it is. I think the Blu-ray sales figures are looking great. Don't get hung up on DVD going away. It's not going to happen for a long, long, long time. And frankly, I don't get why so many in here are hung up on that fact. When DVDs go away we will have less choices for movies. How can that be a good thing?
So grateful we didn't have another stillborn entry into the Apes franchise. As one who holds the series in high regard, I was open minded to this reboot. I hope one day we see a teaser ad for a follow on film. If they're smart, they'll tease us with a glimpse of an ape wearing the classic military outfit, and we'll know that we're headed back "home" - to the apes universe we know and love.
@slowtrain: I don't think you're going to see a "military uniform" in the next Apes movie. I think the next one will be either about the virus that destroys most of the human population or its aftermath as well as a massive increase in the ape population. In fact, if you think about it, "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" is probably a better title for the next movie, regardless of the plot, not the one we just saw.
But I do have to disagree with you about the original series. Aside from the first film, IMO they were all pretty bad movies. I once wrote about the specifics of the budgets and boxoffice somewhere on here.
@seagamer: People on this Forum never want to let facts (like sales numbers) get in the way of their opinions, so expect to be rated down. I think BD is doing "okay", but there are several reasons why it's not even bigger: 1) the economy 2) the "average Joe" doesn't know what BD is and why it's better. This is a marketing failure by retailers to clearly demonstrate the benefits to consumers. Up until about 18 months ago, the majority of consumers with HDTVs weren't even watching HD broadcast/cable signals. 3) home video used to be a "long tail" market, but now (and especially for BD), it's a "hit" market. Once you get past the top 10-20 titles, BD sales are actually quite small. But having said that, it's still going to end the year at close to $2 billion in the U.S. (although DVD will come in at just under $6 billion) and about 14% ahead of last year. That 14% is a little disappointing (2010 was 31% ahead of 2009), although anything that's growing in this economy is considered to be amazing. If my stocks had made 14% this year, I could retire.
