For the week ending on October 7th, Walt Disney Home Entertainment's smash hit The Avengers continued to dominate both the overall package media and Blu-ray-only sales charts. During its initial home media debut, the film made history with its record Blu-ray market share of 72%, and while that figure is down somewhat from the previous retail window, The Avengers has still maintained more-than healthy sales figures. Of its home media totals, The Avengers had a Blu-ray market share of 56% and a separate 3D market share of 19%, both of which helped the title vault past its competitors at positions two and three.
Case in point: the long-awaited Blu-ray upgrade of another Disney picture, the 1950 classic Cinderella. Cinderella came in second on the Blu-ray and overall home media rankings, and at first glance of the Blu-ray charts, it seemed to be jockeying closely for The Avengers' spot. The animated favorite sold 98% as many HD units as The Avengers and had a Blu-ray market share of 100%. However, that 100% figure did not carry the same weight as The Avengers' 72% market share last week - the Cinderella reissue is a Blu-ray exclusive rather than a cross-format title - and the total home media list showed Cinderella lagging much further behind the Joss Whedon-directed blockbuster; there, Cinderella sold 55% as many copies as The Avengers.
Finally, third place on the HD and total media rankings went to Dark Shadows. Director Tim Burton's darkly comedic adaptation of the iconic television soap opera proved slightly underwhelming with both critics and audiences after its theatrical premiere last May; the film, which cost an estimated $150 million to produce, grossed just under $80 million domestically. Even with its additional international earnings of $159 million, Dark Shadows' box-office take pales in comparison to Burton's previous big-screen foray (Alice in Wonderland, which made over $1 billion worldwide in 2010), so its third place ranking stands as a moderately positive result for its distributor, Warner Bros. Dark Shadows sold 30% as many Blu-rays as The Avengers and 45% as many total units, and it managed an HD market share of 38%.
The Avengers ruling the charts again should surprise no one. I said last week that it would top the charts again. Now it'll be interesting next week now that Prometheus is out. Blu-Ray is going nowhere...
@thephantomcat: Actually, I don't want to rain on anyone's parade. I just want honest statistics. If there was one title they could've done away with DVD's in packaged media, it was this one. The overreliability on DVD to sell Blu-rays is rather disappointing. It's been 6 or 7 years since Blu debuted and it still can't stand on it's own because no one's allowing it to.
Plus, I just hate getting stuck with a DVD copy of anything these days and only see waste when they continue to produce them like this. Wish I could just dump it in a recycling bin somewhere for a discount.
devilnamedBuena: I would also rather just buy the Blu-ray by itself. Never use the DVD or even the Digital Copy. It seems like a colossal waste from an environmental standpoint to SELL you these items, whether you want them or not, and I say SELL because let's face it, the cost of the DVD & Digital Copy are reflected in the overall purchase price. If we were able to buy just Blu-rays, that would, imho help the format. The labels don't give you a choice, cause it streamlines their inventory, having one product rather than multiple packaging: Blu-ray or Blu-ray + DVD, Blu-ray + Digital Copy or Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy. It obviously also doesn't hurt their bottom line. In the end, I guess we have the Studio's endless lobbying and 'their' DMCA to thank for it. We can only hope that sooner or later environmental sense will prevail.
No surprise considering Target had the 3D, 2D, DVD Combo for a ridiculously low $19.99 on release week! Who would opt for the DVD? Even if I didn't own a Blu-Ray player I would have bought that version. Was the stand-alone DVD even that cheap anywhere?
beyondblu
Here in Mexico you can find some standalone blurays and they cost the same as the br+dvd ones or slightly cheaper like 2 dollars at most at release
