Our DVD and Blu-ray sales estimates are based on weekly retail surveys, which we use to build a weekly market share estimate for each title we are tracking. The market share is converted into a weekly sales estimate based on industry reports on the overall size of the market, including reports published in Media Play News.

For example, if our weekly retail survey estimates that a particular title sold 1% of all units that week, and the industry reports sales of 1,500,000 units in total, we will estimate 15,000 units were sold of that title. The consumer spending estimate is based on the average sales price for the title in the retailers we survey.

We refine our estimates from week to week as more data becomes available. In particular, we adjust weekly sales figures for the quarter once the total market estimates are published by the Digital Entertainment Group. Figures will therefore fluctuate each week, and totals for individual titles can go up or down as we update our estimates.

Because sales figures are estimated based on sampling, they will be more accurate for higher-selling titles.

DVD and Blu-ray Releases for June 3rd, 2014

June 2nd, 2014

It's not a bad week on the home market, given the time of year. Lone Survivor earned more than $100 million at the box office and the Blu-ray Combo Pack is clearly worth picking up. It isn't quite Pick of the Week material, on the other hand. There are a few choices including a pair of documentaries: Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton As Himself - Buy from Amazon and Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction - Buy from Amazon. The third option was Attack on Titan, Part 1 - Blu-ray Combo Pack Regular Edition or Limited Edition. It was essentially a coin-toss between the three, but in the end I went with Plimpton! as Pick of the Week. More...

Limited Releases: Afflicting Limited Releases on the Public

April 4th, 2014

It is a busy week, not only in terms of quantity, but also quality. There are seven films earning 80% positive reviews or higher (at least when I checked last). Some of these, like Afflicted, probably won't find an audience in theaters, because it is just the wrong genre. Others, like The Unknown Known and Watermark, might do well for the genre, but won't find any real measure of mainstream success. On the other hand, Under the Skin and Alan Partridge might find audiences in theaters. More...