Nielsen VideoScan High-Def market share for week ending November 2nd, 2008
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted Nov 12th 2008 6:35PM
posted Nov 12th 2008 6:35PM
For the first time in over a month Blu-ray dips below 10 percent market share in the Nielsen VideoScan numbers courtesy of Home Media Magazine. This is clearly due to the lack of interest in Tinker Bell by the Blu-ray crowd, which on Blu-ray was outsold by Journey to the Center of the Earth by over 2:1, but on DVD perform almost exactly the opposite. In fact the Blu-ray version of Tinker Bell couldn't even mange 3 percent of DVD's share, and even Journey only managed half of what the Hulk did last week at about 10 percent. For the most part, these are the only two new releases that did anything as none of the others that week managed to crack the top 5 on the Blu-ray chart. The Polar Express was barely outed at number 6, only managing to sell 18 percent as many copies as the number one title. Next week will probably be very similar as Kung Fu Panda will be about as popular on Blu-ray as ol' Tinker, but we'll be looking to see if any of the Ape movies can move the charts.
According to Rotten Tomato, Kung Fu Panda earned $215 million in the box office while Journey to the Center of the Earth earned $101 million in the box office.
I got this funny feeling Kung Fu Panda is gonna be rather popular on Blu-Ray...
Yeah. I don't understand why people bash Kung Fu Panda at all let alone on Blu-ray. It did really well at the theater and got overall better reviews by critics than many movies get nowadays. Not only that the Blu-ray quality is supposedly the best of the best.
....and there we go, right back back down to $12 million a week.
Of course it'll spike again when Batman TDK comes & Wanted is surely going to draw the PS3 gang but beyond that?
Months of bumping along at a low level I reckon.
Couple of music releases coming but I really doubt they'll be much of a mass draw
(Fooeys next week & Rush a fortnight later) .
Nothing in even these Nielson charts says things are going well to me
(and I suspect the more fair-minded here can see it clear as day too).
Multi,
How can you have the gall to call yourself "even-minded"? You jump all over any statistic that you think makes BD look bad, whether it really does or not. Then you proceed to dump on anyone who disagrees with you, calling them "fanboys" or "blu-bots" or some other clever name you've come up with. Then you'll argue that they twisted your words or were "making up stories". I'm not sure what to call you, but anti-fanboy seems to be about the most accurate.
Now, on to the facts. We started seeing sales dollars totals on these VideoScan postings around the end of April. $12.2 million is the 7th highest total since that time, so it's not much to sneeze at. I think any "even-minded" person would agree that this wasn't a great week for releases, so still having over $12 million is pretty impressive. The previous four weeks before this one are the top 4 revenue weeks so far. Also since then, the average weekly sales for BD have gone from a little over $8 million to close to $10.5 million. That's over 25% in weekly revenue growth in the last 6 months. I can't think of an industry that would be unhappy with those results, so perhaps your expectations are a little high. It's easy to say that BD is bumping along when you just compare this week to last week over and over again. You may want to look at the bigger picture.
Commence flaming now.
Brian
Stop crying, not everyone is in love with your precious video format.
What's up Brian, if someone isn't into 'supporting' the format it's being biased is it!?
You seem to be the one having problems being even-minded about this.
Maybe you haven't been following this but around $12 million is about where Blu-ray has been for most of the year (excepting a handful of peaks).
No Multi, sales have not been at $12 million all year. Feel free to click on the Nielson VideoScan tag and read all of the postings back to May. I did, just to see how off base you were. Here, I'll save you the trouble (in millions):
4/27/2008 - 9.20
5/4/2008 - 7.08
5/11/2008 - 6.56
5/18/2008 - 7.99
5/25/2008 - 12.38
6/1/2008 - 10.05
6/8/2008 - 10.02
6/15/2008 - 12.73
6/22/2008 - 8.48
6/29/2008 - 8.88
7/6/2008 - 7.86
7/13/2008 - 8.42
7/20/2008 - 7.61
7/27/2008 - 8.00
8/3/2008 - 9.42
8/10/2008 - 6.89
8/17/2008 - 6.19
8/24/2008 - 7.07
8/31/2008 - 9.12
9/7/2008 - 10.60
9/14/2008 - 9.18
9/21/2008 - 8.87
9/28/2008 - 10.92
10/5/2008 - 26.84
10/12/2008 - 14.37
10/19/2008 - 17.94
10/26/2008 - 17.71
11/2/2008 - 12.22
As you can see, being above $10 million each week is a recent development, but it's been a fairly consistent stat in the last month and a half. I can accept the fact that it's a small sliver of the overall home entertainment pie. Can you at least accept that the format does seem to be growing? I don't accuse you of being biased because you don't support the format. I accuse you of being biased because you ignore all reality in your efforts to show that BD is failing and because you start calling names anytime anyone refutes you.
I guess I'll respond to your other post too (yes, I believe you are "anti-fanboy; are you schizophrenic in real life too, or just on message boards?). BD is not my beloved format. I own about 25 discs. I haven't purchased one since July (though I did want to get Iron Man, I haven't had a chance yet). I do rent them from NetFlix. What may be surprising to you is that I understand BD's shortcomings, and I definitely feel like they need to be fixed before BD can go mainstream. Hardware prices were too high, but that's starting to be corrected. Disc prices are definitely too high, and that needs to be addressed. I only defend BD because I tire of people who spread false information in an effort to bolster their own opinions.
Wow, when you put it like that Brian I over-estimated the blu-ray performance, I hadn't realised how badly things had been going.
Less than $12 million a week is 'normal', eh?
Thanks for putting it up in black & white.
I guess this week shows a little of the remaining Iron Man bounce coupled with the echoes of Hulk & Crystal Skull
(both of which I might add surprised me by being so unspectacular sellers).
Where did I ever say there was no growth in the format, the fact that I acknowledge peaks in sales would indicate the opposite.
My contention is that growth is highly sporadic and desperately underwhelming.
As I said before take Iron Man out of the picture and the performance is very weak - particularly in view of the recent claims about much better PS3 sales.
I have no great affection for Blu-ray, it's a mess afaik with a 'moving target' spec leading to regular disc problems and problems for owners.
But in terms of disc based media HD it's all we have.
If you prefer to be the supine gratefully-take-any-old-sh!te-they-throw-at-you type then go ahead.
Frankly I am of the view that the only way progress will be gained is by complaining & making it loud and clear what is wrong.
Cosy back-slapping, ignoring problems and congratulating minute growth (such as it is) will do nothing to effect any positive change.
If the BDA really do wish to see Blu-ray advance they should address the problems and quit relying on fake PR (which is only assisted by those only too ready to wheel out their tongues to be trod all over).
I did not call you any names (much to your disappointment it seems).
Neither have I tried to "bolster their own opinions" (whatever the feck that is). I just post my take on a topic I choose, same as anyone else.
Maybe you should try relaxing just a tad & perhaps not taking it all quite so seriously?
BTW I am not 'anti-fanboy' (wish I had been tho, great name)
You set yourself up for it & now someone is pulling your pi$$er.
Relax.
I do not think the onslaught of cheap hardware this holiday season will drive attachment rates as much as might be hoped. People who can nott afford $500, but can afford $250 for a BD player are not the demographic that can drop $30 on a movie every week. The post holiday season might see some nice revenue bumps for BlockBuster/Netflix, but don't expect disks to fly off the shelves at retailers.
Another sobering statistic; HDTV market penetration currently stands at only 34%. While that number may jump around the time of the analog cut off; but there are still a great number of TV owners who really aren't even equipped to go Blu.
Well according to recent surveys the number for prepared Analog cut-off has dropped down to about 7%, so those who still aren't prepared by now probably wont be adding much to the HDTV support population, much less the Blu-ray population seeing that the stragglers are probably more apt to buying a $45 or less conversion box over a $1000 or more HDTV, which face it 1080p HD content isn't very good for HDTVs below that price.
How bout those that paid $149 or $179...and the $199 deals are all over the place.
This sunday sears has a Sharp BD player for $179 and if you can get into the friends and family event sunday night get 10% off $179.
At current prices I won't be buying many movie...though I stopped buying DVD's over a year ago cause I knew I was going HD soon...though I wanted HD DVD as I could afford that player LAST YEAR and was still cheaper $100 for my Toshiba A2 vs $150 for my Samsung 1500. I still plan on buying a couple titles and asking for a number movies for presents.
There is a lot more than ONLY Kung Fu Panda on Blu-Ray to drive revenue this week:
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
JFK
Band of Brothers
Sukiyaki Western Django
Soundstage: Tom Petty
Firefly: The Complete Series
Those won't be next week's results, those will be the week after.
Do NOT underestimate the Panda!
Kung Fu Panda > Tinkerbell
Content is king. Releasing titles like STREET FIGHTER aren't exactly going to make blu-ray popular with the consumers :p lol
Is there anywhere you can see the total sales of all blu-ray titles? I'm curious as to what the top 20 or so looks like. Seeing stuff like Planet Earth and 300 in the charts week after week after week...how do these titles stack up in total sales? Can they match up to films with huge openings like iron Man? Please comment if you have any idea.
Sales numbers are a closely guarded secret by the upper echelon of BDA, because if those numbers were known people would compare them to DVD numbers, which aren't as guarded but still can be hard to find, and people will find all these dollar amounts released week after week are complete BS trying to boost the look of popularity when in fact the actual sales numbers on a weekly basis aren't breaking much more that 5-10% in actual unit sales and the boosted percentages are all from the 30-60% mark up over DVD for BD titles.
So approximating using average prices on titles you would get something like this.
DVD - $20 (aprx)
BD - $30 (aprx)
DVD Sales:
Dollar Sales
$118.26m
Disc Sales
5.913m
BD Sales:
Dollar Sales
$12.22m
Disc Sales
407k
So the Dollar sales were at about 8% but using the average disc price you are looking at units only being at about 6%, and with sets like Planet Earth and The Matrix Trilogy hanging around on both sides at much higher prices its very hard to predict exactly how many units are actually selling each week, DVD Forum might disclose those numbers but I doubt BDA will until they are certain that they have a decent foothold in the market.
Multi,
Don't worry about my state of mind. I'm quite relaxed. I've presented the facts to you, over and over again. Now your story has twisted again. It's unfortunate that you can't delete your own posts, so no one would know that you had it wrong. You thought you were slamming BD for going back down to what in your opinion was a rather bleak $12 million per week. Now you see that $12 million actually shows rather significant growth in just the last few months, so you decide to slam the results from prior to September. So tell me, where exactly do you think sales should be to show that BD is successful? Should they have been at $100 million per week since the format was released? Every new technology starts at nothing and goes up, which you don't seem to understand. It appears that the rate of growth of BD sales is actually pretty healthy. I can think of MANY industries that wish they were seeing 25% revenue growth (which you called "minute") over the last 6 months, especially in this economy. Your arguing only shows that you know nothing about business in general, and especially the HD media business. You take whatever statistic is in front of your face and twist it to make it look like your opinion is the correct position (btw, that's what "bolstering your own opinion" means. Ever heard of a dictionary?), despite any other previous data to the contrary. I'm sure you'll find a way to spin the inevitable revenue growth over the last 8 weeks of the year as well.
I'm not disappointed that you didn't resort to name calling. You did it on the Wilco thread, so anyone who wants to see that you do it can go back and read it. I am disappointed that any facts that you're presented with come with the response "relax, and don't take it so seriously". That's a nice attempt to make me look off balance and argumentative. I'm quite fine. The only one off balance here is you. Perhaps you should stop posting under different aliases and ranking up your own posts to "highly ranked" (yes, I still think you're "anti-fanboy", and yes, I know there are ways to rank up your own posts), and then maybe you won't look so ridiculous.
So, like on that Wilco thread, I'm done arguing with you again. You've been presented with facts, and you still choose to ignore them. Just like last time, the rest of your responses will be ignored.
Jeez & still your doing your prissy little crying & whining.
Dry up.