Weekly OAR vs MAR Sales 09/18 (1 Viewer)

[WillG]

I was looking at the DVD sales figures for last week and it occured to me that I don't really see anyone else in this area commenting on OAR vs MAR DVD sales chartwise. Seeing as how OAR vs MAR has become a hot topic lately. I thought it might be a nice idea to post a weekly recap here. What are people's thoughts on the idea? I guess I'll start it off.

"The Two Towers" Widescreen Edition fell to number 2 this week for "Sleeping Beauty" the MAR version of "TTT" Falls to number 13. "Chicago" and "Animal House" WS editions remain in the top 10 at numbers 9 and 10 respectavely. Their MAR counterparts have fallen off the top 20 completely. "The Core" WS debuts at number 3 while the MAR version only makes number 18. Finally for Separate WS/MAR DVDs, "Malibu's Most Wanted" Debuts at Number 6 while the MAR version fails to crack the top 20. A pretty good week for OAR it seems.

Also of note "Family Guy" S3 Debuts at number 8, only 2 places down from where "The Simpsons" S3 debuted

According to Video Business' sales chart.

Hope this is useful

 

[Tony-B]

Hmm...

Do the studios know that WS outsells FS?

 

[WillG]

What about a certain retail chain with a well known penchant for P&S?

 

[Randy A Salas]

A pretty good week for OAR it seems.

This has been happening all summer. There was a blip in the spring when a few full-screen titles ranked higher than their widescreen counterparts, but that was typically only in the first several weeks.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

AFAIK, these sales charts do not include Wal Mart, who makes up a HUGE percentage of the sales of many titles.

 

[Joshua Clinard]

I actually keep up with the sales charts myself pretty regularly. Also, you view my DVD WS v.s. P&S sales tracker at widescreenadvocate.org. It's updated on an hourly basis, and tracks DVD sales from Amazon. It's not the biggest retailer in the world, but it does command a sizable market.

It seems to me that for the first few weeks of a DVD's debut, the Widescreen outsells the fullscreen 3 to 1. After that, the fullscreen drops significantly.

 

[Brian W.]

This doesn't surprise me. OAR is catching on. The day Two Towers was released, at Target, which is a comparable store to WalMart, the Widescreen DVDs of the film were nearly sold out, while they had tons of the P&S DVDs left.

 

[Randy A Salas]

AFAIK, these sales charts do not include Wal Mart, who makes up a HUGE percentage of the sales of many titles.

The Star Tribune has an arrangement with Video Business to run its weekly DVD sales chart as a sidebar to my DVD column. I used to use Billboard/Soundscan's chart, which was a week behind. Other than timeliness, the other major reason I switched to Video Business was because editor-in-chief Scott Hettrick assured me that it was more accurate in part because it included mass retailers such as Wal-Mart, even though they aren't listed individually. (More sources than the ones specifically listed are used to compile the chart.)

 

[WillG]

09/25

Another Good Week For OAR (as if there was any surprise)

"Anger Management" WS debuts at number 1 while the P&S only makes 17.

LOTR: TTT WS remains at Number 2 while the P&S is at number 18

"The Core" WS is at Number 5 while the P&S doesn't crack the top 20 this week

"Malibu's Most Wanted" "Animal House" and "Chicago" WS appear at 11, 12, and 13 respectavely while the P&S counterparts don't make the top 20

 

[Dan Rudolph]

That shows it. Even for mass-market comedies, the WS outsells the fullscreen by a good margin. Now if we can just get Warner to reissue Power Puff Girls.

 

[WillG]

As well as a well known Retailer to recognize this in spite of their bias toward P&S


Doesn't Widescreen Kick Ass!?

 

[Brenton]

This seems to be an awesome new trend. It seems that fullscreen sales are fading into the distance, and soon studios will stop making them.

There you go, I knew we'd win.

 

[Tony-B]

and soon studios will stop making them.

I don't see this happening anytime soon...

 

[Lanny_B]

Wow, I was starting to lose hope. Today I was at Walmart and I saw almost EVERYTHING stocked in Fullscreen. Fullscreen everywhere. There were just a few Widescreen things here and there. Ugh. So finally I asked and said where are your Widescreen DVD's, most everything I see is Fullscreen. I was expecting her to give the typical argument that she doesn't know why anybody want widescreen with the black bars, etc. But she said it's because they always sell out of WS first, because that's what "everybody wants". Good sign. Hurray.

 

[WillG]

I was at Wal-Mart Twice this week. Went Tuesday to check out some new releases, then went last night. I noticed on Tuesday they had "Holes" in mostly FS with some WS out there, pretty much hidden of course. Last night, there were virtually none to be found. I noticed this with "The Core" as well. Oddly enough, on their racks, they actually had WS copies of the original "American Pie"

The problem with Wal-Mart is that they don't care which sells better, it's just another attempt by them to cleanse the market to their liking, and force what they want on people. Yeah, they initially stock WS on most new releases, but older titles, forget about it (with the exception of the above) It really dawned on me last night when I stated thinking about how unnecessary it is to stock that much P&S over WS in their stores. I stated thinking on how overtly deliberate it is and it is just so stupid

 

[Mark_TS]

quote: ...But she said it's because they always sell out of WS first, because that's what "everybody wants".
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well, the stock clerks should get on the ball so they dont lose WS sales and are left with dead FS merchandise...

 

[Ken Stuart]

It's updated on an hourly basis, and tracks DVD sales from Amazon. It's not the biggest retailer in the world, but it does command a sizable market.

Except that the same frame of mind that is necessary to prefer WS to P&S, is the same frame of mind that is necessary to want to learn how to order a product online.

So, Amazon sales are automatically skewed towards WS.

 

[john mcfadden]

I work for wal mart and can tell you that any display they get in has about 30% widescreen and 70% fullscreen except for animal house and the reissues of american pie 1-2 those were all fullscreen ...thank god a best buy open in my area !