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The 25 best-selling DVDs of all-time (1 Viewer)

Douglas Bailey

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I have 13 of the listed top 25 discs: Monsters, Inc.; Harry Potter (twice, even: once as "Sorcerer's Stone" and once as "Philosopher's Stone"), The Fellowship of the Ring; Gladiator; The Phantom Menace; Rush Hour 2; Black Hawk Down; Ocean's Eleven; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Jurassic Park III; Snow White; Cast Away and Hannibal.
But I probably shouldn't count Rush Hour 2 or Jurassic Park III, since they're both on my "to-sell" list. Not good movies, IMHO. :)
 

Jason Harbaugh

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I have 23 of the 25. Only ones I don't have are:
24: Remember the Titans
25: Hannibal

I do have Spiderman and AOTC so if it is adjusted then I'm 25 for 25. I'm a very mainstream type of movie guy so it doesn't surprise me, and YES I do like every movie on that list otherwise I wouldn't own them. (including both versions of Pearl Harbor and now LOTR)

Got both of the Simpsons, no Sopranos or Best Of discs. I do have both seasons of Friends though.

Still 9 million units sold being the top, doesn't sound right. Surely there is more than that. Maybe not.
 

Seth Paxton

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No desire to own Snow White, Shrek, Monsters Inc, Black Hawk Down, Gladiator, FOTR, or Crouching Tiger. I mean now you are talking about Oscar calliber films, not schlock. Potter is highly entertaining as well.
Maybe not one or two of those, but not even SNOW WHITE? An AFI top 100 film?
Sheesh, talk about picky.
I have 13 of the 25. POTA and JP3 have plenty of flaws, but I still have some fun with them. I would never give a non-qualified recommendation to anyone about seeing them though. :)
I don't have BHD because I'm waiting on the special edition.
I have 15 of 25 if we count AOTC and Spidey.
I wonder how this reflects the future of the DVD market. Certainly sales are up, but considering the low sales that VHS had that doesn't take much. While a few cinephiles committed to owning many VHS, how many Joe6's bought HUNDREDS of VHS titles? Not many.
So DVD early on looks like this format that people will be willing to buy into on the level of 100+ titles easily, but now I wonder with market expansion if most players aren't actually in homes where families only own maybe 5-10 personal favs and another 5-10 current hits (the impulse buys mentioned before, especially during the initial ownership period).
That would explain the low catalog title numbers at this point. It also might foreshadow the idea that many of these new owners DON'T intend to go back and fill out their catalog with great films, even action films like T2.
So even after saturation I suspect that ownership numbers for catalog titles will remain quite low in comparison to whatever new release is out there, even when the DVD is of a crowd-pleasing action film with a stellar DVD release (such as JP1 or T2).
 

David Lambert

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but now I wonder with market expansion if most players aren't actually in homes where families only own maybe 5-10 personal favs and another 5-10 current hits (the impulse buys mentioned before, especially during the initial ownership period).
That is my experience with the "non-enthusiast" crowd. Someone who's, say, really into baseball and therefore baseball movies might grab a few "classics" like Bull Durham, The Natural, & Pride of the Yankees. Then he might grab a few of the big films that "everyone is talking about" IF he can grab at super-low prices (i.e., We Were Soldiers as an example).

Someone like that, who's more of a "watch it once and you've seen the film" kind of guy, probably sell off the latter type of thing after a couple of months. Typically at a easy-to-get-to Used DVD store that will pay him cash.


To whoever said that the numbers on this list probably include stock sitting on a shelf at Blockbuster: BINGO. I'm sure these are based on sell-to-retailer numbers, and NOT on sellthrough-to-customer numbers.

So not ONLY does it include stock sitting on the shelf at rental stores like Blockbuster, it also includes stuff bought en masse by consumers, and then sold en masse to used outlets (can't tell you how many used copies of Riding in Cars With Boys I saw at FuncoLand the other day...but it was a LOT!). It also includes unsold stock sitting on the shelf at Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Costco, and even Kroger (right now that includes Spider-Man...I see a LOT of the supposedly "Limited Edition" hanging around WM & BB this weekend). This probably includes unsold stock sitting in the warehouses of these retailers.

Heh...I wonder if any numbers are ever backed out of those "sales figures" if a retailer returns massive quantities of unsold merchandise for credit? Probably not!


If you look at the makeup of the list, you'll notice that it consists of all of those titles who got announcements by their studio about how - at the time - each was "the biggest selling DVD to date". So there's no contest as to how these titles got on that list. The question is, does it really reflect what are in peoples homes? I own almost 1700 discs...OF COURSE I own most of that stuff!! But the average consumer - even the average DVD entusiast with a down-to-Earth collection! - probably won't.


My 2¢
 

Lew Crippen

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I found no real surprises in the list. I have seen most of the movies in the top 25 (or top 27) and all of the TV series. But, other than Snow White and possibly LOTR, I don’t expect to add to my current list of one. I do own a copy of ‘Crouching Tiger’ (R4/PAL), but the movie is not of enough interest to me to get the superbit version.
 

Joel Vardy

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24 out of 25. I'm surprised since I've never perceived of myself as having 'mainstream' tastes. Maybe its just the volume of my collection (1150) with mass-appeal and specialty/foreign titles sprinkled in. ;)
I'll throw in some of my more eclectic Criterion and PBS fare such as Civil War, Jazz, Baseball, Discreet Charms of the Bourgoisie, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Emelie, etc...
I don't own any of the 'tv' titles mentioned though I do own Friends (season 2 -- not mentioned). I wish such quality fare as 'From the Earth to the Moon' and 'Band of Brothers' would be mentioned though HBO material doesn't seem to have the mass appeal beyond the Sopranos.
Joel
 

Joel Vardy

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Okay Joel, now you have me wondering, What is the 1 dvd that you don't own?
Thanks for asking, Brian.
American Pie II (though I do own the 'original' American Pie :b )
I guess it just didn't rise to the level of interest/curiosity I had about the first film ;)
Joel
 

JamesY

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Widescreen only (R1) offerings from the list:
5. Pearl Harbor (Touchstone) 7.7
6. The Matrix (Warner) 7.5
7. Gladiator (DreamWorks) 7.2
8. The Fast and the Furious (Universal) 6.5
10. Rush Hour 2 (New Line) 4.7
12. The Patriot (Columbia TriStar) 4.2
13. Black Hawk Down (Columbia TriStar) 4.1
14. Training Day (Warner) 3.9
18. Planet of the Apes (Fox) 3.7
19. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Columbia TriStar) 3.5
21. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Buena Vista) 3.2
23. Meet the Parents (Universal) 2.7
25. Hannibal (MGM) 2.5

12 out of 25 isn't bad (not counting Snow White which is in OAR). If my memory serves me right, congrats to gladiator, fast and furious, rush hour 2, black hawk down, training day, meet the parents, and hannibal for currently only having 1 DVD version out there - kudos to them for racking so many sales on just one release.

BTW, I own 10 of the 25 titles, and both Simpsons season sets.
 

Jason Harbaugh

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Well according to the new Entertainment Weekly(Potter on the cover), Spiderman (widescreen + fullscreen) sold more than 11 million copies in the first 3 days so I would say that quite a few of those top 25 will fall off the list very soon with new heavy hitter releases coming. I also am happy to report that of all the releases that had widescreen and fullscreen versions out, the widescreen always sold more than the fullscreen. :D
 

DavidAC

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8 of 25 for me, not a bad list really, a few duds alot of mainstream titles but still not to bad. I already bought clones which im sure will get up there, Spider-Man I was thinking about but when I rented it again it still left me with that unsatisfied feeling so I passed.
 

Yee-Ming

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hmmmm, I have 7 of the top 10, but intend to get 2 of the remaining 3, leaving Rush Hour 2 as the only no-show in my collection. (I consider "Philosopher's Stone" equivalent to "Sorcerer's Stone")

but of the next 15, I only have 4, might get 2 or 3 more but that's about it.

as for TV, both Sopranos. funny that ST:TNG doesn't make the list, but I suppose it's really limited to the die-hards and isn't really mainstream.
 

Rick Deschaine

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I'm ashamed to say that I own the 'Fast and the Furious' (audio track demo only), but am happy to say no Pearl Harbor!

Later
 

Reginald Trent

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I don't get why some of us seem to feel we have to apologize for our DVD purchases. Like I said earlier, I own all but 6 of the 25 on the list. Some I bought for my own enjoyment others I bought for entertaining guest.
 

David Lambert

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Reginald's right; there's no need to explain why any of us do or don't have a particular title in our collection. Tastes are individual.
I fear that my first post may have sounded like I *was* embarrassed, since I only mentioned my ownership of the top ten titles.
Actually, I have everything on the TV list, and all but 4 of the films: Rush Hour 2, Black Hawk Down, Training Day, and Remember The Titans.
Yes, I own Spidey & Clones, too. :D
Next REALLY big one: BTTF! Who disagrees?
 

Lew Crippen

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I don't get why some of us seem to feel we have to apologize for our DVD purchases.
I do. I’ve bought some DVDs and after some period, thought, “What was I thinking?”.

Owning a DVD that one does not like (perhaps on reflection) is different than apologizing for liking a particular movie. You can like what you like. But that is different than always having bought what you like.

Or am I the only one who has erred in a purchase?
 

Dave Falasco

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Rush Hour 2 is in the top ten??? :confused: RUSH HOUR 2?!?! I mean, did they give away Gameboys with a purchase or something?
I can understand a lot of the others, heck I own 10 myself. But neither of the Toy Stories are on the list, and freaking Rush Hour 2 is number 10??? I am having a hard time digesting that.
 

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