Spiderman3 6 day sales figures out, 130,000 sold of 400,000 shipped - VB

[Kosty]

up now at Video Business main site

Spidey 3 top Blu-ray seller for Sony

By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 11/7/2007
NOV. 7 | Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s Spider-Man 3 swung to the top of the studio’s Blu-ray roster, selling 130,000 high-def units in its first six days on shelves, according to the studio.

The studio shipped about 400,000 Spider-Man 3 Blu-ray units to retail for the title’s Oct. 30 bow, said Sony, making first-week sell-off about 30%. Sony said that does not include units bundled with the new $399 PlayStation 3.

That street week sell-off bested the comparable kick-off frame for Casino Royale on Blu-ray by more than three times. Casino Royale, which sold 40,000 Blu-ray copies in week-one sales, had been Sony’s No. 1 performer in the format to this point.

The top-opening Blu-ray title across studios is believed to be Warner Home Video’s 300, which the studio reportedly sold 250,000 units on the HD DVD and BD formats combined. It’s believed about two-third, or 165,000, of 300 units were Blu-ray.

On the HD DVD side, Paramount Home Entertainment touted selling 190,000 HD DVD units of Transformers in the week after its Oct. 16 bow. Many industry sources wound up disputing that figure, however, believing it was actually tens of thousands lower.

Sony executives said Spider-Man 3 Blu-ray is doing a bang-up job at retail.

“We are well-placed for the holidays,” said Sony’s worldwide president, David Bishop. “We got in before the key shopping season, and now you’ll have more people getting into the market, as new players are launching from Sony, Sharp, Panasonic [among others]. It’s our hope that they walk out with a player and Spider-Man 3.”

Bishop said the title sold millions of standard-definition copies during street week but declined further comment. Industry sources, however, estimated the standard-DVD version sold 4 million to 5 million copies overall in its first week.

A number of retailers did note that Transformers sold at a brisker pace than Spider-Man 3 when comparing their first few days of sales across all formats. Paramount reported 8.3 million first-week units sold for Transformers.

Despite Spider-Man 3’soutstanding $337 million U.S. box-office gross, Bishop said the studio was somewhat tempering its home entertainment expectations.

“We have a lot of historical data that says that when you get to third in a series, that correlation between box office and DVD is not going to be the same,” he said. “We took that into consideration with our shipment numbers [in standard-def]. And the sell-off is as expected. It’s a very solid performer.”

In contrast, Sony more liberally shipped Blu-ray units of Spider-Man 3 versus anticipated first week sell-off.

“We are in the phase of filling the [high-def] pipeline and have to anticipate demand,” said Bishop. “We are getting in front of the demand of the players. On standard-definition, the demand is more set.”

Cliff Notes:

We did good, we shipped more in Blu-ray in front of holiday demand.

Its a sequel so we really didn't expect any better.

Blu-ray players are going to sell this fall like hotcakes so we shipped out more than enough to meet that demand.

130,000 units sold may not be big enough so they had to brag about 400,000 shipped.

This weeks Nielsens may be closer than first suspected.

About as good a spin as they can make. It sold 3 x more than Casino Royale did. Pretty good for a HDM release, but behind 300 and Transformers. But the best Sony has done to date.

[Hitman]

What is the real number again for Transformers sold in that same time period? I thought it sold between 85k to 115k, making SP3 more popular then Transformers.

[Balian]

Originally Posted by Kosty

up now at Video Business main site

Cliff Notes:

We did good, we shipped more in Blu-ray in front of holiday demand.

Its a sequel so we really didn't expect any better.

Blu-ray players are going to sell this fall like hotcakes so we shipped out more than enough to meet that demand.

130,000 units sold may not be big enough so they had to brag about 400,000 shipped.

This weeks Nielsens may be closer than first suspected.

About as good a spin as they can make. It sold 3 x more than Casino Royale did. Pretty good for a HDM release, but behind 300 and Transformers. But the best Sony has done to date.

ROFL Kosty ...whats the matter with AVS forum? You are here to close this forum too?

Behind Transformers? You are kidding right? The first week total for Transformers was 115,000 at most. Get real man. The total 130,000 is pretty good considering there were 2 SKUs and was also bundled with the new 40 GB PS3.

[Hitman]

So, SP3 > Transformers in sales. YAY!

[Kosty]

190,000 Paramount claimed 7 days

115,000 HMR estimated (6-7 day estimate) may/may not include Wal-Mart

85,000 estimate for Nielsen leaked to Nikki from Blu-ray studios from 3 top retailers, excluding Wal-Mart, did not include Amazon sales

[HarakoMeshi]

Does that include the Spiderman boxset or not?

[Balian]

Originally Posted by Kosty

190,000 Paramount claimed 7 days

115,000 HMR estimated (6-7 day estimate) may/may not include Wal-Mart

85,000 estimate for Nielsen leaked to Nikki from Blu-ray studios from 3 top retailers, excluding Wal-Mart, did not include Amazon sales

So you are still choose to believe Paramount? Are you telling me Transformers sold over 190,000 units and yet still lost to Blu-ray that week???

[Kosty]

Retail estimates seem clear that DVD sales of Transformers and 300 exceeded that of Spiderman 3.

Sony did not claim Blu-ray sales exceeded those titles HDM sales.

Sony did not claim 7 day sales, even though this is now Wed so they did want an apples to apples comparison.

[Kosty]

Originally Posted by Balian

So you are still choose to believe Paramount? Are you telling me Transformers sold over 190,000 units and yet still lost to Blu-ray that week???

I believe Paramount as much as I beleive Sony.

Both numbers are probably factually accurate, but they are counting different things and different time periods.

[Balian]

Originally Posted by Kosty

Retail estimates seem clear that DVD sales of Transformers and 300 exceeded that of Spiderman 3.

Sony did not claim Blu-ray sales exceeded those titles HDM sales.

Sony did not claim 7 day sales, even though this is now Wed so they did want an apples to apples comparison.

Sony is relying on the Nielsen survey which comes out every week. The first week of any release is only 6 days. How do you propose Sony finding out the exact sale figures for 7 days? They know the numbers shipped ...thats about it. The sale data at this stage only comes from Nielsen.

If you want to compare apples to apples, use the Nielsen numbers. They have SM3 at 130,000 and Transformers at 115,000.

[A_Gorilla]

And yet people doubted Spidey would would beat Transformers despite it BEING INCLUDED WITH THE FREAKIN PS3, sad. Oh well *goes back to saving money to buy the box set*

[Flex Mentallo]

"The studio shipped about 400,000 Spider-Man 3 Blu-ray units to retail for the title’s Oct. 30 bow, said Sony, making first-week sell-off about 30%."

I smell another BoGo sale before the year is done.

[Kosty]

Even if you say 130,000 Spiderman 3 sales / 155,000 Transformers sales that is a

190,000 /130,000 for 7 day claim versus 6 day claim

130,000/115,000 ratio = 1.13 : 1 ratio

130,000/85,000 = 1.52 : 1 ratio

But all retail reports are that Transformers sold more and had more legs

You can believe what set of numbers you want

[Count Westwest]

Originally Posted by Balian

So you are still choose to believe Paramount? Are you telling me Transformers sold over 190,000 units and yet still lost to Blu-ray that week???

So you choose to believe Sony???

[Hitman]

Ya, Don't believe Sony!! The Compact disc and the 3.5" floppy was never a huge success!!