‘Pirates’ Win Showdown, Make ‘Matrix’ Walk the Plank

[zombieflanders]

From Home Media Magazine:

Within a week, consumers had spent more than $2 million on those releases alone, according to Home Media Magazine market research estimates. The two “Pirates” films sold a combined total of nearly 47,000 units, while the higher-priced “Matrix” sets sold about 13,900 units.

In dollars, there was much more parity, since the single-disc “Pirates” releases fetched about $25 in stores, while the “Matrix” sets, each with all three movies in the franchise, were priced significantly higher. The five-disc “The Ultimate Matrix Collection” lists for $119.99, with an Amazon.com price of $73.95, while “The Complete Matrix Trilogy” (three discs) goes for $99.99 (Amazon, $63.95).

The 2nd paragraph is a little disingenuous, since they're comparing POTC at retail with Matrix at MSRP. Let's even it up, shall we? All prices are averaged between the titles.

POTC (retail): 47000 x ~$25 = $1175000
Matrix (retail): 13900 x ~$70 = $973000

POTC (MSRP): 47000 x $35 = $1645000
Matrix (MSRP) 13900 X $110 = $1529000

Impressive, but either way you look at it, Matrix lost in sales and total dollars. Wonder if Warner is rethinking the "later this year" thing?

ETA: Thanks go to Aodh for correcting my calculations. Numbers have been updated.

[Balian]

Wow thats amazing. Counting just these titles alone, Blu-ray as a 77:23 advantage for the week. I think I better revise my ratio for the week.

[pkremer]

Originally Posted by zombieflanders

POTC (retail): 47000 x ~$50 = $2350000
Matrix (retail): 13900 x ~$140 = $1946000

POTC (MSRP): 47000 x $70 = $3290000
Matrix (MSRP) 13900 X $220 = $3058000

Impressive, but either way you look at it, Matrix lost in sales and total dollars. Wonder if Warner is rethinking the "later this year" thing?

Is this a surprise? We all knew that POTC would sell more copies than the Matrix, and we even suspected that they might win in dollars too...

However,
54.7 - 45.3
51.8 - 48.2
for your ratios.

In this particular "battle," Blu-Ray has significantly lost its ratio advantage.

Paul

PS - And YES, we are talking about dollars made by the companies. Do you really think WB cares they sold just under 1/3 the copies as long as they took in a roughly equal sales take?

[macjr82]

AS I've said previously. This would be, and is, no surprise.

POTC is a newer film with wider appeal. his is the umpteenth dip for Matrix, only the die hard will buy it. I know plenty who are staying away b/c it's a bundle and they only want the first film.

POTC on the other hand is more mass appeal, especially considering the PS3 base which is the bulk of owners.

[Balian]

Originally Posted by pkremer

Is this a surprise? We all knew that POTC would sell more copies than the Matrix, and we even suspected that they might win in dollars too...

However,
54.7 - 45.3
51.8 - 48.2
for your ratios.

In this particular "battle," Blu-Ray has significantly lost its ratio advantage.

Paul

PS - And YES, we are talking about dollars made by the companies. Do you really think WB cares they sold just under 1/3 the copies as long as they took in a roughly equal sales take?

Umm, from what I understand, the Nielsen ratio is NOT based on sales in dollars but in the units sold. Based on units sold, its a 77:23 ratio.

[VC-1]

hahahaha

the difference isn't even 200k dollars.

WOW, what a FORTUNE, yeah warners is gonna be in the red for sure!

someone slept through economics class I think.

you aren't even taking into account the matrix series has been released on DVD 15 times, the first film is near 10 years old, and Pirates just enjoyed 2 movie releases this year to bolster it's "hype".

All in all, I'd say pirates "failed" because you should have BURYED a HDDVD release with those THREE MILLION PS3s.

42,000 copies???? LOL

hahahaha

[MasterBlaster]

Thats a completely FUD title to this thread. It's looking like the cheaper Pirates movies are barely above the Matrix box sets any way you look at it.

So, HD DVD with its 1/10th the amount of players in households as BD, held virtually a dead heat with Pirates on BD with their 3 million BD players. And this is a landslide victory for BD?

[Aodh]

Originally Posted by zombieflanders

From Home Media Magazine:
The 2nd paragraph is a little disingenuous, since they're comparing POTC at retail with Matrix at MSRP. Let's even it up, shall we?

POTC (retail): 47000 x ~$50 = $2350000
Matrix (retail): 13900 x ~$140 = $1946000

POTC (MSRP): 47000 x $70 = $3290000
Matrix (MSRP) 13900 X $220 = $3058000

Impressive, but either way you look at it, Matrix lost in sales and total dollars. Wonder if Warner is rethinking the "later this year" thing?

Umm... It was 47000 units total, not each, so that's 47000 x $25 (or 23500 x $50). Matrix wasn't that expensive either, so you need to average out the price between the two sets.

[VC-1]

Originally Posted by MasterBlaster

Thats a completely FUD title to this thread. It's looking like the cheaper Pirates movies are barely above the Matrix box sets any way you look at it.

So, HD DVD with its 1/10th the amount of players in households as BD, held virtually a dead heat with Pirates on BD with their 3 million BD players. And this is a landslide victory for BD?

Hey bro, they aren't gonna get it. But don't worry I do.

This was a HUGE victory for HDDVD, any way you look at it.

If only "diehards" were gonna buy the matrix set, then this was a lot of diehards... cause those sales numbers are about even.

3 million PS3s,, and they sold 42k copies? bwahahahaha...

[Balian]

Originally Posted by VC-1

Hey bro, they aren't gonna get it. But don't worry I do.

This was a HUGE victory for HDDVD, any way you look at it.

If only "diehards" were gonna buy the matrix set, then this was a lot of diehards... cause those sales numbers are about even.

3 million PS3s,, and they sold 42k copies? bwahahahaha...

First off, its 47,000 copies, not 42,000. Secondly, 47,000 copies is a lot more than 13,900 copies. Lastly, Nielson only goes by units sold, not dollar value. If you go by what Nielsen puts out, Blu-ray won handily for the week. With these titles, the ratio is 77:23. You can't spin that as good for HD DVD.

[sahoward]

They're both catalog titles, and I think there are MANY more people who would rebuy Matrix over Pirates (IE: me). Close numbers, but I think it's more of an achievement that Blu-ray could sell a lot of a subpar franchise over a great one.

That being said, and I know I'm a broken record, the key is in new releases.

[dobyblue]

No he can't, but he will attempt to and will look foolish in the process.

Oh look, there he goes.

[MasterBlaster]

Originally Posted by Balian

First off, its 47,000 copies, not 42,000. Secondly, 47,000 copies is a lot more than 13,900 copies. Lastly, Nielson only goes by units sold, not dollar value. If you go by what Nielsen puts out, Blu-ray won handily for the week. With these titles, the ratio is 77:23. You can't spin that as good for HD DVD.

Can you do mathematics? Whats 13,900 x 3? Then proceed to tell us why it isn't fair to use that number, and also why its not fair to use MSRP sales to compare. This should be interesting.

[zombieflanders]

Originally Posted by MasterBlaster

Thats a completely FUD title to this thread.

Originally Posted by VC-1

Hey bro, they aren't gonna get it. But don't worry I do.

Wow, a wee bit defensive, aren't you guys? The title comes from the article itself. Hurl all your cackling and sophomoric insults at HMM, not me.

This was a HUGE victory for HDDVD, any way you look at it.

Except in money made, units sold, and apparently, press. And as usual, you forgot one thing while giggling to yourself over how witty you thought your post was: This is just these two titles for each format. Apocalypto probably outsold both Matrix sets, and I'm 99% sure the two neutral WWII discs sold better on Blu-ray.

If only "diehards" were gonna buy the matrix set, then this was a lot of diehards... cause those sales numbers are about even.

No one said this in the thread. so why bring it up? Oh, I forgot it's because you have nothing else worthwhile to say.

[chad5871]

Originally Posted by Balian

First off, its 47,000 copies, not 42,000. Secondly, 47,000 copies is a lot more than 13,900 copies. Lastly, Nielson only goes by units sold, not dollar value. If you go by what Nielsen puts out, Blu-ray won handily for the week. With these titles, the ratio is 77:23. You can't spin that as good for HD DVD.

Actually it is very possible to spin this as good for HD DVD. The Matrix Trilogies really contained three titles, and therefore comparisons really can't be made between POTC and Matrix. I bet if just Matrix 1 were released separately, it would have sold a hell of a lot more than 14k copies.

Oh, and 13,900 x 3 = 41,700