DVD Sales by Causal

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

DVD Sales

POSTED BY: CAUSAL
UPDATED: Wednesday, June 14, 2006 09:03
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Wednesday, June 14, 2006 6:24 AM

So I was perusing Amazon today and I noticed that Serenity has slid all the way down to the #29 spot. But as I kept going down the list of top sellers I noticed Wedding Crashers--Uncorked, which originally knocked Serenity out of the #1 spot is waaaay down at #95; and March of the Penguins, which Serenity replaced at #1 is an astonishingly low #176. Oh, and by the way, Firefly is #10. And all this got me thinking, "Gee, Serenity really seems to be doing much better than some of the other movies that came out right around the same time."

So I was wondering if anyone knew how DVD sales are going?

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I wish I had a magical wish-granting plank.

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Wednesday, June 14, 2006 6:59 AM

PAGANPAUL

I'd say the DVD sales are about to get a BIG boost right around June 23rd!

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流口水的婊子和猴子的笨儿子。
Liou coe shway duh biao-tze huh hoe-tze duh bun ur-tze.
"Stupid son of a drooling whore and a monkey."

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Wednesday, June 14, 2006 7:23 AM

CAUSAL

Quote:
Originally posted by PaganPaul:
I'd say the DVD sales are about to get a BIG boost right around June 23rd!

I'm not convinced that's so. The number of truly die-hard Browncoats isn't that high maybe in the low ten thousands. Now let's be optimistic and say that of 30,000 die-hards, half will buy something on 23 Jun. That may cause a brief spike in numbers, and a modest bump in revenues, but certainly not enough to make a true dent in the sales figures. Rather, Firefly and Serenity need to continue to sell over the long haul.

Come on, doesn't anyone know how sales are going?

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Wednesday, June 14, 2006 7:53 AM

CHRISTHECYNIC

Apparently while rental figures are widely available and box office figures are everywhere DVD sales figures (perhaps VHS too, I'm not sure) are damn near impossible, if not outright impossible, to get your hands on. No one ever explained to me why though.

What I worry about is that if someone from Universal is paying attention to this whole thing come the 24th they look back and say, "I guess there aren't many fans."

I guess the point is to make people notice something more than it is to make a real change in the figures.

After all if it is a spike it doesn't matter, but if it causes some publicity or stores to rearrange their shelves or a webshop to mention it as a favored product then that could lead to a boost in sales, and that would matter.

I think that might be the point, to be totally honest I never quite got it.

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Wednesday, June 14, 2006 7:55 AM

CAUSAL

Here's hoping it does something, anyway.

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Wednesday, June 14, 2006 8:01 AM

BROWNCOAT1

May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one.

As Christhecynic said, the figures are not available, and we have never really seen anything reliable as far as how many copies of the DVD of the series had sold, let alone the BDM. Not sure why the studio does make these numbers available, but they don't.

So, like usual we are flying blind. What that means is we keep pushing hard to sell the BDM DVDs. The plans for Serenity Now and the Summer of Serenity push is going to help a lot, but each and every browncoat needs to keep spreading the word and helping to bring new browncoats into the ranks. The more fans we have in the fanbase, the better our odds.

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"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."

Richmond, VA & surrounding area Firefly Fans:

http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/richmondbrowncoats/

http://www.richmondbrowncoats.org

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Wednesday, June 14, 2006 8:13 AM

WHOISRIVER

Quote:
No one ever explained to me why though.

There's various reasons, but it basically comes down to studios don't want to release that amount of financial information.

The Amazon numbers are inflated compared to the overall retail figures. DVD figures are published in the Weekly Retail DVD report, which has an index which tells you how much (compared to the #1 DVD) the top 100 DVD sales have sold.

Unfortunately, Serenity dropped off the US chart a few weeks in. Firefly only appeared once in the last 3 years. That said, Firefly has shipped -- and I can say this as the figures were 'accquired' from FOX -- half a million copies now, which at $7 profit a pop is about $3.5m in profit for 20th Century Fox, which must make them quite smug.

Nielsen has a DVD research division, by the way, which will give out the Serenity or Firefly figures for around a $350 fee, if anybody is interested.

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Wednesday, June 14, 2006 8:35 AM

ZISKER

Quote:
Originally posted by Causal:
Now let's be optimistic and say that of 30,000 die-hards, half will buy something on 23 Jun. That may cause a brief spike in numbers, and a modest bump in revenues, but certainly not enough to make a true dent in the sales figures. Rather, Firefly and Serenity need to continue to sell over the long haul.

Well, considering that a fair number of those DVDs will end up in general circulation since most people seem to intend to give them away via gifts or donations it's hopeful that there will be a butterfly effect. And, worse comes to worse, a few new people get exposed to the series and libraries get some support. But even on this board, you see the trend of "Someone discovers Serenity/Firefly and starts bringing in new people". Over enough time Universal decides it's worth putting more money into - maybe only enough for a Straight-to-DVD, but hey, it'd be new canon.

While some people hold that this belief is "freakish", or so I was told, I point to previous movies that have followed the same path. They didn't do so well in theaters, but got a sequel due to sustained DVD sales. Shoot, Starship Troopers got a sequel how many years after it came out?

Recruting and retention long-term is the best bet at getting anything else. The DVD Buy is just another baby step in that process.

One day.
One plan.
One army of Browncoats.

On June 23rd, we aim to misbehave.
http://www.serenityday.org/
http://forum.serenityday.org/

Little or no free time, but want to help?
Help Spread the Signal: http://www.geocities.com/browncoatsignalcorps

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Wednesday, June 14, 2006 8:41 AM

WHOISRIVER

Well, Starship Troopers made $121m at the box office. With DVD, that's more than likely a $300m or more total.

Ultimately, however, sustained DVD sales over a number of years are the thing Serenity needs. It hasn't seen this, to be honest, which is a shame.

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Wednesday, June 14, 2006 8:43 AM

ZISKER

. . .yet. The DVD hasn't even been out a year. Shoot, the movie didn't come out a year ago. And the series - considering it's one season of thirteen episodes - has done remarkable so far as sustained sales are concerned. By all rights it should've been forgotten.

Paitence, grasshopper. Give it time.

One day.
One plan.
One army of Browncoats.

On June 23rd, we aim to misbehave.
http://www.serenityday.org/
http://forum.serenityday.org/

Little or no free time, but want to help?
Help Spread the Signal: http://www.geocities.com/browncoatsignalcorps

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Wednesday, June 14, 2006 9:03 AM

WHOISRIVER

Oh, I know that - the DVD sales of Firefly have been exceptionally good.

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