Astro Boy is #2 on Best-Selling DVD/Blu-Ray list

[Laughing Dragon]

sales figures for DVDs and other such merchandise are never released to the public

I can easily get the sales figures. For example these are the sales figures for the United States: in March Astroboy has sold 250.430 units, grossing exactly 4.630.451 million dollars. I thought it would have done better because, unfortunately, these are quite bad numbers.

Well, Fox was better-reviewed

Yes, but this is a box office failure too.

I get my info from the website The Numbers, and here's what it has to say about DVD sales figures:

Precise information on DVD sales is not generally available. Our DVD sales figures are estimates based on studio figures, publicly available data, and private research on retail sales carried out by Nash Information Services. The figures include estimated sales at Wal-Mart and other retailers that do not publicly release sales information.

So we don't have definitive sales numbers for the Astro Boy DVD/Blu-Ray. But here's what we do know: On the first week of its release, Astro Boy placed #4 on the list compiled by The Numbers website: http://www.the-numbers.com/dvd/charts/weekly/2010/20100321.php The second week it dropped sharply, due to the advent of Fantastic Mr. Fox and Alvin and the Chipmunks (which likely got a huge boost because of the release of its sequel on DVD): http://www.the-numbers.com/dvd/charts/weekly/2010/20100328.php It seems like EVERY studio releases its DVDs in March, for some reason. Astro faced a lot of competition that month - Ponyo, Where The Wild Things Are, Planet 51, Princess and the Frog, Fantastic Mr. Fox - all were released in a big clump in March. Princess and the Frog was released the same day as Astro! And yet Astro managed to place 4th that week. Not too shabby if you ask me.

I don't know that I'd call those sales figures "bad". Considering its lack of advertising and performance at the box office, the fact that it placed so highly its first week is pretty remarkable. I wish the take were bigger, but it still made money - likely more than The Numbers reveals, since it admits it doesn't have all the sales figures. Also, those figures don't include Blu-Ray and Video on Demand, and from what I heard, Astro has done better on Blu-Ray than he has on DVD. Here's a list of Blu-Ray sales from Home Media.com: http://www.homemediamagazine.com/top-sellers/top-20-selling-blu-ray-discs-week-ended-32110 Astro placed 9th. Naturally it had no chance of beating something like Princess and the Frog, but again, considering its low-profile advertising, I think that's pretty good.

[clashing claws]

Thats awesome that astro is doing really good

[gabriel]

Thank you for signaling me that interesting web site (numbers) Laughing. Firstly I got these numbers in a more twisted way.

So we don't have definitive sales numbers for the Astro Boy DVD

Yes, I agree but even if they are not 100% exact they are always the most accurate dvd sales figures we can get. Now seems that Astroboy has dropped out of the best thirty in the Usa, grossing 4,468,848 in three weeks (not impressive), but dvd sales are often weird: very often a movie disappears from the chart, making an incredible comeback many months later. It's still performing very well about rentals, go to see Imdb, where it is on 23th position.

[cybotron]

4,468,848 x 19.99?=how many bucks?

[gabriel]

4,468,848 x 19.99?=how many bucks?

4,468,848 million dollars ARE the total bucks!

[avatargirl]

hi- i hope more dvds will be sold- what was wrong with the movie? i loved it- i thought they got ASTRO BOY personality right. thanks

[Laughing Dragon]

hi- i hope more dvds will be sold- what was wrong with the movie? i loved it- i thought they got ASTRO BOY personality right. thanks

There was nothing wrong with the movie. I'm a big animation fan, and I see a lot of animated films - and Astro Boy was, IMO, the best animated film of 2009 when it comes to a really satisfying and unforgettable story. Unfortunately, it was overlooked at the box office because Summit, its distributor, completely failed to advertise it properly. Summit is famous for this. "The Hurt Locker", which Summit also distributed and which won Best Picture at the Oscars, also failed at the box office. Summit has also screwed up the advertising for the Astro Boy DVD. I saw a very short ad about twice on TV (whereas ads for The Princess and the Frog and Ponyo were everywhere). PLUS...some here already know my sad story about trying to get my Astro Boy DVD at Blockbuster. I had gotten a Blockbuster gift card for Christmas, and naturally I wanted to use it to buy the Astro DVD. But my local Blockbuster stores (I live in the Midwest) didn't get the film in for three weeks after its release! (I was told there was a delay in shipping). And then, when they did finally get it in, they didn't have any for sale - just for rent! You can't tell me that didn't affect sales.

Summit sucks. That just about sums it up.

[LLM]

[QUOTE=avatargirl;97788]hi- i hope more dvds will be sold- what was wrong with the movie? i loved it- i thought they got ASTRO BOY personality right. thanks

There was nothing wrong with the movie. I'm a big animation fan, and I see a lot of animated films - and Astro Boy was, IMO, the best animated film of 2009 when it comes to a really satisfying and unforgettable story. Unfortunately, it was overlooked at the box office because Summit, its distributor, completely failed to advertise it properly. Summit is famous for this. "The Hurt Locker", which Summit also distributed and which won Best Picture at the Oscars, also failed at the box office. Summit has also screwed up the advertising for the Astro Boy DVD. I saw a very short ad about twice on TV (whereas ads for The Princess and the Frog and Ponyo were everywhere). PLUS...some here already know my sad story about trying to get my Astro Boy DVD at Blockbuster. I had gotten a Blockbuster gift card for Christmas, and naturally I wanted to use it to buy the Astro DVD. But my local Blockbuster stores (I live in the Midwest) didn't get the film in for three weeks after its release! (I was told there was a delay in shipping). And then, when they did finally get it in, they didn't have any for sale - just for rent! You can't tell me that didn't affect sales.

Summit sucks. That just about sums it up.[/QUOTE]

That may have been just Blockbuster, they have been declining. I ordered mine from Barnes and Nobles online and it shipped on the release date.

Just showed the movie to 2 of my freinds, they had a blast!