DVD Sales

[:]

Seeing as the sales of these DVDs could well decide on Futurama's future I thought that a topic on the matter could well be important.

Whilst I have no figures as such, here in the UK at least the latest movie (Beast with a Billion Backs) seems to be doing extremely well. Whilst browsing a couple of shops I noticed where the movie was in their own DVD charts:

Woolworths
TV DVD chart (they have seperate charts for TV releases and theatrical films):
1st week: #2 (only Torchwood series 2 beat it)
2nd week: #3 (new Doctor Who release went straight in at 1)
3rd week: #3
4th week: #6 (noticed Bender's Big Score has been at #20 this week and last week as well)

Sainsbury's
TV chart (they have a seperate chart for TV releases but also a chart for all releases so you could compare them with theatrical films as well):
1st week: #1 (was also their 'DVD of Week' as well!
2nd week: #3
3rd week: #5
4th week: ?

All DVD chart:
1st week: #8
(haven't seen it after that, sorry)

Blockbusters:
All DVD chart:
1st week: #4
(after that nothing but my Blockbusters is a crappy one and only have the top ten to buy)

Pretty respectable when you consider it outsold Family Guy (which admittedly has been out a while), the new South Park DVD and (in some shops at least) Torchwood.

I'm hoping to see if I can find some raw figures though.

[#1 :]

Far as I can tell the first batch sold out quickly around here, but I didn't keep track of the Best Buy / Futureshop sales  It would be nice to see the overall performance of the DVD's somehow, and compare them to how well Family Guy did before it was returned to TV.

I'm sure Fox is keeping up with the numbers, maybe if I ask real nice they'll tell me :P

[#2 :]

If by ask you mean give them a breifcase full of money you might have a shot. Other wise......no.

[#3 :]

*waits*

[#4 :]

That's great! A new series/movie might well be possible.

I just don't know why I haven't seen adverts on it on TV. But I did see that it was advertised on a magazine for HMV.

[#5 :]

The only thing even remotely advertizing Futurama I've ever seen on TV were the commercials Adult Swim used to run and one that CC did when it picked up the show.

[#6 :]

yeah, i haven't seen anything aside from the adult swim ads...and that was just when the movies were a rumor.

[#7 :]

Just to add to the positions I had for this week:

WH Smiths: #6
Tesco: #6

Both in their TV charts.

[#8 :]

It's a good thing that the DVD sales don't depend on advertising. The fan base is well informed, and, it seems, willing to spend the $ to get the new movies.

As a long-time fan I'm happy for the series to see it do well in sales. (High-fives other fans. Yeah, baby, we can keep it alive!)

[#9 :]

It is kind of odd that I haven't noticed any advertising, BWABB wasn't even listed on the release calender at Wal-Mart. They still managed to sell out that day though...

[#10 :]

Why did BWBB only come out today in Australia, i mean i hear NOTHING for 2 months thinking its coming out on the 8th, then the other day i search google, and what do you know, it comes out on the 6th (today)

[#11 :]

Beast With a Billion Backs ranked the #4 best selling DVD this summer. 

[#12 :]

 

Originally posted by KurtPikachu2001:
Beast With a Billion Backs ranked the #4 best selling DVD this summer. 

Source?

[#13 :]

 

Originally posted by x.Bianca.x:
Why did BWBB only come out today in Australia, i mean i hear NOTHING for 2 months thinking its coming out on the 8th, then the other day i search google, and what do you know, it comes out on the 6th (today)

It's best to keep uptated on these things. Check all your sourses once a week. Complain at me if you must, but, just trust me.

Sure is a good thing that in UK releases, we get a little leaflet thing saying when the others come out.

[#14 :]

 

Originally posted by upside_ur_head:
 Source?

Here is an excellent DVD site that has rankings, sales numbers, and most important, MONEY MADE:

 http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/series/Futurama.php

Just click on the appropriate movie title to see weekly breakdowns.

Bender's Big Score made an estimated $16 million in U.S. market, estimated 900,000 units sold.  I seem to remember an estimated cost of $1 million a movie, so that is GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE!

Not so good is Beast with a Billion Backs--$4 million so far over three weeks, 210,000 units sold.  However, it did open at #9 in total sales, but dropped off quickly after week 2.

It is depressing to see 10,000 B.C. outsell Futurama, but on the other hand it seems to be the only direct-to-DVD to break the top ten recently.  More worrying is that only half the number of people bought BWABB the first week out as they did BBS.  Might be holiday season, but might also be that BWABB (IMHO) wasn't as good.

[#15 :]

 

It is depressing to see 10,000 B.C. outsell Futurama, but on the other hand it seems to be the only direct-to-DVD to break the top ten recently. More worrying is that only half the number of people bought BWABB the first week out as they did BBS. Might be holiday season, but might also be that BWABB (IMHO) wasn't as good.

It may be the other way around - a lot of people bought BBS with high expectations.  Most of the people who thought that BBS was great are a few vocal people.  More people felt very disappointed by BBS.  Then BWABBs is released - people remember being disappointed by BBS and decide to save their money to buy other things.

I'm hoping the move away from the angst and loneliness, the complete raping and destruction of the friendships of Fry, Leela and Bender will be put on hold for Bender's Game.  A comical farce into the fantasy world of DnD seems to be an area where the writers can have a fun time and not get bogged down with who is hurting who's feelings.

There are the people who saw it on Cartoon Network 2 times a night, sometimes up to 7 days a week.  Now that Futurama's new home is Comedy Central, the eps only come on one time a day, never on Friday, Saturday or Sunday.  It's also not promoted as heavily on CC as on CN.  A lot of people may not even think about the Futurama DVD's because the show is not as available as it was just 9 short months ago.

[#16 :]

 

Originally posted by Ralph Snart:
 It may be the other way around - a lot of people bought BBS with high expectations.  Most of the people who thought that BBS was great are a few vocal people.  More people felt very disappointed by BBS.  Then BWABBs is released - people remember being disappointed by BBS and decide to save their money to buy other things.

I'm hoping the move away from the angst and loneliness, the complete raping and destruction of the friendships of Fry, Leela and Bender will be put on hold for Bender's Game.  A comical farce into the fantasy world of DnD seems to be an area where the writers can have a fun time and not get bogged down with who is hurting who's feelings.

I was wondering if that gratuitous opinion would attract attention.

Looking further, Nielson ratings had 6.4 million viewers watching the last season of Futurama.  I can't help but wonder that with a little advertising a lot more DVDs could have been sold.

Perhaps someone (i_c_weiner?) has numbers for the audience on the Cartoon Network?

And regardless of anyone's exact opinion of the two movies, all that matters in the end, that we buy them.  The sales of Bender's Game will be crucial, since it will be a holiday release,and I'm sure the suits will be comparing the numbers relative to BBS.

[#17 :]

Great that we've now got figures for Futurama in the US (bit disappointed by the BWABB figures though). However there seems to still be no figures like this for the UK or the rest of Europe (not that I can find still anyway).

I wonder if viewing figures can be found for Futurama for Sky One, Two and Three (mainly Three as that's on Freeview) here in the UK. Sky recently annouced that they will be showing the new Futurama season (i.e. the cut up movies) this autumn (no date specified) on the rebranded Sky 1. Whether Sky 3 will get these episodes in the future remains to be seen. Just seems funny that Australia have already shown BBS (I believe) already on Network Ten and yet we've had nothing until much later here in the UK.

[#18 :]

Sorry for the double post but I've just found this:
 http://www.barb.co.uk/viewingsummary/weekreports.cfm?report=weeklytop30&requesttimeout=500&flag=viewingsummary

[#19 :]

nice find!

I have no doubt that Futurama could make it back to T.V with the numbers its getting.

[#20 :]

 

Originally posted by *JustNibblin'*:
*Bender's Big Score made an estimated $16 million in U.S. market, estimated 900,000 units sold. I seem to remember an estimated cost of $1 million a movie, so that is GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE!

Not so good is Beast with a Billion Backs--$4 million so far over three weeks, 210,000 units sold. However, it did open at #9 in total sales, but dropped off quickly after week 2.
*

If BBS sold 220,036 its 1st week and was ranked #14 but BBB sold 126,016 and ranked #9 then Summer sales of all DVD's must be less than during the Holiday Season. BBS had over 7 months to accumulate the $16.6M figure. If BBB has earned $4M in less than a month during the "slow" season (and nutzo fuel prices and was released 3 months later than first anticipated) I would think it's doing very well.

It's $4M that wouldn't be in the kitty without BBB.

Now it's:
$16.6M + $4M = $20.6M

Early Dec. it might be something like:
$20M + $10M + $5M = $35M

Spring '09:
$22M + $15M + $10M + $5M = $52M (on ~$4M investment)

[#21 :]

Not to mention those Futurama fans who went out and bought bluray players just to watch the movies in HD.

For the sales, let's just assume that all the movies will sell $20M in their first year, considering BBS's total. The DVDs would've sold $80M just in their individual first years, not including additional sales after the first, bluray sales after initial release, etc. That's a good deal for Fox.

[#22 :]

So far it seems both movies are selling well. I think the next movie will out sell both so far.

[#23 :]

I'll agree with Ralph's point about Futurama not being out there as much.  Its syndication run on CN was fantastic; it made ratings, it had a good timeslot, and it was promoted heavily.  Moving to CC is cool... but I don't see it on that often, and don't keep track much of its timing, so I suspect this is a major factor in sales.

Also note that those numbers were in the millions of dollars in sales?  Right?  How many hardcore Futurama fans are there?  I know they aren't all on PEEL, but I suspect that PEEL and other Futurama related web places give a pretty good glimpse of the hardcore fan community.  My point?  Hardcore fans aren't the only ones buying the dvds.... it's a cult television program, but casual viewers are buying the product as well.  Which is how it's going to have to be to do great in sales.  To bring this full circle, there's going to need to be more exposure of the show to keep those numbers up high.  All that said, it seems like they're doing rather well, and assuming most of the original creative team is on board, the future of Futurama looks bright.

[#24 :]

That and you'd have to add the advertising revenue from Comedy Central too.

[#25 :]

With all these good selling DVDs everyones getting their hopes up for another season, I as much as anyone, would love that to happen, but we have to make sure that ITWGY isn't a show ending story, so I think we shouldnt get our hopes up till were at least 70% confident.

[#26 :]

 

Originally posted by x.Bianca.x:
With all these good selling DVDs everyones getting their hopes up for another season, I as much as anyone, would love that to happen, but we have to make sure that ITWGY isn't a show ending story

I doubt it will be show-ending, but there is definitely a resolution of some magnitude on the horizon for ITWGY. I can't wait!
 

I think we shouldnt get our hopes up till were at least 70% confident.

Let me know when that happens...and how to measure that 
is it measured in plausibility units?

[#27 :]

Still no word on when Sky will show the new Futurama stuff (other than it's been annouced for the Autumn season) but I'm no longer bothered seeing that even though it's now shown after the 9pm watershed on Sky 3 the word 'bastard' is still being edited out.

[#28 :]

Sky One won't cut it. Probably. Sky Three even cut "bitch" from an episode of Atlantis.

[#29 :]

If it doesn't get enough sales, Peel should use Flash to make the series!

[#30 :]

I doubt it will be show-ending, but there is definitely a resolution of some magnitude on the horizon for ITWGY. I can't wait!

It won't be show ending but I expect they'll tie up all the story arcs that are left so we'll probably see a conclusion to the Fry/Leela story as well as the prophecy and what not.

Then if the series does get continued we'll see new plot elements come into play.

[#31 :]

I hope the DVDs sell good so they will make more Futurama because I like it.

[#32 :]

I see The Wild Green Yonder is #10 on the pre-order chart at Play.com, not bad considering it isn't out till late February, the top nine are all due out this month

[#33 :]

Hehe, I think I'll preorder the movie this time around, Ralph had his real copy when the internet leak had just hit!

[#34 :]

I went to best buy and all 3 movies were sold out

[#35 :]

I'm waiting for the 4 movie box set....That would be a great seller.

[#36 :]

Benders game got #8 in sanity, first week (Thank God it was in front of Family guy) in AU

[#37 :]

Into the Wild Green Yonder

Sainsbury's
TV DVD Chart: #1 (oh yeah baby and TV DVD of the week)
All DVD Chart (including theactrical movies): #7 (it's the highest new entry out of anything)

Tesco
TV DVD Chart: #3 (also TV DVD of the week)

Still seems strange I can't put Woolworths up here like I used to.

[#38 :]

Currently #9 on amazon.com's Bestsellers in TV & Movies:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/dvd/ref=pd_dp_ts_d_1

And thats AFTER the Oscars, meaning a majority of those bumping ITWGY down are people buying movies that just won awards. Between 1 and 8 are four oscar winner/nominees so technically you could say it's #5.

[#39 :]

It's first in HMV's Top 10 animated comedy DVDs but no other good news on that site. Disappointing.