Wall-E DVD Sales

Pixar's Feature Films WALL•E
#10

It sold that many? Holy cow. That makes whatever Nemo made in the theaters just an appetizer for its dvd sales. Pixar must be bursting with cash after that, no wonder it could spend so much on Rat and Wall•E

Top domestic theatrical gross 2008:
1)Dark Knight
2)Iron Man
3)Kingdom of Crystal Skull
4)Hancock
5)Wall•E

However, by dvd sales, Wall•E has already beaten out all but Batman, and I’m assuming this is the case with Hancock, which was released on Nov. 25th. I didn’t even see that movie in my supermarket or record store, even tho Hellboy2 was quite prominent. Well, actually the latest chart says that Wall•E is 2nd to Iron Man for 2008, but that won’t last the next chart revision.

Thus for 2008, it’s Dark Knight vs. WALL•E when it comes to the dvd:

dvdtown.com/news/dvdblu-ray- … -imdb/6122

#11

I find it amazing that in its first week of sales WALL-E is second only to Iron Man, a movie that has had to be on the charts for 8 weeks to be where it is now. WALL-E will easily surpass that although I’m certain that The Dark Knight will trounce WALL-E (if theatrical sales are anything to go by).

However, I’m sure that The Dark Knight and WALL-E will hold the top two sales positions for some time to come.

#12

Most people would probably agree with you, Batman will exceed Wall-E even in dvd. But if you read that link right above, you would see that animated features do better than regular movies. I’m not a marketeer, but it makes sense. People who are willing to shell out 20 bucks are usually heads of households, as in families. They aren’t the typical 15-25 year old crowd that make up the majority of Dark Knight’s crowd. People with money and better taste buy dvd’s, such as History Channel dvd’s, which are everywhere. And the image quality of our favorite film is a potent marketing advantage.

Animated features seem timeless, whereas today’s action movies usually don’t last 15 years. Even Titanic looked dowdy after 5 years. Still, Wall-E just isn’t the powerhouse that Nemo was, and going up against Batman, we both know who will win.

#13

Ok, week#2 dvd results are in for the U.S., and Wall•E has added 2.4M copies to garner over 8,070,000 sold. That’s about $142M total revenue, still $15M short of its only serious released rival: Iron Man, whose sales soared this past week, the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S.

the-numbers.com/dvd/charts/annual/2008.php

Somehow the numbers don’t add up. They said last week that it sold 6.2M copies, and have downgraded the first week’s sales, I guess with better tabulations.

Hancock was actually the #1 title of the Nov.25-Dec2 period, racking up 3M copies sold. (My local supermarket still has 15 copies left over, a sad performance.) Next week Wall•E will either close in on or pass up its rival to get the #1 spot, that is until the Dec. 9 release of Batman. Perhaps our very favorite flying metal superhero will pass our 2nd favorite flying metal superhero during that week, only to be shortly passed up by our favorite gliding rubber superhero.

Edit: Wall-E dvd sales disappointing to Disney compared to Ratatouille? Pixar Blog just reported today that some Chief so-and-so said this at a conference. How very strange. The Rat did around 12-13M dvd sales. Here is the link:
pixarblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/w … ehind.html

I know a certain robot who could supply this executive with a special high energy lightbulb that pulsates with sound even, and can dispel the gloomy cloud he has fallen under.

#14

Just wanted to say thanks for posting this.

Those sound like great numbers to me. Glad to hear it’s doing so well.

#15

Apparently there’s a reccession on. :wink: No matter. Glad to see people are still willing to spend money on movies! Especially awesome ones like Dark Knight and WALL-E

#16

Week #3 results: only 840,000 copies sold. This was a big 65% fall, same as Hancock. Caspian was the big release of this week, as mediocre as it was. Total take is $154M, $10M behind the #1 overall for 2008 slot with Iron Man. Batman is selling briskly, if my supermarket is any indication, but they didn’t sell out…like Wall•E did. Batman results next week! Hold on Wall-E!!

Kung Fu Panda still doing well. Wal-Mart prefers to show this film over others to sell its monitors and tv’s because of its superior colors and the superb care taken to a 3-D look and lighting.

I observed a dramatic rise in dvd sales in the week before and after Xmas last year. People are home and with family and they want to all watch something. The arts films out now don’t have the big buzz of summer flicks. I hope that Disney/Pixar takes advantage of this and the Oscar buzz and splashes some ads.

#17

Week #4: 586,000 copies sold, so:

WALL•E now is ranked #1 so far for 2008 with 9.4M units sold!

Batman sold a huge number of copies during the week, and will probably unseat our favorite yellow friend shortly, despite the tidal wave of nominations. This past week was disappointing. New releases undoubtedly grabbed a lot of attention. When I asked one parent why she was buying the dvd, she said that “it’s a gift, for one of the kids, and it’s Christmas, something to keep the other kids occupied.” Kung-Fu Panda is reaping those rewards too, in a big way.

Now last year Ratatouille rose several hundred thousand copies in the days before Xmas, selling an extra million over what it would have done otherwise. It was released on Nov 6, 2007. Will our friend do the same, or continue to decline/stagnate? Stay tuned…

Tom Staggs, Disney CFO on Dec. 9th at a conference: "The company also faces tough comparisons and selective consumers in holiday DVD sales, where the weaker performing ‘Prince Caspian’ and ‘Wall-E’ must match up against last year’s blockbuster ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End’ and international Disney-Pixar hit ‘Ratatouille,’ Staggs said.

‘The DVD business is going to see some impact from the downturn. How much remains to be seen,’ he said. ‘‘Wall-E’ is doing well but we’re not sure it will do the numbers that ‘Ratatouille’ did.’

Well, in answer to that, the Rat did 11.2M domestic dvd sales by January 2008 and 12.44M by Jan. 2009, and the original poster of this thread predicted after week#1 that our friend would pass that by a million or two. But it is true that early summer theatrical box was high, late summer and early fall was stale. Also the past 2 weeks have been mediocre. But total 2008 box office is almost exactly the same as 2007. Dvd’s: 32 titles have sold over 2M copies, as opposed to 59 last year by mid-February. I don’t actually have good numbers to compare here, but it’s possible both Batman and Wall•E can exceed 13M sales at the top, just like last year. Ok, here is a link I found on 2008 dvd sales:

bloggingstocks.com/2008/11/2 … s-falling/

This is from the-numbers:
"December 1, 2008: DVD Sales - WALL-E Sales Out of this World

WALL-E was the biggest new release of the week, as it topped the sales chart with an impressive 6.20 million units sold and $112.07 million in consumer retail spending. This is the best opening week for a DVD since At World’s End sold more than 8 million units during its opening week last year and it instantly puts the DVD into second place for the year."

Did you get the joke in bold above?

#18

DarkHand - Keep it up! Interesting to hear the numbers!

#19

Nods head

I most certainly did, DarkHand! Thanks for the figures! :slight_smile:

#20

Week #5: +780,000 sales.

Batman has unseated our favorite yellow friend, for now, passing by a few hundred thousand. Wall•E has had new competition from Horton Hears a Who, a superb animated film. But we are still in firm 2nd place for the year, as expected.

Actually, based on last years Rat performance and timing, I was expecting him to do about 1.5M sales in these two weeks, still one more week to go of the really big Xmas bulge, then just two weeks after that of lower sales, then Wall-E will slip to around 30-100K sales per week, depending on Oscar award status.

Retail Store Report. One major reason why Wall•E could be doing better: half the time you can’t find it. Either lesser, newer releases have swamped the main promotional counters, or it has sold out, with perhaps a few Blu-rays left over, or the special cardboard fixture that Disney sent the store has been relegated to the rear, or they even sometimes put other films like silly Hancock in the Wall•E fixtures!

I went to my record store 2 weeks ago and it wasn’t even displayed anywhere, but was in its regular bin with the other animated features. That week it had just become the #1 dvd of the year. Now this week it is right by the checkout counter next to Batman. My grocery store, Safeway, which sells a lot of dvd’s, has the wrong vendor relationship, and gets either seconds or first-week releases. I’ve complained. Seven-eleven has all the top sellers behind the counter, at full price. Wal-Mart had the movie in a rear fixture with other titles oddly in its special cardboard slots, and was sold out in the new releases section. Dark Knight was completely sold out at this store, except for a couple blu-rays. Now, after Xmas, the special Wal-Mart display is gone and those remaining copies went to a rack near the cash register. Admittedly, the place was in a mess both times, tons of Xmas shoppers.

#21

DarkHandOfSigourneyWeaver
Thanks for the updates. I think Wall-E’s still doing quite well, especially considering we’re in the middle of a worldwide recession right now (the top story on the front page of the LA Times today was about the troubles the studios will have this coming year). 10.1 million units so far isn’t too shabby. It beat Iron Man, and only Dark Knight will surpass it this year.

thedriveintheatre: Even Ponyo seems happy about it…

#22

Week #6: 602,000 sales.

The Dark Knight blasted its way back to number one with an enormous haul, and may be set to sell more dvd’s than any other in years. Our little yellow turtle has cemented his place as the #2 dvd of the year. But sales will drop precipitously now. Perhaps Eagle Eye or Pinapple Express will keep the Batman out of first place starting next week with their release.

Week #7: 290,000 sales, now up to about 10.8M copies sold. The steep drop was typical of the post Xmas drop seen by other titles. Batman has been dethroned. Now we are still seeing holiday sales. The holiday is OVER now, only gift cards, end of the month pay and some students still out of school in various places will keep sales well above 100,000 units for the next 2 weeks. Then will come the Academy announcements, the only thing that’s going to really affect sales. I doubt the Golden Globe animation award yesterday will do diddely doo, it just didn’t make the front page of my local newspapers.

Week #8: 116,000 sales. Many major titles fell steeply this week. The wind is now out of the sales for Wall-E. It even fell off the display of the top 40 rentals at my supermarket. Poor Wall-E…

Week #9 94,000 sales. Actually our movie is falling in overall sales, as some readjustments are being made to the charts. Same things happened to Kung Fu Panda. Wall-E is now 3M units behind the Rat. So maybe that Disney operating officer at the convention had better numbers than we have access too.

Wall-E finished as the #2 dvd of the year, well ahead of Iron Man, but almost 3M behind Batman. The website I am tracking says that Wall-E has 9.45M sales so far, but that’s just the same as a whole month ago. So the readjustment of the actual(?) numbers has hurt our little friend.

#23

Alright! Wall-E being the number 2 DVD of the year is great! Go Wall-E!!!

#24

the-numbers.com/movies/2008/WALE-DVD.php

Anyone knows how these numbers are compiled? WALL-E reportedly sold 6.2 million 1st week and now only has 3.3 on the chart? It went from nearly 10 million down to 7 million because of these adjustments(?). How come it can be so staggeringly different if the new number is true? You couldn’t blow the number twice as big and adjust it later like that… :confused:

#25

Read above, it happened to KFP too. I have been watching these deflating numbers the past 2 weeks, and its been jaw dropping. This is my first year monitoring this. It’s the end of the season and sure is weird. It dropped another 2M units just this past few days. I feel like making some telephone calls, we need an explanation.

A few weeks ago, 36 films had passed the 2M units mark, now it’s only 32 (59 last year). The sales really look pale compared to a year ago. Wall-E has now dropped to 4th on the 2008 list, behind even KFP of all movies…! (Although it also says that as of this week it has sold 7k more copies than KFP) Remember the quote I lifted from the PixarBlog site, that a chief operating exec at Disney claimed dvd sales this year were soft and that Wall-E was in the “underperforming” category. Amazing! or at least it seemed at the time. The typical top 10 dvd last year sold 11M units, this year it’s 7M. That’s a drop far larger than the theatrical drop, which varied at years end from nothing to about 5% or so, most of which can be explained by the absence of the $300-400M Potter movie, in an overall take somewhat over $9 billion.

Disney reported today that its profits were down by 1/3. They said it would be the worst downturn in their lifetime and pointed especially to dvd sales and the ‘other’ options people have regarding them, meaning renting. They said that dvd’s were an aging medium.

Looking at these numbers has been the 3rd bad thing to happen in just a week: no Best Picture nom, the Annie massacre, and now the dvd fiasco.

Edit: Well, now they are saying that Alvin and the Chipmunks has passed Wall-E up on 2008 overall sales. This shoves our friend back to #5 for the year. How that can be I don’t know, the chipmunks even passed KFP. It was a Xmas film last year and the dvd was released in Spring, so how can there be all these readjustments? Chart tampering! Anyways, our friend keeps on selling and has passed up the #3 and #4 dvd in 2008+2009 sales:

Week #12: 85,000 sales.
Week #13: 79,000
Week #14: 66,000, still holding around #17 on the list, for week ending Feb. 22nd

and KFP is now off the list. So the Annie tidal wave may have done nothing $wise.

#26

Another reason to doubt all these “disappointing sales” rumors, WALL-E just popped BACK to #1 on the DVD sales charts for the week of March 1st. That means WALL-E was #1 on the charts months after its release.

movieweb.com/news/NE3Mf989bLd859

#27

Yes, perhaps in sales to these large companies, but not really in actual sales by the consumer. Those real sales will take many weeks to be realized. (Edit: probably wrong! based on new information) Still, Madagascar2 and High School Musical3 aren’t creampuffs. I would have expected HSM3 to have sold 500,000-750K units this past week, it sold 1.5M on week#1. If all this is true, then Wall•E might have ‘sold’ well over this, possibly 1-1.5M units.

hollywoodreporter.com/hr/con … 1457f90cc0

Here is the actual Nielsen VideoScan list:

homemediamagazine.com/top-se … ended-3109

I had posted about this about 3 weeks ago at the walleforum.com, and predicted this would happen:

walleforum.com/index.php?topic=1518.30 near bottom of this 3rd page

In fact, it did happen to Ratatouille last year at this same exact time, first of March, about 300,000 copies, and was mostly some sort of batch sale. Sure, there are post-Oscar sales, just as Slumdog is the #2? movie in the land, and near the top in Britain. It’s easy to see Xmas related sales on the charts, but not so ez to detect Oscar sales with these large lots. If you notice, 4 of the 9 dvd’s came from Warner, 2 from Dreamworks, 1 Pixar etc. Most of these were big summer theatrical releases and may have been overproduced for the seasonal dvd release, and fell victim to the worsening recession.

Now comes the big buggaboo. What are they going to do with the rest of those 3M unsold units, which I know is just speculation on our part. The people at Disney knew something was wrong by Dec. 9th with Wall-E sales, calling it “underperforming.” So, my speculation is that if such numbers of unsold copies exist, we may see some sort of special promotion, perhaps repackaging with some other product. Since we noticed the problem, Wall-E has sold about a quarter of a million units plus the unknown # of special sales (hasn’t been reported, but its BIG this week ending March 1st.

#28

Wall-E apparently sold an immense number of dvd’s during the week after the enormously successful Oscar’s ceremony. My source at Target is quoting: 3,100,000 copies moved up until Saturday, Feb. 28th. His single store pushed 700-800 copies and was reordering and restocking box after box every day. There are 5,000 Target stores thruout North America. More about this over on the other forum:

walleforum.com/index.php?topic=3668.0

Edit: but this number was not reflected in this week’s the-numbers.com report, where Wall-E was #4 and sold 211,000 copies. TDK and MM were right behind. So this is the 2nd time we have been either misled or some glitch has occurred. Something is fishy since this week’s total money made came out to about $15 per dvd, which has been Wall-E’s average since Xmas, and Target was selling at 10 bucks. So I don’t think Target’s results were even included. I think I’m gonna talk to some other people about this, such as at Target and Disney, cuz I’m tired of these numbers being off by the millions, bahh.

Edit: 18th week: 45,000 sales, slipping to #23 on the chart, won’t be long now…

Edit: 21st week: still on Top30 chart.

Edit: 25th week: off the chart for a few weeks now, but might come back after Up debuts this summer. This is because nearly all the holiday season movies have had their dvd’s released.

Edit: 27th week: 77,500 sales, moves back onto chart. My local store has sold out of regular Wall-E dvd’s. 28th week: 73,000 and is poised to pass by Iron Man in a few weeks if this keeps Up, regaining the #2 spot for 2008 releases.

#29

That’s great news, DarkHand! Thanks!