Film=Fashion? The Top DVD Sales Of 2008

Hey there fellow box office junkies! In the last few years, DVD sales have become a major factor in determining a film's financial success. Between the production budget, actors' salaries, and the prints-and-advertising costs, movies simply cost a ton of money to create. Often a movie doesn't even see any profit based on its initial box office. According to Edward Jay Epstein, who wrote the tremendously insightful book The Big Picture: Money and Power in Hollywood, a modern film's theatrical run is a lot like a fashion show.

You see, a fashion show is not an immediately profitable venture for a clothing company. Between the lights, the fabric, the confetti, the seats, the clothes, the shoes, the crew, the tentspace, and the models, they're really expensive affairs! When a company throws a fashion show, it actually costs them money instead of earning them money. So why do they even exist? Because it is the results of a fashion show that earn a designer money. The runway is simply the showcase for all the merchandising that will occur afterwards. It acts as a giant commercial for the sale of the designer's products. The money comes later. The same thing is occurring at the box office.

Now, this isn't quite an exact parallel to the movie industry. After all, movies can earn substantial profits from their theatrical runs (their fashion shows). But the comparison does hold some water. Between DVD sales and rentals, product placements, merchandise, and sale to television companies, modern films often make much more money outside the theater than they do inside the theater. (Merchandise is such a big factor, that even toy company Hot Wheels is pursuing a film!) If you need an example, take a movie like 2004's The Notebook. It earned a solid $81 million during its theatrical run, but has earned well over $200 million in rental fees and $150 million in DVD sales! That means the romantic film earned over four times as much money out of the theater than it did in its initial theatrical run. Obviously, we're in a new era of Hollywood.

That was kind of a long (but interesting, right?) preamble to the main point of this post, which is the Top Selling DVD's of 2008, so I'll get to the point. In 2008, people bought a lot of DVD units, and studios made a lot of money on the home market. Proving for the umpteenth time that families are the big spenders in the film industry, there are no less than 18 family titles in the Top 50, and there are five family films in the Top Ten. Proving for the umpteenth time that people love big-budget action/superhero movies, those titles make up pretty much everything else. Of course, there's the occasional Mamma Mia! or Step Brothers in there, but family or action is pretty much the chart. Also of note, take a look at Sex And The City - The Movie's units sold vs. total revenue. HBO overprices everything! And How insanely impressive is it that The Dark Knight tops the chart in just three weeks? That performance is so incredible, I'll forgive Batman for just barely keeping my favorite little robot, Wall-E, out of the top spot. Here are the results:

The 50 Top Selling DVD's Of 2008

Rank	Movie Title	Units Sold	Total Revenue	Release Date
1	Dark Knight, The	10,300,870	$215,715,802	12/9/2008
2	WALL-E	10,153,664	$175,451,924	11/18/2008
3	Iron Man	9,408,533	$174,955,826	9/30/2008
4	Kung Fu Panda	8,431,318	$139,126,669	11/9/2008
5	I am Legend	6,444,666	$116,519,064	3/18/2008
6	Alvin and the Chipmunks	5,972,091	$100,468,536	4/1/2008
7	Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull	5,964,704	$124,625,475	10/14/2008
8	National Treasure - Book of Secrets	5,900,779	$94,069,136	5/20/2008
9	Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, The	5,015,199	$82,746,127	12/2/2008
10	Hancock	5,012,362	$100,367,749	11/25/2008
11	Enchanted	4,964,380	$79,510,141	3/18/2008
12	Bee Movie	4,594,120	$73,808,995	3/11/2008
13	American Gangster	4,476,418	$75,033,673	2/19/2008
14	Sex and the City - The Movie	4,287,264	$88,766,856	9/23/2008
15	Tinker Bell	4,078,040	$64,081,876	10/28/2008
16	Incredible Hulk, The	3,960,331	$84,043,274	10/21/2008
17	Mamma Mia!	3,577,246	$74,782,328	12/16/2008
18	Wanted	3,435,979	$71,243,816	12/2/2008
19	Horton Hears a Who!	3,108,453	$54,420,779	12/9/2008
20	Juno	2,988,963	$51,029,656	4/15/2008
21	Sleeping Beauty	2,890,542	$46,368,005	9/9/2003
22	Game Plan, The	2,852,284	$48,825,015	1/22/2008
23	Tropic Thunder	2,840,556	$57,058,767	11/18/2008
24	101 Dalmatians	2,827,132	$44,948,992	11/9/1999
25	3:10 to Yuma	2,808,537	$54,522,425	1/8/2008
26	No Country for Old Men	2,750,376	$46,948,649	3/11/2008
27	Snow Buddies	2,654,515	$50,062,371	2/5/2008
28	Hellboy 2: The Golden Army	2,654,088	$55,782,361	11/11/2008
29	Step Brothers	2,595,575	$47,767,159	12/2/2008
30	27 Dresses	2,560,187	$40,894,562	4/29/2008
31	Little Mermaid - Ariel's Beginning, The	2,430,459	$41,444,398	8/26/2008
32	Bucket List, The	2,186,083	$36,798,443	6/10/2008
33	Get Smart	2,088,251	$38,209,460	11/4/2008
34	Golden Compass, The	2,018,894	$42,834,950	4/29/2008
35	Saw IV	2,010,917	$34,311,442	1/22/2008
36	Beowulf	1,951,720	$36,871,342	2/26/2008
37	Resident Evil - Extinction	1,909,609	$36,192,295	1/1/2008
38	Rambo	1,898,950	$41,213,957	5/27/2008
39	Jumper	1,882,089	$36,030,571	6/10/2008
40	Cloverfield	1,877,353	$30,323,342	4/22/2008
41	Journey to the Center of the Earth	1,804,842	$31,877,345	10/28/2008
42	Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street	1,798,887	$36,219,378	4/1/2008
43	10,000 B.C.	1,785,562	$31,738,235	6/24/2008
44	Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married?	1,682,802	$31,174,863	2/12/2008
45	21	1,620,028	$29,569,381	7/22/2008
46	Transformers	1,619,130	$26,941,526	10/16/2007
47	P.S., I Love You	1,597,085	$25,880,737	5/6/2008
48	Good Luck Chuck	1,591,282	$28,281,694	1/15/2008
49	Fred Claus	1,585,400	$27,550,604	11/25/2008
50	Water Horse - Legend of the Deep	1,560,263	$30,061,385	4/8/2008

All Numbers From Nash Information Services via The-Numbers

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