The Super Mario Bros. Movie (Universal Pictures/Illumination image)
June 15, 2023
As a result of showing up on shelves a week early at some brick-and-mortar retailers, Universal Pictures’ The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Lionsgate’s John Wick: Chapter 4 took over the top two spots on both the Circana VideoScan First Alert chart, which tracks DVD and Blu-ray Disc unit sales, and the dedicated Blu-ray and 4K charts the week ended June 10.
The films, both announced with June 13 street dates, were offered a week early at many retail locations. Walmart, Target and Best Buy all had copies of The Super Mario Bros. Movie available early, the result of some apparent confusion about the street date. Only Walmart appears to have John Wick: Chapter 4 a week early.
Being at just one of the big three national chains likely accounts for why the “Wick” sequel sold only about 30% as many copies as the animated video game adaptation during the week.
The title most affected chart-wise by the early releases would seem to be Paramount’s Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, which would have topped the charts for a second consecutive week had the other two not been available yet. However, from the No. 3 spot it sold just 18% as many copies as Super Mario Bros., which likely indicates most people who really wanted it picked it up in its first week on shelves.
The top newcomer among the actual June 6 releases was Universal’s vampire comedy Renfield at No. 4 on both the overall and Blu-ray Disc charts. The film stars Nicholas Hoult as the long-suffering servant of Dracula, played by Nicolas Cage. As he continues to do Dracula’s bidding, Renfield seeks to escape from his master’s control. Renfield‘s performance also may have been impacted by the early availability of Super Mario Bros., but it’s unclear how much retailers may have limited space for it (Target, for instance, didn’t appear to have any physical copies of Renfield in stores during the week).
Rounding out the top five sellers on the overall and Blu-ray Disc charts was Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s dinosaur-infused sci-fi thriller 65.
Stay tuned to this space for additional analysis and detailed charts.