Avatar: The Way of Water
June 29, 2023
Disney-owned 20th Century Studios’ Avatar: The Way of Water debuted at No. 1 on the Circana VideoScan First Alert chart, which tracks combined DVD and Blu-ray Disc unit sales, and the dedicated Blu-ray Disc sales chart the week ended June 24.
The new visual effects blockbuster from director James Cameron, which features a return to the alien moon of Pandora and a storyline on ocean-dwelling Na’vi tribes, and was the top-earning global box office draw of 2022 with more than $2.3 billion.
However, the No. 2 disc seller, Lionsgate’s John Wick: Chapter 4, down from the top spot a week before, still managed to sell about 74% as many copies as the sci-fi sequel despite having been available for more than a week. The margin over the second-place title would typically be much larger for such a high box office earner, which could be a factor of demand for the new “Avatar” movie on physical media being abated by the long lead time of the title being available in digital formats. The highly publicized Way of Water digital sellthrough release became available March 28, nearly three months before its June 20 physical media release. In addition, it has been streaming on Disney+ and Max since June 7.
The No. 3 seller on both charts, Universal Pictures’ animated The Super Mario Bros. Movie, sold about 62% as many total copies as the top title during the week.
Subscribe HERE to the FREE Media Play News Daily Newsletter!
The No. 4 overall disc seller, and No. 5 on the Blu-ray chart, was director Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant from MGM, distributed on disc by Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment. The war film, in which Jake Gyllenhaal plays a U.S. soldier trying to rescue his interpreter during the war in Afghanistan, earned $16.94 million at the domestic box office.
No. 5 on the overall disc sales chart was the original 2009 Avatar, boosted by Disney’s re-release of the film on 4K Ultra HD disc. It was No. 4 on the Blu-ray chart and No. 3 on the dedicated 4K Ultra HD disc sales chart.
Way of Water and the “John Wick” sequel were the top two sellers, respectively, on the 4K disc chart. Super Mario was No. 4.
HD formats accounted for 62% of total Avatar: The Way of Water first-week unit sales, with 29% from 4K disc, 7% from 3D disc, and 26% from regular Blu-ray. That essentially means that when buying a film that used some of the most advanced visual effects techniques of all time, 38% of shoppers decided that image quality didn’t matter.
By comparison, the original Avatar with its new 4K version front-and-center had nearly 95% of its total unit sales come from 4K disc, with 3% from regular Blu-ray and less than 2% from DVD. The 3D edition of the film is out of print and thus didn’t wasn’t tracked.
Covenant, without a 4K release, had 56% of its total unit sales come from its Blu-ray Disc edition.
Detailed charts to come.