How HV sales used to turn big box office hits into massive box office GIANTS

[baumer]

Maybe some of this information is stuff you already know but I was researching Frozen's box office and then checked the DVD and BR sales.  It astonished me.  Frozen sold 16.8 million HV's.  Those numbers are unheard of in 2014.  So this got me curious.  What are some of the biggest combined numbers for different films?  I know we all have access to DVD/BR sales from years past, but just for the hell of it, take a look at some of these numbers.  And when you do, you can see why some of these blockbusters have such massive budgets.  These are just random films and random film series, add whatever you feel like adding.

 

Now keep in mind, these numbers that are about to be posted are just for HV grosses in NA.  The sales in foreign markets are probably huge as well.

 

First up let's look at Twilight.  Large grosses, we all know this.  But check this out:

 

Total budget for the 5 films (without marketing of course):  400 million

Total WW gross for the 5 films: 3.34 billion

Total gross for HV sales in NA:  944 million

 

So the total gross for the films when you add all the revenue from theater and NA HV is 4.284 billion on a budget of 400 million.  

 

 

Harry Potter:

 

Total budget for 8 films:  1.4 billion

Total WW gross for the 8 films:  7.72 billion

Total gross for HV sales in NA:  sales are not completely reported before Goblet of fire, but starting with Goblet of fire (which earned 545 million in HV sales.....no that is not a misprint) the total sales are 1.3 billion.  Assuming that the three films before Goblet were also massive, add another billion minimum to the sales and you have a total of 2.3 billion in sales.  This means the total sales are 10 billion on a budget of 1.4 billion

 

 

Pirates of the Caribbean: 

 

Total budget for 4 films:  915 milliion

Total WW gross for the 4 films:  3.73 billion

Total gross in HV sales in NA (figures for the first are incomplete): 728 million, with the first two selling more than 300 million, being conservative, say the original sold 250 million, then you have sales of 978 million.  This means the total sales combined are 4.7 billion on a 915 million dollar budget.

 

Transformers:

 

Total budget on 4 films:  760 mill

Total WW gross:  3.76 billion

Total HV sales in NA:  743 million.  This is a total combined gross of 4.5 billion on a budget of 760 million.

 

The Dark Knight Trilogy:

 

Total budget on three films:  585 mill

Total WW gross for three films:  2.46 billion

Total HV sales:  466 mill for the two sequels, and there is only 75 million in sales reported for BB, but the numbers are incomplete before 2006.  So assuming there was at least 150 mill for BB, total sales are 610 mill.  Total combined sales of 3.07 billion on a budget of 585 mill.

 

You can keep going and do it with any series of films or just a singular entity.  The point is, HV sales, at least up until about 2013, were massive and they added so much to the overall profit of films.  I just thought it would be interesting to take a look at some of the bigger ones.

 

All data is compiled from boxofficemojo.com and the-numbers.com

[grim22]

Batman Begins was a monster on HV. In fact a lot of people credit the HV performance for TDK even being greenlit. The box office of BB was very similar to Superman Returns.

[CJohn]

Lets not forget we don't have numbers for the digital sales 

[baumer]

Batman Begins was a monster on HV. In fact a lot of people credit the HV performance for TDK even being greenlit. The box office of BB was very similar to Superman Returns.

 

I remember reading that it was as well.  But I didn't have time to research several sources and using the-numbers.com, their data for HV only starts in 2006.

[baumer]

Lets not forget we don't have numbers for the digital sales 

 

I'm just talking strictly North American home video (DV/BR) sales.  The international sales must be enormous in a lot of places as well.

[Chewy]

It's interesting that large HV sales used to be a pretty good indicator of a BO increase for the sequel, but that hasn't really held true anymore. We've seen plenty of recent examples, like Star Trek, where strong HV sales didn't translate to a bigger sequel

[baumer]

So here's the challenge for some of you from foreign lands.  Do you have sales for these and other films in your region?  If I'd love to see them posted here.

[CJohn]

It's interesting that large HV sales used to be a pretty good indicator of a BO increase for the sequel, but that hasn't really held true anymore. We've seen plenty of recent examples, like Star Trek, where strong HV sales didn't translate to a bigger sequel

The Star Trek sequel was kinda doomed since the moment Iron Man 3 pulled the 2nd biggest OW ever.

Edited January 2, 2015 by CJohn

[baumer]

It's interesting that large HV sales used to be a pretty good indicator of a BO increase for the sequel, but that hasn't really held true anymore. We've seen plenty of recent examples, like Star Trek, where strong HV sales didn't translate to a bigger sequel

 

IMHO, the Star Trek films are horrible.  I believe there are trekkies who will support the film unconditionally.  As for the rest of us, most could do without it.  

[CJohn]

So here's the challenge for some of you from foreign lands.  Do you have sales for these and other films in your region?  If I'd love to see them posted here.

I don't have sales from here, but I assume nothing sells well at all since most movies only get a DVD release nowadays in a very limited way. The big movies are able to get bigger DVD releases, but I have yet to see any recent release on Blu-ray over the number 1000 (yes, everything here brings the copy's number on the back), not counting the Star Wars Collection (I have that one and it has a number over 3300). I have the first 300 on Blu-ray and that has a big number as well, but that was before HV died. 

Edited January 2, 2015 by CJohn

[baumer]

I don't have sales from here, but I assume nothing sells well at all since most movies only get a DVD release nowadays. 

 

Yes, but what about before 2013?

[grim22]

It's interesting that large HV sales used to be a pretty good indicator of a BO increase for the sequel, but that hasn't really held true anymore. We've seen plenty of recent examples, like Star Trek, where strong HV sales didn't translate to a bigger sequel

When you release 10 different versions of the movie with content exclusive to the different retailers, completists will buy all versions.

[CJohn]

Yes, but what about before 2013?

In 2012 they were already pretty bad. The last good year was 2010, I believe. 

 

This is the thing that comes in every movie, game or music CD over here. For example, in this case, this was copy number 17353 of Collateral on DVD from 2005. Nowadays no DVD gets such a high release.

Edited January 2, 2015 by CJohn

[Rudolf]

For those huge franchises people probably bought a higher percentage of more expensive digital media. More Blurays, more 3D versions and collectors editions. Could these numbers maybe be misleading? Are average adult movies still suffering from piracy?

[Jonwo]

Wouldn't strong HV sales also apply to films that weren't particularly big at the box office, Austin Powers for example did fine at the box office but then was huge on HV which lead to New Line making a sequel which of course of very successful. 

 

Taken while successful in the US, was released in other countries much earlier but didn't make much of a dent but HV and television boosted its popularity and so the sequel made 3 times what the first made.

[CJohn]

Wouldn't strong HV sales also apply to films that weren't particularly big at the box office, Austin Powers for example did fine at the box office but then was huge on HV which lead to New Line making a sequel which of course of very successful. 

 

Taken while successful in the US, was released in other countries much earlier but didn't make much of a dent but HV and television boosted its popularity and so the sequel made 3 times what the first made.

Taken 2 did in 3 days what Taken did in total over here.

[JohnnY]

It's interesting that large HV sales used to be a pretty good indicator of a BO increase for the sequel, but that hasn't really held true anymore. We've seen plenty of recent examples, like Star Trek, where strong HV sales didn't translate to a bigger sequel

 

How To Train You Dragon.

[Rudolf]

When you release 10 different versions of the movie with content exclusive to the different retailers, completists will buy all versions.

But if you overdo it, you can kill the market.

 

Speaking for myself. I had to have every silvercoin the Austrian mint produced. When I started, there was one 25 Schillings coin and one 50 Schillings coin each year. Later they added one 100 Schilling coin and 500 Shilling coin an dropped the 25s and 50s. Later they had up to 4 different 500s each year. Then they got crazy and had several 2000  Schilling coins every year. The silver and gold values for the older coins was always higher than their face value. But than silver prices tumbled the Euro was introduced and people sold their old collections to the national bank. Even a law that ensured that all coins could be returned forever at face value, could not stop it. The mint, which had made a little profit each year lost all those and more in a few years. The cost of minting these coins and recycling the precious metalls was higher than the profit of having got money without paying interest in the first place. Austria ended being a country of coin collectors.

 

The studios could kill their avid collectors as well.

[Lordmandeep]

Another thing is how in the past Video rentals would be gigantic for mid size thriller or action movie or comedy in relation to its Budget and box office haul.

 

Home Video used to be a gigantic cash cow.

 

However foriegn markets exploding did help.

 

 

However films like lets say Pirates 2 were really crazy hits.

 

They made over 1 billion WW before 2D in 2006 and then had 100's of millions of dollars of Home Video sales as well.

 

These days even big hits sell hardly anything on home video these days. True Digital sales are big but I don't believe for a second they have replaced Home Video sales on a dollar to dollar basis. 

[Rudolf]

So here's the challenge for some of you from foreign lands.  Do you have sales for these and other films in your region?  If I'd love to see them posted here.

I doubt that they exist as most of the profit is of American companies. Maybe a few retail chains have sale figures of their stores.