For the week that ended on August 11th, Warner Home Entertainment's The Death of Superman debuted at number one on the Blu-ray-only and overall package-media charts. The latest adaptation of the Superman-Doomsday comic arc (after Superman: Doomsday and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice), The Death of Superman represents DC and Warner's most ambitious take at the material yet, setting up a multi-part animated story that will continue with Reign of the Supermen in 2019. This week, the film had a very strong Blu-ray market share of 78%.
Next up on the Blu-ray-only and overall package-media sales rankings was another Warner title: Ready Player One. In adapting the popular Ernest Cline novel, director Steven Spielberg scored a blockbuster entertainment that performed decently with critics and audiences. It received average critical notices (the film has a Metacritic rating of 64%) and then grossed $582 million worldwide on top of its $175-million production budget. Ready Player One had a solid HD market share of 64% and sold 82% as many Blu-rays and almost the same amount of total units as The Death of Superman.
Finally, a third Warner title - Life of the Party - filled out the top-three spots on the Blu-ray-only and overall package-media sales lists. The Melissa McCarthy-starring college farce was a modest success following its premiere last May. While it received underwhelming critical notices (the film has a 46% Metacritic rating), it went on to gross $65 million worldwide on top of its estimated $30-million production budget. Life of the Party had an HD market share of 37% and sold 46% as many Blu-rays as The Death of Superman. Regarding the overall package-media list, the film sold 96% as many total units as the animated Superman story.
Wow, that is shocking. I plan on picking it up, but didn’t expect it to debut #1. Hopefully this will help the DCAU put out better titles. The last few have been pretty good (minus Batman and Harley Quinn).
Congrats to Death of Superman! As a fan of the orginal story arc in the comics I have to say I really enjoyed the film. I also have my complete in box Sega Genesis game Death And Return of Superman. I pre-ordered Death of Superman on Blu-ray it right after I saw it would lead into the Reign of Supermen. Sad that we have to wait for next year for that to happen BUT the quality of this new DC animated movie universe inspired me to pick up Justice League Dark, Justice League VS Teen Titans and Teen Titans The Judas Contract on Blu-ray. Highly recommend Death of Superman if you have not see it PLUS it includes 2 great episodes of the animated series of Legion of Super Heroes in HD as a bonus.
Everyone’s pointing out The Death Of Superman at #1 meanwhile The Greatest Showman is STILL in the top 10! I really enjoyed that movie and am very proud of its success!