Another Record For Avatar?

Posted by on May 19th, 2010   Filed under: DVD and Blu-ray, Industry News
Source: Studio Briefing

The records just don’t stop coming for Avatar. Not only has it broken just about every box office record, including the highly sought after “highest grossing film of all time” record but now Avatar had to go and break another record.

Avatar is closing in on The Dark Knight’s 13 week record for total home video sales. 

Analysts project that by the 13 week mark Avatar will have sold 14 million copies compared to The Dark Knight’s 13 week total of 13.4 million.

Considering the current Blu-Ray version of Avatar is a bare bones version (a special edition and 3D version are expected to be released within the year), this is quite an impressive feat.

Up For Discussion: Is it really fair to compare Avatar to The Dark Knight in terms of who sold more copies and how quickly they reached certain marks? It is important to remember that when The Dark Knight came out on Blu-Ray not as many people had Blu-Ray players. Avatar was just released a few weeks ago and the number of people who have Blu-Ray players has increased significantly. Therefore it would obviously sell more in a given time period than The Dark Knight would have. There is a bigger market.

The same can be said for comparing the box office totals of the two films. Many people saw Avatar in 3D which meant they paid more for the ticket. To see Avatar in 3D would cost about 3 or 4 dollars more than seeing it normally. Could this have been the reason why it grossed so much?

Let us know what you think in the comments.



  • Maybe people just like the film that much… perhaps 3D had nothing to do with it’s HUGE success at the cinema… we won’t know till the prequel/sequel. :)

  • Henrik

    Has it been 13 weeks since Avatar came out?

  • Steve

    It’s not really comparable. As you’ve mentioned, Blu-Rays were in less households when TDK came out. But on the other hand, Avatar is barebones.

    There are many (including myself) not that desperate to pay full retail price for this. And perfectly happy waiting until one with Special Features comes out (which I’m actually looking forward to more than the actual movie). When that version hits, it will sell like gangbusters even moreso than this release.

    And it’s an inevitability that a 3D version will come further down the track once players have the firmware and updates. And you can tell this triple-dipping is going to DESTROY TDK’s record.

  • rob

    “when The Dark Knight came out on Blu-Ray not as many people had Blu-Ray players”

    That won’t affect the sales. When someone has upgraded to a blu ray player they aren’t going to buy the DVD aswell! Most normal people will still only buy 1 copy, they will spend more but this is about sales not profits.

    Wow a 3-D ticket over here in the UK can be up to double the price! $4 more seems like nothing