For the week that ended on February 25th, Walt Disney Home Entertainment's
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever remained on top of both the Blu-ray-only and overall packaged media charts in its third week. After the historic success of
Black Panther in 2018, including seven Oscar nominations and three wins, as well as making over $1.3 billion worldwide, a sequel seemed obvious. However, unbeknownst to the public and to the film's cast and crew, star Chadwick Boseman had been privately battling cancer, and would pass away suddenly in August 2020. While Boseman's death could have meant that the Black Panther character would be recast, Marvel ultimately made the decision not to do so and instead, writer and director Coogler re-tooled the script to focus on other characters. The 30th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe,
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is considered the final film of Phase Four of the series, and released in November 2022 to critical acclaim and box office success, earning over $181 million on its opening weekend. So far, the film has grossed over $858 million worldwide and was recently nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actress for Angela Bassett, the first Oscar-nominated performance in a Marvel film. This week,
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever had an HD share of 51% and 19% of units sold from the 4K UHD format.
Returning to second place on both charts (after 17 weeks in release) is Paramount Home Media Distribution's
Top Gun: Maverick. Originally announced in 2010, the sequel to the 1986 action blockbuster
Top Gun saw several delays, including the death of director Tony Scott in 2012. When filming finally commenced in 2018, a projected release in June 2019 was delayed a year in order to complete the film's action sequences. That process would be further drawn out by the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic, which would see the film's release date moved several more times, before it finally opened in May 2022. After a 36-year wait, the result was an enormous success.
Top Gun: Maverick opened to rave reviews and over $160 million over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, going on to make over $718 million domestically and even more internationally at over $770 million and counting, for a running total of over $1.4 billion worldwide. In June, the film passed $800 million to become the highest-grossing film in Tom Cruise's career, while later that month, it became only the second film since 2019 to cross the $1 billion mark, following Sony's
Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Top Gun: Maverick stands as the second-highest-grossing film of 2022, behind
Avatar: The Way of Water, and recently earned six Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture. This week,
Top Gun: Maverick sold 36% as many Blu-ray units as
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, with an HD share of 52% and 16% of units sold from the 4K UHD format.
Coming third place on both charts is Warner Bros. Home Entertainment's
Black Adam. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson had been tapped to play the DC Comics antihero as long ago as 2007 and confirmed his involvement in 2014, back when Black Adam was supposed to be part of
Shazam!. In 2017, the character was split off into his own film with Johnson as the star, but filming was delayed, first by Johnson's busy schedule, and then by the coronavirus pandemic, such that
Black Adam took until April 2021 to begin filming. Upon release in October 2022, the film grossed over $67 million on its opening weekend, the highest opening of Johnson's career. However, mixed reviews from critics and audiences alike led to the film ultimately grossing just over $168 million domestically and over $392 million globally. This week,
Black Adam sold 31% as many Blu-ray units as
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, with an HD share of 51% and 16% of units sold from the 4K UHD format.
Elsewhere on the charts, it was a good week for Shout Factory, as their 4K UHD release of
The Magnificent Seven (1960) brought that film into the top ten Blu-rays at No. 7 and easily topped the UHD Market Share chart for the week, with over 99% of units sold from the 4K UHD format. Outside the top ten, the Criterion Collection's 4K UHD release of
Dazed and Confused came in at No. 12 on the Blu-ray chart, while Shout's 4K UHD double feature of
The Slumber Party Massacre / Slumber Party Massacre II (1982-1987) came in at No. 14.
Top Ten Blu-ray Sellers for Week Ending 2/25/23:
- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
- Top Gun: Maverick
- Black Adam
- The Fabelmans
- The Batman
- Heat (1995)
- Legion of Super-Heroes
- The Magnificent Seven (1960)
- Violent Night
- Everything Everywhere All At Once
Top Five Home Media Sellers for Week Ending 2/25/23 (% of Blu-ray's Market Share Noted):
- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (51%)
- Top Gun: Maverick (52%)
- Black Adam (51%)
- The Fabelmans (59%)
- Violent Night (49%)
Top Five Blu-ray 3D Sellers for Week Ending 2/25/23 (Per % of Total Unit Sales):
- Dune 3D (2021) (1.27%)
- Snow White and the Huntsman / The Huntsman: Winter's War (0.77%)*
- Top Gun 3D (0.61%)
- The Wizard of Oz 3D (0.29%)
- Aquaman 3D (0.09%)
*This appears to be an error, since there is no such release in 3D, although
The Huntsman: Winter's War 3D did receive an individual Blu-ray 3D release in certain international markets. If and when a correction is made, this article will be updated.
Top Five UHD Blu-ray Sellers for Week Ending 2/25/23 (Per % of Total Unit Sales):
- The Magnificent Seven 4K (1960) (99.36%)
- Heat 4K (1995) (94%)
- Dune 4K (2021) (62%)
- The Batman 4K (49%)
- Everything Everywhere All At Once 4K (37%)