For the week that ended on June 24th, Walt Disney Home Entertainment and 20th Century Studios'
Avatar: The Way of Water unsurprisingly topped both the the Blu-ray-only and overall packaged media charts in its debut week. Finally released in December 2022,
Avatar: The Way of Water found a theatrical marketplace that had changed dramatically from when
Avatar took cinemas worldwide by storm in December 2009 and then kickstarted the Blu-ray 3D format on home video. A sequel was first mooted by Cameron during the production of
Avatar as far back as 2006, with initial plans for sequels to be released throughout the 2010s. Filming on the project, which took place largely in New Zealand and involved a mix of performance capture and standard live-action filming, eventually commenced in 2017 and would continue on and off for the next three years, culminating in a controversial decision by the New Zealand government to allow Cameron and his crew back into the country in June 2020, at the height of the global lockdown from the coronavirus pandemic. On top of that, the studio that greenlit the film, 20th Century Fox, was acquired by Disney in 2019. As so much time had passed, it was possible that Disney had a massive box-office bomb on its hands, considering that the film's budget is said to be several hundred million dollars. Ultimately, while
Avatar: The Way of Water didn't quite reach the incredible box office heights of its predecessor, the sequel has been an unmitigated success. It topped the domestic box office from its release week in December 2022 all the way until February 2023, and while its domestic opening weekend was "only" some $134 million, it ended its domestic run with an impressive $684 million. But as with
Avatar, the film actually made the bulk of its money--over 70% of it--internationally, eventually grossing over $1.6 billion outside the US and Canada, including $93 million in the UK, $108 million in South Korea, $148 million in France, $157 million in Germany and $245 million in China. It's also worth noting that, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine,
Avatar: The Way of Water was not released in Russia, a territory where
Avatar had made $116 million. When all was said and done,
Avatar: The Way of Water had become not just the highest-grossing-film of 2022 (by a margin of almost $1 billion), but the third-highest-grossing film of all time. This week,
Avatar: The Way of Water had an HD share of 62%, with 7% of units sold from the Blu-ray 3D format and 29% of units sold from the 4K UHD format.
Dropping to second place on both charts is Lionsgate Home Entertainment's
John Wick: Chapter 4. The fourth installment in the
John Wick series saw the titular hitman in yet more outrageous gun battles and fight sequences, as he takes revenge on the High Table over a whopping 169 minutes of nearly non-stop action. The film opened in March 2023 to near-universal acclaim and topped the box office on its opening weekend, with over $73 million. So far, the film has made over $187 million domestically and over $427 million globally. This week,
John Wick: Chapter 4 sold 85% as many Blu-ray units as
Avatar: The Way of Water, with an HD share of 72% and 21% of units sold from the 4K UHD format.
Dropping to third place on both charts is Universal Pictures Home Entertainment's
The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Released theatrically in April 2023, the animated adaptation of the hugely popular Nintendo video game series received mixed reviews, but smashed several box office records, including taking only a week to become the highest-grossing film based on a video game and becoming the highest-grossing film of 2023, with over $573 million domestically and a staggering $1.3 billion worldwide, so far. This week,
The Super Mario Bros. Movie sold 60% as many Blu-ray units as
Avatar: The Way of Water, with an HD share of 59% and 13% of units sold from the 4K UHD format.
Elsewhere on the charts, Disney and 20th Century Studios' 4K UHD release of
Avatar came in at No. 4 on the Blu-ray-only chart and easily topped the UHD Market Share chart for the week, with 95% of units sold from the 4K UHD format. Warner Bros. Home Entertainment and MGM's
The Covenant (2023) debuted at No. 5 on the Blu-ray-only chart. Outside the top ten, RLJE Films' Blu-ray of
Skinamarink debuted at No. 13, while Kino Lorber's 4K UHD and Blu-ray re-release of
Ronin got that title to No. 14. Finally, Paramount's
The Firm and
Vanilla Sky, two titles which also saw 4K UHD upgrades this week, came in at Nos. 16 and 19, respectively.
Top Ten Blu-ray Sellers for Week Ending 6/24/23:
- Avatar: The Way of Water
- John Wick: Chapter 4
- The Super Mario Bros. Movie
- Avatar
- The Covenant (2023)
- Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
- The Pope's Exorcist
- Renfield
- Shazam! Fury of the Gods
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Top Five Home Media Sellers for Week Ending 6/24/23 (% of Blu-ray's Market Share Noted):
- Avatar: The Way of Water (62%)
- John Wick: Chapter 4 (72%)
- The Super Mario Bros. Movie (59%)
- The Covenant (2023) (56%)
- Avatar (98%)
Top Blu-ray 3D Sellers for Week Ending 6/24/23 (Per % of Total Unit Sales):
- Avatar: The Way of Water 3D (6.78%)
- Top Gun 3D (0.88%)
- The Croods: A New Age 3D (0.03%)
Top Five UHD Blu-ray Sellers for Week Ending 6/24/23 (Per % of Total Unit Sales):
- Avatar 4K (95%)
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 4K (30%)
- Avatar: The Way of Water 4K (29%)
- John Wick: Chapters 1-3 4K (23%)
- Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (22%)