Not only did The Office’s fifth season dominate all TV show DVD sales for the week ending September 13, 2009, but in a week with limited movie releases, The Office was the #1 DVD of the week overall leading all movie and TV show sales. Both in total units (407, 426) and sales ($13.9 million).
The Office’s sales were down in terms of units vs. the first week sales of season four last year, at 417,486 units, but due to higher unit pricing (and more episodes because there was not a strike-shortened season last year like there was with season four), The Office pulled in a bit more revenue this year in its first week. Last year in its first week The Office season four had $12.9 million in sales.
Fringe’s first season DVD was the second-most purchased TV Show DVD and the fourth-most purchased DVD overall selling over 103,000 units and $3.85 million in revenue. Since it’s Fringe’s first season, I can’t compare it to last year. I can compare it to last week when Heroes was the top TV show DVD with over 296K units and $11.1 million in sales in its first week of release and Supernatural sold over 238,000 units for $8.7 million in its first week. By that comparison, it doesn’t really seem so great.
The only other new show appearing on the list was Criminal Minds which sold over 42,000 units and had $1.5 million in sales.
But the first week of Criminal Minds sales trailed the Heroes Season 3’s second week on the list, as well as Supernatural’s second week and also True Blood’s 17th week on the list.
True Blood has now sold over 1.5 million units and has racked up over $53.5 million in sales according to estimates. To see how all these shows did plus Two and a Half Men (2nd week), Dexter (4th week), Sons of Anarchy (4th week), House (3rd week) and Smallville (3rd week) did for the week ending 9/13, click on over to the-numbers.com.
TV Show DVD Sales Week ending September 13, 2009
| Title | Units this Week | % Change | Total Units | Sales this Week | Total Sales | Weeks in Release |
| The Office – Season Five | 407,426 | 407,426 | $13,905,449 | $13,905,449 | 1 | |
| Fringe: The Complete First Season | 103,405 | 103,405 | $3,854,938 | $3,854,938 | 1 | |
| Heroes – Season Three | 85,559 | -71.90% | 390,527 | $3,207,607 | $14,640,857 | 2 |
| Supernatural – The Complete Fourth Season | 57,121 | -76.70% | 302,168 | $2,288,267 | $11,212,879 | 2 |
| True Blood: The Complete First Season | 44,409 | -30.00% | 1,536,424 | $1,531,666 | $53,517,279 | 17 |
| Criminal Minds: The Complete Fourth Season | 42,413 | 42,413 | $1,517,537 | $1,517,537 | 1 | |
| Two and a Half Men – The Complete Sixth Season | 38,746 | -62.30% | 141,610 | $1,305,740 | $3,722,016 | 2 |
| Dexter – The Complete Third Season | 36,220 | -38.70% | 499,233 | $1,259,732 | $12,447,160 | 4 |
| Sons of Anarchy – Season One | 34,590 | 6.50% | 207,277 | $1,106,534 | $6,630,791 | 4 |
| House, M.D. – Season Five | 33,857 | -64.40% | 380,892 | $1,503,928 | $12,092,733 | 3 |
| Smallville: The Complete Eighth Season | 29,624 | -48.10% | 293,080 | $1,080,980 | $10,694,489 | 3 |
Congratulations to The Office, awesome sales
HBO must be making an absolute killing off of those True Blood sales.
Pretty good numbers for Heroes, no? I wonder how well a TV show has to do on DVD before it starts to affect renew/cancel chances. Though it’s probably a null point because any show that sold that well on DVD would already have high enough viewership ratings.
I’m guessing eventually True Blood will surpass Heroes’ first season.
Well hopefully HEROES season three dvd sales will help with season three’s profit losses.
Oh this is because the DVD has so far made like 13mil in sales, and 390,000 dvd sales. So hopefully the DVD will help HEROES
sORRY $14.6MILLION
I am interested are this dvd sales just for US or for the international market as well?
Those numbers are from the “US DVD Sales Chart.”
The really cool thing about The Office DVDs are all the deleted scenes. They usually have about 12 minutes of deleted scenes for each episode. Some of the best scenes didn’t even air and thanks to the DVDs we can watch what was left on the cutting room floor.
It seems that the shows that dont get the big ratings are the ones that do better in dvd sales. Stands to reason, Missed it when it aired, catch it on dvd.
@ tom that’s a good point but I think that these shows also have more replay value.
I mean do most people want to rewatch a crime show or reality show on DVD when they saw the result on TV/the internet?
Most of these shows are also TV veterans with lots of seasons on DVD so it’s a safe bet that the show will continue and not end with cliffhangers because it got canceled (Moonlight, Reaper)
I think procedurals like Criminal Minds have less replay value than say House or NCIS.
funny, Two and a Half Men gets great ratings, but doesn’t sell that many DVD’s. Great for the Office and Heroes, not so great for Fringe, but by no means bad.
@ Tom, that’s sound reasoning, and also with a serialized show like Heroes a lot of people just wait for the DVD rather than waiting a week between every episode.
DVD sales measure obsession more than they measure total viewers (or the people who care about the show enough to buy it rather than those who watch it every week and then forget about it). A shows internet presence, as in fan sites and commenters, is probably the best indicator.
Well I love those Supernatural numbers. And compare that to Heroes.
One a show that is budget at a little over 4 million (according to press releases last year and how they were often over budget) And Supernatural a show budget at a little over 1 million dollars.
DVD revenue isn’t going to pay for much of Heroes production, but it looks like its going to pay for a lot of Supernaturals.
Heroes is actually way down from its first season, where it sold over 1.5 million units. Now, it’s still selling well for a DVD set, but it’s definitely off the pace from earlier incarnations. Add that to declining ratings, and you have an ugly picture of a fanbase eroding as time passes.
Actually TVBTN guys, I think you might want to take a look at a DVD release schedule too, to compare what shows are released and how they did. Parks and Recreation was also released the same week you examined here, according to this website but there are others you could check (http://www.joblo.com/dvdclinic/release_dates.php), but it didn’t even break the Top 30, so its sales are under 29k. You’ve also got a set of series being released last week, CSI: Miami, The Big Bang Theory, and Grey’s Anatomy. Just thought it might be helpful if you wanted to look at a DVD set’s competition.
What will be really interesting is seeing The Office’s sales over the next few weeks. It’s abut 80% of TB’s (adjusted) first week sales, but what powered TB was its sheer durability on the list. The first week sales are only about a third of TB’s sales, whereas most shows the opener is the majority of the sales. So, let’s see if The Office drops off the list like most shows, or sticks around like TB.
There’s no chance The Office will stick around like TB has done. The dvd sales for TB are crazy and not the normal way a TV set DVD sells. I followed DVD sales before this website and most top shows spend 3-6 weeks on the list with the really good shows spending alittle longer. TB’s run is amazing.
WOW I am soooooo Happy For True Blood, its my all time favorite show and Im glad that it is sooo suscessful. The numbers are astounding!
dexter has done so well to shift half a million copies.
Unless I’m missing something, it looks like Supernatural is on track to selling the most DVD’s of any other CW show this year.
Here are the total sales from the first two weeks of release.
Gossip Girl 147,669 $5,409,921
One Tree Hill: 163,128 $5,870,977
Smallville 263,456 $9,613,509
Supernatural 302,168 $11,212,879
Hopefully, this can make up for less then stellar ratings this season.