In it's second week in DVD release, HBO's True Blood piled on another nearly $7 million in DVD sales for a total of $26 million after 2 weeks to continue to lead all TV shows in DVD sales for the week ending May 31, 2009, and fell just 2 spots to #6 overall among all DVD sales.
Compare those results to one of the highest rated shows on cable television. The Closer - The Complete Fourth Season joins the list at #14 overall in its first week of release with just over $2 million in sales. True Blood sold $17 million in DVDs in its first week. In the particular case of True Blood, ratings are indeed not the whole story.
24 is hanging strong, down only two notches to #9 and with nearly $13 million overall in DVD sales in 2 weeks. Friday Night Lights slipped below $1 million in sales in its second week and fell all the way to #30.
After just one week on the list last week, WWE:Wrestlemania XXV fell past #30 overall and off the list we see entirely.
US DVD Sales Chart for Week Ending May 31, 2009
| Rank | Prev. Rank | Title | Units this Week | % Change | Total Units | Sales this Week | Total Sales | Weeks in Release |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | (4) | True Blood: The Complete First Season | 206,689 | -59.9% | 722,566 | $6,818,670 | $26,127,946 | 2 |
| 9 | (7) | 24 - Season Seven | 114,889 | -58.5% | 391,550 | $3,790,188 | $12,917,235 | 2 |
| 14 | (-) | The Closer - The Complete Fourth Season | 80,339 | -.-% | 80,339 | $2,088,011 | $2,088,011 | 1 |
| 30 | (16) | Friday Night Lights - The Third Season | 46,223 | -41.8% | 125,659 | $877,775 | $2,386,264 | 2 |
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You can see past weekly lists of TV Show DVD Sales numbers here.
Source: the-numbers.com
Weeds’ best rated season hit the shelves a week after the one this list details. It should be interesting to see how that one sells.
WOW! Am I missing something by not watching this show? (Not that I could watch it as it airs since I don’t get HBO, but…)
Apparently we both are, Holly. I’ll have to check this one out at some point, even though I’m not THAT crazy about Anna Paquin.
Bummer that FNL dropped so quickly. I wonder if the current “vampires are cool” trend is giving True Blood a boost? Provided the show is any good, and I’m guessing it is, it can’t hurt to cash in on a trend whenever possible
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I was just wandering around Borders Books today and noticed that there is a HUGE spate of “female PIs with guns on the cover vampire books” around. I wasn’t aware that it was this big a new genre. Really, there must be a dozen authors or more churning this stuff out. The characters are all female private investigators all involved with either vampires or some form of the occult. The covers of these books all look alike – some female in a trench coat with a semi-auto in hand in some dark alley.
I think this sort of thing started with Nancy Collins’ “Sonya Blue” stories and got a boost from Buffy and Angel, Moonlight, etc.
Which reminds me, I need to go download all the Blade TV series episodes.
It could also be that people who don’t have HBO but are still interested in the show are buying the DVD’s.
You didn’t miss anything by not watching True Blood. I found the show to be mediocre, I don’t know, I expected more from the creator of “Six Feet Under”. Especially since Paquins acting isn’t that great. I am still wondering how she got a Golden Globe when people like CCH Pounder didn’t even make the list. Also, a big problem is that while there is some chemistry in the show, the chemistry between Bill and Sookie, the main characters, is almost non-existent. I found the scenes between those two to be sometimes unintentionally funny which is something that really shouldn’t happen.
As for DVD sales, I am wondering how Season 7 of The Shield (released today!) will do. I really doubt it will even make the charts even though it would definitely deserve it.
If I check True Blood out, it won’t be for either Anna or the lead chemistry, it will be for how the vampires and other characters are represented and the story arc. If it’s just another “vampire love story” without any significant story arc, I won’t like it.
Actually, I just dropped over to Wikipedia to find out what the story arc looks like. Apparently there isn’t much of one – just a bunch of murder mysteries. It looks like the main arc is intended to be one of the vampire community against the anti-vampire community. I’m not sure I like the notion of vampires being “accepted” to some degree by humans. On an individual basis, sort of how Cameron as an AI got “accepted” in TSCC, that might make some sense, but not on a community basis. Seeing that go down the tubes is likely to be the main arc in the future, otherwise I can’t see where they can go with this.
Well, I’ll see. It might be better than it sounds.
where’s cavemen and joey?
i bet dollhouse will sell 1 million in its first week, i wonder if this list includes blu-ray sales if not…hmmmm
I don’t think Dollhouse will come anywhere close to True Blood. Half at best. Not even the Whedon-Dushku fans combined will match what True Blood did. But we’ll see, I just think True Blood is attracting all the Twilight teen girls, and they outnumber Whedon fans enormously.
I think this show is inappropriate for Twilight teen girls. There is a lot of nudity, a lot of sex and a good amount of violence.
The show is based on a best-selling book series, so maybe some of the buyers are fans of the books. Also, outside of the Twilight vampire fans, there are probably a lot of Ann Rice vampire fans going for the genre show.
@Holly, RHS – I don’t know if you are missing something by not watching the show. There are some great performances of quirky, southern characters by the supporting cast. Each episode ends with a cliff-hanger and the show is really addicting.
Hey , but…are we sure of this source ??? Are they real numbers or estimated numbers ? ??? I do not want another exhausting discussion like for Firefly DVD !!!! ( just kidding
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That is Just Amazing.
It took 4 months for The office season 4 DVD to get to 1,057,620 copies sold and Heroes season 1 DVD to get to 1,597,185 copies sold.
True blood will over take The Office with in 3 weeks, and it will probably take less than 3 month to take Heroes.
I think it has to do with what Chrisjozo said. Most people don’t get HBO, and so they all want to see what the show is about.
I made it through the first four episodes and got bored with it. Apparently it built up some momentum towards the end? I dunno if I want to re-endure those first four episodes, though.
OMG, HBO original programing is in the toilet. A few years back they had The Wire, The Sopranos, Deadwood, Carnivale and Rome. And now they have True Blood, Big Love and Entourage. Crap, crap and crap. Although, In Treatment is good.
True Blood may not be the best on TV, but I love the show. Yes, it’s over the top, but that’s part of its charm. And Evil, what were you watching? I thought Paquin was great, the chemistry was far better than anything on network TV crap, and the two leads are living together in real life.
I’m proud to call it my favorite show.
package, I’d be pretty sure that this includes both standard DVDs and Blu Ray discs.
And RSH, the first couple episodes are sketchy, but the show gets good around episode 5, and it is very addictive.
“It looks like the main arc is intended to be one of the vampire community against the anti-vampire community. I’m not sure I like the notion of vampires being “accepted” to some degree by humans.”
Um, that is the main story arc. Often, the humans are more engrossing than the vampires, to be honest. Lafayette Reynolds is one of the better characters on TV. “Guilty pleasure” is a great way to describe it.
True Blood does something that Buffy and Twilight couldn’t, which is show everything that vampires and people can egage in. The extreme violence and explicit sex, to be specific. Plus the show is high camp and fun to watch, the Emmy talk frankly has me surprised and Anna’s GG win was in no way deserved. Its just popcorn entertainment that clearly has good word of mouth.