Spider-Man 3 swings strong sales

Title represented Sony's biggest Blu-ray shipment to date

By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 11/2/2007

NOV. 2 | With no strong competition hitting stores Oct. 23, Paramount Home Entertainment’s Transformers rode to the top of the DVD sellers chart for a second week. Then Spider-Man 3 swung in Oct. 30 as the second of the season’s elite club of $300 million-plus-grossing films. But despite a strong performance, some retailers reported that the webbed one wasn’t strong enough to take Transformers down.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment executives would not discuss Spider-Man 3 sell-through last week, though they did confirm that the title repped the studio’s largest Blu-ray shipment to date.

There is some thought that competition from the Oct. 28 videogame bow of Guitar Hero III cut into Spider-Man 3 street date sales, as the two properties cater to the same young male demographic. Guitar Hero, for instance,was splashed across the front covers of Oct. 28 Best Buy and Target advertising circulars, with Spider-Man 3 more heavily featured within the retailers’ inside pages.

But regardless of differences between Transformers and Spider-Man 3, retailers said the fourth quarter is tracking healthily, as had been anticipated. Virgin Megastores noted that its October 2007 DVD sales are up by double digits over the same month last year.

“Transformers was a phenomenon, with record-breaking first-day numbers,” Virgin senior product manager Chris Anstey said. “Spider-Man 3 is extending the success of one of the biggest franchises of the decade but is being given a run for its money with Transformers. Of course, the important thing is shelf life; both Spidey and Transformers should both do very well right through the holidays.”

Anstey said that Transformers outsold Spider-Man 3 on first-day sales by about three times. Newbury Comics reported a similar ratio, though a Tuesday parade for the local World Series winner, the Boston Red Sox, likely bit into the retailer’s own day-one Spider-Man 3 sales.

“I think it will continue [selling] through the holidays,” said Newbury buyer Ian Leshin. Newbury has been boosting Spider-Man 3 sales by giving away free Spider-Man-themed pint glasses with purchase of any SKU.

Next up are Walt Disney Home Entertainment’s Ratatouille and Universal Studios Home Entertainment’s I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry on Nov. 6 before the next monster—Paramount and DreamWorks’ Shrek the Third—lands Nov. 13.