The top 10 DVD's of 2010

A lot of emphasis is placed on box office figures these days, and are treated like the only indicator for a film's success. Commentators may briefly mention DVD sales when it comes to a film's profitability, but the numbers aren't as readily available, or as broadly promoted as box office figures. So here's the top 10 DVD's of 2010, and their sales numbers, according to the-numbers.com.

10. The Hangover-4,356,314 Sold. Released 12/15/09

The only movie to make the top 10 from 2009. The Hangover is quite possibly the most popular R-rated comedy of the last decade, or even all time. (this total doesn't include the copies sold in 2009, overall it has sold over 10 million copies)

9. The Princess and the Frog-4,514,936 sold. Released 3/16/10

This may seem surprising, since the movie didn't do all that well at the box office, but Disney is the king of selling DVD's, and this one has time on it's side, being released in March. That's not to say we should dismiss 4.5 million sales, but it should be taken with a grain of salt.

8. Iron Man 2-5,065,079 Sold. Released 9/28/10

Seems like a lot right? Well consider that the first movie sold 8.4 million in a similar time-frame. This reflects the disappointing nature of the second movie, and backs it up for my #5 slot as worst of the year. Still, 5 mil is nothing to sneeze at.

7. Despicable Me-5,167,066 sold. Released 12/14/10

Despicable Me was probably one of the year's biggest surprises, a movie from Blue Sky Studios (best known for the Ice Age movies) that didn't suck. The DVD sales are tremendous, and I expect them to continue well into the new year.

6. How to Train your Dragon-5,344,798 sold. Released 10/15/10

Animated kids movies tend to do well on DVD, and this was a year they did well at the box office as well. How to Train your Dragon came in second for animated films on DVD, and it will undoubtedly be surpassed by Despicable Me in terms of total sales, but nonetheless, this is a great success for Dreamworks, a studio who has a very mixed history. (also worthy of note is that it outsold Shrek Forever After by nearly 3 million copies)

5. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse-7,133,878 sold. Released 12/4/10

You saw this coming. Moving on.

4. The Blind Side-7,266,726 sold. Released 3/23/10

Perhaps the biggest box-office success story of 2009, the Blind Side excelled on DVD, which shouldn't really be surprising, but it's good to see here anyway, as it was a very good movie.

3. The Twilight Saga: New Moon-7,829,939. Released 3/20/10

New Moon outsold eclipse? Does this mean that the Twilight Saga is losing steam? Well probably not, since New Moon had about nine months on Eclipse, and the difference is a menial 700k. In a few months, their totals should be nearly identical.

2. Toy Story 3-9,035,368 sold. Released 11/2/10

If you didn't expect this, you aren't very smart. The best received and highest grossing movie of the year, will of course sell a boatload of copies. Make that an aircraft carrier load of copies.

1. Avatar-10,156,458 sold. Released 4/22/10

And of course, at #1 is perhaps the biggest cash-cow in the history of cinema, Avatar. They are really milking this for everything it's worth. When the original DVD edition came out in the spring, it was a single disc with literally no special features. I'm surprised how little criticism it was faced with. Clearly they were planning to release another version, to make more money. And they did, but not before a short run in theaters. Soon, there'll be a 3D version, for more money, and no doubt a fourth version is being planned in the darkest reaches of Fox studios. They have a hit and they're milking it for all it's worth. And they'll do the same with the inevitable sequels. Prepare to see a lot of blue people at comic-con for years, perhaps decades to come. Lame.


Other Various Notes:

-Scott Pilgrim may have been my favorite movie, but it didn't make the top 100 DVD sales. It sold around 730,000. That makes me sad.
-Milo and Otis is #93 with over 800k sold this year, despite being over 10 years old. That makes me happy.
-Beauty and the Best comes in at a disappointing #64. I think this is due to most people already having it on DVD. I'm betting the Blu-Ray did a lot better, relatively speaking.
-Inception sold less than 3 million copies. I think the hype might finally be dying on that one.
-Top TV Shows:
#1. The Pacific (Ranked #44 overall)
#2. True Blood Season 2 (Ranked #61 overall)
#3. Glee Vol. 1 (Ranked #76 overall)
#4. Glee Season 1 (What a rip-off right? See Avatar. #84 overall)
#5. Dexter Season 4 (Ranked #85 overall)
#6. TV Christmas Classics (ranked #92 overall)
#7. Lost Season 6 (ranked #100 overall. Take that JJ Abrams!)
-#1 Straight to DVD was Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue (#20 overall)
-#1 Christmas Movie: Disney's A Christmas Carol (closely followed by Search for Santa Paws)