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DVD SOFTWARE BREAKS GREATEST
WEEKLY SALES RECORD LOS ANGELES - Dec. 2, 1999 - Four weeks before the all-important Christmas holiday shopping season, Thanksgiving shoppers spiked DVD software sales as they snapped up movies and music videos over the celebratory weekend. Total DVD software sales for the week ending Nov. 28, 1999 were nearly 817,000 units, exceeding last year's Christmas holiday week sales (722,000 units) by more than 13 percent according to VideoScan. This all-time high represents the digital format's greatest titles sales for a single week since launch in Spring 1997, nearly a 68 percent increase over that which was sold through to consumers during the Thanksgiving week in 1998. Although many blockbuster titles were released last week, the best sellers were still popular hold-outs from previous weeks. In its tenth week of release, "The Matrix" from Warner Home Video tops the list of the 20 best selling DVD Video titles for the week ending Nov. 28, 1999. Music videos were also big sellers with Eagles' "Hell Freezes Over" from Geffen topping the best-selling music video titles in the DVD Video format, according to the charts released today from the DVD Video Group and VideoScan. An additional factor to the spike in sales is the growing number of titles which initially shipped more than one million units. "Titanic" (Paramount Home Video), "The Matrix" (Warner Home Video), "Saving Private Ryan" (DreamWorks Home Entertainment) and "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" (New Line Home Video) have all shipped at least one million units, helping to underscore the growing popularity of DVD. "These consumer purchases show that DVD Video will be a remarkably popular gift item this holiday season," said Paul Culberg, president, DVD Video Group and executive vice president, worldwide, Columbia TriStar Home Video. "It is exciting to see consumers embrace DVD with so much enthusiasm and we expect to see more record breaking sales over the next few weeks." The DVD Video Group estimates that there are more than 3.5 million DVD players installed in homes and predicts that there will be well over 4 million DVD players in homes by year end. The weekly DVD Video sales charts are based on sales data collected by VideoScan from retail locations nationwide, including Best Buy, Blockbuster, Circuit City, Musicland, Tower Records and more, but does not include small specialty stores and mass merchants such as Wal-Mart and K-Mart. The charts are available weekly on the DVD Video Group's web site (www.dvdvideogroup.com). Since its inception in 1993, VideoScan has been providing timely video sales information and charting capabilities for major studios as well as home video divisions specializing in non-theatrical areas of interest. VideoScan's computerized point-of-sale tracking system currently collects data from more than 16,000 retail locations. VideoScan utilizes the same technology for its home video and DVD services, that its sister company, SoundScan, presently uses to compile music industry charts and date. The DVD Video Group is a Los Angeles-based, industry-funded nonprofit corporation that exists expressly to promote consumer awareness of the benefits of DVD Video and to provide updated information to the media and the retail trade about DVD Video players, movies and music videos. Consumers can reach the DVD Video Group at (310) 967-2940 or through its web site at www.dvdvideogroup.com. # # #
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