Aeon Flux Redux

AEON FLUX debuted on DVD this week to some pretty good numbers. I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of those numbers - at least the ones we can access.

AF in its first week of sales and rentals has accomplished the following:

RENTALS - $6.08M in rentals which is equivalent to 23.9% of the film's theatrical gross of $25.9M. But understand that the bulk of that money goes to the rental stores - Blockbuster, Movie Gallery, etc... IT DOESN'T GO BACK TO THE STUDIO (at least not all of it - they only get a small sliver of it).

The better figure to look at - and the one you can never get data for because the studios guard this stuff closely - are the DVD SALES FIGURES.

AF retails for $29.99. That means that most retail outlets are getting the movie for something like $12.99 (Wal-Mart's probably getting it for less than that).

According to Rentrak, AEON FLUX is:

-- Number one at Best Buy
-- Number one at Blockbuster (sales)
-- Number one at Circuit City
-- Number two at DVD Empire
-- Number two at Tower

You can see these figures and more at Video Business's Market Data tab on their website.

AF will match its theatrical B.O. (how appropriate is that term in this case?) very quickly at this rate. Because this movie was presold in many territories beforehand, the movie will make a profit - at least on the books if not in perception.

We also have to take into account the spill off sales to the animated collection. Some people will want to check out the original cartoons that inspired the movie. In this case, the original rights holders will be the biggest beneficiaries to this - they have two separate DVDs, a comic series and a video game they have licensed out to various companies.

The lesson: If you create and produce something, hold onto as many rights as you can.