Captain Marvel was one of this year’s biggest movies. It reportedly pulled in big numbers at the box office, but sales are bombing. We think this is the reason why.
Public opinion on Captain Marvel is generally split, but according to the mainstream press it is one of the best movies of the year. In that case, we should be seeing copies fly off the shelves, but they aren’t. We have talked to several of Australia’s biggest retailers and it seems that sales are lagging behind the rest of the MCU movies. Let’s find out why Captain Marvel sales are bombing
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After reading hundreds of trending tweets from supposed fans claiming they can’t get a copy of Captain Marvel because they are sold out absolutely everywhere, I decided to pay several nearby JB Hi-Fi stores a visit to see exactly how true this was. At the first store there was a big promo stand for Captain Marvel packed to the brim at the entrance.
I walked to the back of the store to the DVD section and saw an additional two rows of Blu Rays and there were only a couple of copies missing. I figured out that they must have just restocked so I asked the sales guy if that was the case. He told me that they weren’t selling many copies and he suspected it was because people were waiting for Avengers: End Game instead.
Just stopped in at Target and they are completely sold out of Captain Marvel 😱!!
— 🌿 Suzy-Q 🌿 ⎊ Ⓐ Ⓥ ☮️ (@Phoenixs_Flame_) June 16, 2019
Did this target not receive captain marvel because it’s completely sold out in the back and front 😭
— ♡ honey lemon ♡ (@aliciadeetz) June 12, 2019
I visited two more JB Hi-Fi stores; both very busy stores that are located in the heart of Brisbane City. It was the same story again. There was no shortage of copies at any of these stores. You can even see if any stores are out of stock on the JB Hi-Fi website, and every single store still had stock. So, this shortage must only be an American problem, right?
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Wrong! A quick Google search will show that plenty stores across the States are actually overstocked. Several people have taken matters into their own hand to investigate and, much like the case here, there is no shortage of Blurays or 4K discs. Plenty of everything, even the very limited edition steel-books. What the hell is going on?
Did Disney buy Captain Marvel tickets to pad sale figures?
This may seem like a bit of a conspiracy theory, but this is actually a common business strategy, albeit an unethical one. Companies often buy into their own stock when they fear their product will fail. They do this so they can show investors good returns. But did Disney really stoop this low?
The numbers certainly don’t add up and there have been claims of people attending sold-out screenings of Captain Marvel with nearly half of the theatre empty. But we still need to take these claims with a grain of salt.
What is going on with Captain Marvel sales?
The most likely scenario is that retailers simply ordered too many copies of Captain Marvel because they anticipated great sales due to the fact that it smashed the box office. And they also didn’t take into consideration the actual demographic of Captain Marvel fans. If you take a look at most of these tweets you can see that they are complaining about the DVDs being sold out, and that makes perfect sense. Captain Marvel was a much bigger hit among the casual fans as apposed to the hardcore cinema buffs. People who don’t really care about the MCU or about high or ultra definition video quality.
It wouldn’t be fair to say that the launch has been a failure. Approximately 1 million copies have already been sold, but, after the first week, sales are on a steep downwards trend dropping nearly 80%; this kind of drop is unheard of, especially for a blockbuster smash like Captain Marvel.
The Captain Marvel fan base is primarily young teenagers and children. These people are not going to spend AU$40 on any movie, neither are their parents. It will sell well, I don’t doubt that for a second, but I’m sure a sizeable amount of the sales will be from grocery stores, gas stations, or family variety discount stores like Target. Kind of like those timeless Disney and Pixar classic DVDs.
My 8 year old niece is a huge Captain Marvel fan, I certainly wouldn’t buy her a AU$40 Ultra HD version because it would be a complete waste. She doesn’t care about the definition, she just wants to see her favourite super hero kick some butt. So that’s the reason why Captain Marvel sales are bombing in general.