Wow! And Brokeback Mountain is 13! This is awesome. People even do have taste in other series: Grey's Anatomy is one of my favourites (after finally overcoming my prejudice against hospital series).

Harridan | November 23, 14:38 CET

That's awesome.
Though I still wonder the gross sales in a broader sense, not only online, not only amazon, fared market wise.

Numfar PTB | November 23, 14:48 CET

Gross sales wise, it hasn't been on the retail charts since it's 3rd week of release in the US. In the UK it's 243 on the charts at the moment.

That said, it's still sold a lot one suspects. It's difficult to imagine Serenity hasn't turned a small profit for the studio.

gossi | November 23, 15:06 CET

The fact that "Firefly" finished 10th despite the fact it's been available for three years shows that its popularity is still very strong. That must be unusual for a DVD set.
But how can the sequel to "Pirates of the Caribbean" be number one for the whole year if it won't be available for two weeks? The pre-orders must have been off the charts for that one

impalergeneral | November 23, 16:20 CET

I find it scary that 'The Little Mermaid' is above Serenity and Firefly.

havok | November 23, 17:31 CET

I just find 'The Little Mermaid' scary full stop. Sentient shell-fish ? What kind of deranged mind came up with that one ? They have claws ! And there's millions of them !

(and that's no small achievement for 'Firefly'. It's like the little series that could ;)

Saje | November 23, 17:43 CET

Something that might be an intersting reading is on a whedonesque flickr thread > DVD Sales Figures Turn Every Film Into a Mystery.

Here's a small excerpt of interest from the article;

If a movie tanks at the box office, DVDs can offer the last, best place to stem the losses. DVD income can salvage failed television series and generate streams of cash from older movies. A movie frequently collects more money on DVD than in theaters.

"It's not at all unusual for films that do $40 million to $50 million at the box office to do $50 million to $60 million on DVD," says Dave Davis, a financial advisor to several movie studios.

If you take out the 2006 releases (which you would expect higher sales) Firefly comes in at #1 and Serenity comes in at #3.

[ edited by RavenU on 2006-11-23 15:53 ]

RavenU | November 23, 17:44 CET

"Pirates" is at #1 although it's not even available yet! Wow! It's great to see Firefly and Serenity doing so well, they're in very prominent company in the Top 20 of that list!

Ariane | November 23, 18:05 CET

Hey peeps. I did some research.

Amazon best seller positions for Firefly:

2006: #10
2005: #16
2004: #60
2003: #61

gossi | November 23, 18:18 CET

Wow. How many series get higher every year for four consecutive years?

Meltha | November 23, 18:29 CET

So when do we expect it to make #1?

sorchasilver | November 23, 18:30 CET

That's for each year itself, right? Without the accumulative sales from previous years.

Since gossi is doing this. Isn't there an Amazon UK? Are there related lists available there?

Numfar PTB | November 23, 18:43 CET

Great numbers!! Thanks for sharing! I want a sequel so bad...I hope Universal big wigs will see these numbers and actually think.

Harmalicious | November 23, 20:59 CET

Great news, that's really amazing.

Succatash | November 23, 22:23 CET

Yes there is an Amazon UK. I don't think they do a similar kind of list but right now Firefly is at #908 (when I checked 10 minutes ago, it was at #1295 so I assume one copy was bought). Serenity is at #283.

Simon | November 23, 22:42 CET

havok, Disney re-released the Little Mermaid this fall with a huge marketing and Consumer Products push. They did the same last year with Cinderella to ridiculous success and will probably do the same next year with another princess movie. Children's movies tend to make most of their money from DVD release and if a company (like Disney) waits and re-releases their classic movies every ten years there is a whole new batch of kiddie eyeballs for the product.

TamaraC | November 23, 23:21 CET

Firefly seems to be doing great in traditional stores as well. It's everywhere. A couple of weeks ago I noticed the local HMV store had it at #3 on its TV DVD bestseller list, ahead of Lost, season 2 and other recent releases.

I'm trying to figure out who still needs one on my Christmas list.

bigsofty | November 23, 23:35 CET

There's a large focus online on Amazon.com Firefly DVD - for example, you'll see it advertised on this site, on Fireflyfans.net, on Serenitymovie.org etc. If you look at the international Amazon and online sites, it's benchmarking much lower, which is a general indication of sales.

In other words, Firefly is doing well in terms of the online geek community. Companies don't care where their sales from, so it's all good for them.

With regards to if companies notice sales - yes. They have entire departments of people who's sole job is to track these things. Unfortunately, Serenity is nowhere to be seen on the wider scope of things, but it is heartening to see a lot of people are clearly seeing Firefly and Serenity and spreading the word still.

Serenity wasn't a big word of mouth picture at the theatre, but it's certainly where the sales are on DVD. With THAT artwork, you're hardly going to pick up the DVD in a store not knowing anything about it and "OMG!! I MUST SEE THIS!!??~". There's still a lot of online sales, though -- by contrast -- which you have to suspect is due to word'o'the'mouth.

[ edited by gossi on 2006-11-23 23:29 ]

gossi | November 24, 01:27 CET

Amazon would have sold more copies of Serenity if they hadn't limited each person to only five copies. I bought at least five additional copies for friends and family locally after Amazon wouldn't let me order any more. Makes one wonder how much this affected its sales figures (though I realize that most people wouldn't attempt to order more than five :). I also heard that they had a similar cap on Firefly purchases.

JossIzBoss | November 24, 11:22 CET

It always tugs my heartstrings all out of shape when a big studio claims to have incurred poverty for our sake. Maybe we should make up a sack of canned food to see them through the winter.

[ edited by dreamlogic on 2006-11-24 13:21 ]

dreamlogic | November 24, 15:20 CET

I must agree. I'm really getting up on this 'studio's domain'. What's next? I'm just shaking my head, I don't know.

Madhatter | November 24, 17:01 CET

Just FWIW, Firefly is #304 on amazon.de as I type, Serenity #251. Given the much smaller fan base in Germany & the fact that Firefly was never aired here, I don't think that's too bad.

bschnell | November 24, 17:51 CET