Make that 24.

Madhatter | September 16, 12:13 CET

Hang on. $1.1 million. In a week? For a cancelled TV series which is 5 years old?

If that's in any way accurate, 20th Century Fox must be bloody rolling in it.

gossi | September 16, 14:44 CET

And they don't wanna produce another season?! This is madness...

Djungelurban | September 16, 16:05 CET

I think, unfortunately, it's a lot more complicated to produce another series than it sounds. As in, it just wouldn't happen for all manner of reasons. Firefly is a thing which is dead now, but the painful reality seems to be it found it's audience 5 years in. I just checked online, and this time a week ago it was Amazon's number 1 DVD.

I really do feel sorry for Joss and friends still.

[ edited by gossi on 2007-09-16 13:12 ]

gossi | September 16, 16:12 CET

Oh of course, the Amazon Gold Box Deal of the Day for the Firefly DVD was during that week. That deal must have shifted a hell of a lot of units. However, Amazon were selling the DVD at $19.99 and by my calculations the average sale figure that the Numbers site has for the Firefly DVD boxset is $28. So I would probably downgrade how much it made during that week.

But still, it's impressive numbers and does make one wonder how much the boxset has made to date.

Simon | September 16, 16:12 CET

What would you really need? I mean sure, the cast. Some of them are off doing other stuff. Although if something is worked out for the 08-09 season now already I'm pretty sure that obstacle could be solved (unless The Sarah Connor Chronicles is a huge hit). And you'd need Joss and Tim. Neither of them are like superbusy right now though unless they're keeping things from us. And I've always figured that FOX retained the rights to the series. And even if Universal have some say in things my guts feeling is that they don't mind at all having the show airing in some format on Sci-Fi, either immediately or in syndication.

As I understand those are the three big obstacles that has to be overcome. And to me they don't seem insurmountable.

Djungelurban | September 16, 16:32 CET

What would you really need?

Multiple millions of dollars.

And a network to air it.

crossoverman | September 16, 16:53 CET

Why weren't these sales figures available before?

Quit | September 16, 17:07 CET

Well, you do have multiple millions of dollars if those sales stats are anything to go on. I won't speculate exactly how many but probably a lot more than low 8 digits.

And it's pretty much a known fact that Sci-Fi loves Firefly. And they will also lose Battlestar Galactica after this season and that's a void in need of filling.

I just read on wiki that Joss has stated that he'd never work with Fox again. That could be another obstacle but I've always thought it was the network he wouldn't work with again and that he in fact enjoyed working with Fox Productions.

Djungelurban | September 16, 17:08 CET

I'm hearing something... it's coming... Oh yes, definitely sounds like a sequal to me :)

lordsketch | September 16, 17:45 CET

The Serenity Collector's Edition tumbled right off The Numbers Chart after it's first week, which I find worrisome. We shouldn't get starry-eyed for a sequel just yet, and should be a bit concerned about Availability of the BDCE. It's hard to find, outside of the Internet.

TDBrown | September 16, 18:53 CET

Why can't they just bypass the networks and do some sort of direct-to-DVD Firefly/Serenity project ? I mean, come on already.

Whether it be a mini-series or another movie...how did J. Michael Straczynski's Babylon 5: The Lost Tales sell anyway ? Would it be fitting to use that as a barometer for how welcoming the direct-to-DVD environment might be to Firefly?

It just seems like...they would sell...so much...

Kris | September 16, 21:44 CET

Djungelurban said:
"it's pretty much a known fact that Sci-Fi loves Firefly. And they will also lose Battlestar Galactica after this season and that's a void in need of filling."

Great point. I dunno if cancelled TV shows would be Sci-Fi's thing...though didn't they rescue Stargate back when Showtime was through with it ? And on a tangent, how weird and cool was it that Showtime, an adult pay-cable channel that now airs highbrow fare like Dexter and Brotherhood, used to experiment with sci-fi, re: Odyssey 5, Jeremiah, Stargate, and others I might be forgetting.

I'm not sure why I'm letting myself get hopeful today. I was pretty much resigned to the probability that the franchise kinda ended with Serenity with maybe the odd comic book mini-series that might turn out well.

Kris | September 16, 21:50 CET

Didn't Sci-Fi rescue Sliders, too?

I don't think that it'll happen, but it's nice to imagine...

kishi | September 16, 22:10 CET

Yes. But Sliders in the last two seasons was pretty awful. And I really liked the show.

Simon | September 16, 22:17 CET

It's also worth noting that these are (presumably) retail numbers; not all, or even most, of this money is going into 20th's coffers.

I think.

jlp | September 16, 22:39 CET

Dym | September 16, 14:07 CET


All the other charts only show top 20 or top 10. So if your DVD doesn't get in the top 20, it doesn't show up. The Numbers chart shows the top 30 and they only started records recently


For example the hope Joss Whedon interview at Comic Con 2007 for more Firefly/Serenity: Serenity Collector's Edition DVD sold 32,396 units for $580,429. On the 8/26/2007 chart. It hasn't been back on the chart yet. Which means it sold less than 24,534 for week ending 9/2/2007, less than 32,714 week ending 9/9/2007.

Also we don't know what retailers are in the websites study and which aren't. So figures could actually be higher.

Universal knows how many Serenity and Serenity CE DVDs they have sold to distributors.

And 20th Century Fox production company knows how many Firefly they have sold to distributors.

Anonymous1 | September 16, 22:43 CET

Kris said:
"Whether it be a mini-series or another movie...how did J. Michael Straczynski's Babylon 5: The Lost Tales sell anyway ? Would it be fitting to use that as a barometer for how welcoming the direct-to-DVD environment might be to Firefly?"

I just watched B5: The Lost Tales last week, and while it was very good, it was obviously done very cheaply. In fact, it kind of reminded me of a play, with each of the three stories featuring only a couple of characters in one or two locales, with only one or two major FX sequences; most of it was two or three characters in a room talking (again, reminding me strongly of a stage play), very different from Serenity or even an average Firefly episode. Picture Waiting for Godot with B5 characters.

Which isn't to say that Joss couldn't follow that example, but it would be a very different animal from either the series or the BDM. It probably wouldn't even feature all the crew, as The Lost Tales only featured three leads from the series (and technically, one was from Crusade).

Baalek | September 17, 07:06 CET

Baalek, I think you're being very generous regarding B5: The Lost Tales. It was not *bad* per se, but it almost felt... unnecessary and unsatisfying. It didn't have the promise of a sustained arc, even like Crusade or Legend of the Rangers. You're spot on about the production values, but I thought those weren't the big issues--the isolated storylines were less compelling than a regular series. After all, we know who cannot die--much like comic books that seek to "fill in" the times between series, there's not a whole lot of suspense that can be generated in such a situation.

But then, Joss' worlds didn't have a flash forward 20 years, so part of my issue with B5: TLT has to do with JMS' creative choice to give the viewers a final resolution--Joss' stories all have a point from which they can be picked up, as seen in the comics.

jclemens | September 17, 10:07 CET

And you'd need Joss and Tim. Neither of them are like superbusy right now though unless they're keeping things from us

And didn't Tim just get a guaranteed series pilot or some such from ABC? Just asking...

Ceslas | September 18, 08:29 CET

Ceslas,

Tim has an "overall" deal with 20th Century Fox Production Studio. His pilot/series "Miracle Man" got picked up by ABC. Fox TV lost the bidding war.

Joss has like 12? clipboards of things he is working on.

Anonymous1 | September 18, 20:32 CET