July 20, 2004

Survey: Wal-mart Rings 37% of All DVD Sales in the U.S.

Variety reports that the retail giant is a foundation for recent robust DVD sales figures. According to a recent cosumer survey,

Wal-Mart, the "everyday-low-prices" retail juggernaut, today rings up a hefty 37% of all new DVD purchases in the U.S., according to a new survey of video consumers, and easily writes the biggest check to Hollywood every year.

The article notes that Hollywood should be cautious, because each disc sold is a "loss leader":

For now, Wal-Mart and its peers seem OK losing a few bucks on every disc sold. But that may not be the case forever, and invariably Wal-Mart will insist on a wholesale price cut that could eat into those juicy DVD margins at precisely the time overall disc sales start to slow.

Yahoo! News - Wal-Mart crowned DVD king