• by Wayne Friedman , May 12, 2011

No shocking DVD drama here: Wholesale DVD revenue has crumbled for movie studios. 

DVD revenue from brick-and-mortar, mail order and kiosk video dealers sank a massive 43.9% for the movie studios. Stats are down to $4.47 billion in 2010 from $7.97 billion in 2009, per a recent SNL Kagan study.

Of the 415 titles it tracked in 2010, there were 43.8% fewer units shipped -- 226 million. SNL Kagan says growing digital and streaming business from Netflix, as well as improving video-on-demand services from cable, satellite and telco operators have taken their toll on the business.

More depressing for studios is that average titles pulled in less than half the revenue as compared to a year ago -- $10.8 million versus $22.6 million. Over the past five years, average wholesale revenue has been hit with a negative 13.7% compound annual growth rate, according to SNL Kagan.

The big winner in 2010 was 20th Century Fox, thanks to "Avatar" -- easily the biggest DVD release -- pulling in $207.5 million in revenue, about one-third of all of Fox's total wholesale revenue. Fox pulled in $605.9 million overall for 15 titles.

Warner was a close second. It had more titles -- 24 -- totaling $605.7 million. Buena Vista was next, at $600.6 million. Then came Columbia TriStar with $453.3 million, and Universal, which scored $443.5 million.

After "Avatar," "Toy Story 3" was second in popularity at $201.8 million. "Twilight: New Moon" and "Twilight: Eclipse" ranked third and fourth, respectively, with $174.8 million and $160.7 million.