Comcast has only been selling movies to its subscribers for a month, but the cable company has released some results from its experiment in digital retail.
“Despicable Me 2” has been its strongest selling title through its Xfinity TV digital platform, Comcast said this week, followed by “Fast & Furious 6,” “The Hunger Games,” “The Wolverine” and “Red 2.” Those results are skewed, however, because only three studios — Fox, Lionsgate and the Comcast-owned Universal — have their titles for sale digitally.
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The company did not say how many copies of the films it had sold.
Home entertainment analysts expect that other cable operators will soon follow Comcast’s lead and will begin selling movies in addition to renting them. Comcast has over 21 million subscribers, so it represents a massive customer base that studios are eager to capitalize on.
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Earlier, Comcast announced that it was the top seller for digital versions of the “Despicable Me” sequel during its first week of release, topping iTunes and Amazon. “Despicable Me 2” made $80 million during its first week selling DVD, Blu-Ray and digital copies. That was the biggest home entertainment debut in three years.
The top rentals for the year on Comcast was the Melissa McCarthy comedy”Identity Thief” followed by “Flight,” “Argo,” “Django Unchained” and “Taken 2.”