Disney Sells 125,000 Movies in First Week on iTunes Store
Playlist is reporting that Walt Disney President and CEO Robert Iger said that 125,000 downloadable movies had been purchased in the week since Apple's debut of movies on the iTunes Store. That sales level generated $1 million in revenue for Disney, which works out to $8 per movie. This implies Apple is taking in between $2 and $5 per movie since most, if not all, of the movies were in their first week and thus cost either $10 or $13; now most of the newer movies cost $15.
Playlist also reports Iger as predicting that Disney would receive about $50 million in revenue from selling movies on the iTunes Store in the first year. Extrapolating out from $8 per movie, that would imply that Disney would sell 6.25 million movies via the iTunes Store by this time next year. Those numbers are important, since they need to be high enough to scare other movie studios into wanting to work with Apple or risk leaving big money on the table. No results have yet been forthcoming from the competing Amazon Unbox service, which features movies from studios other than Disney properties.