Hitchhiker Can't Guide Home Market out of Slump

September 24, 2005

Crash repeated on top of the home market this weekend despite falling 27% during its second week to $6.50 million in combined rentals. This was not a particularly strong performance and further underscores the depth of the slump we're in.

Opening in second place was Fever Pitch with just $6.30 million. Monster-In-Law fell 32% to $5.84 million, which was just enough to beat out The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for third place, the latter film earning $5.79 million in combined rentals. Lastly, Sahara also fell 32% to $5.43 million during its third week of release for a $24.46 running total.

There was only one other new release to chart this week and it was the direct-to-DVD film, Today you Die, which finished in 17th place with $1.01 million in rentals.

The closest we have to good news on the rental front is the weekly total was down just 1.6% to $125.7 million, but that was still down 15.3% from last year. Year-to-date, 2005 has brought in $5.5 billion down 5.0% from the same time period last year.

In a perfect example of the Fanboy Effect, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy led the sales chart despite a less than impressive showing on the rental charts. In comparison, Fever Pitch finished in second place on both charts. Crash fell to third place just ahead of Lost - The Complete First Season. Rounding out the top five was Sin City, which climbed back into the top five despite the Special Edition being released in December.

On the TV on DVD side, Lost - The Complete First Season remained in first place, which should surprise no one, while Smallville - The Complete Fourth Season rose to second place, which is a bit of a surprise. Next up were two new releases, Da Ali G Show - The Complete Second Season and Everybody Loves Raymond - The Complete Fourth Season. Lastly, Charmed - The Complete Second Season fell to fifth place.

The only other TV on DVD release to finish in the top ten was One Tree Hill - The Complete Second Season, which placed tenth on this week's chart.


Submitted by:

Filed under: Monster-in-Law, Sin City, Sahara, Crash, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Fever Pitch