Home Market Brings in a Ringer

May 27, 2006

It was a very close race for the top of the rental charts between two new releases. The Ringer won that race with a surprising $6.32 million while When a Stranger Calls had to settle for second best with $6.18 million. Rumor Has It was the best of the rest as it dipped just 26% to $4.99 million over the week for a two-week total of $11.84 million. Big Momma's House 2, on the other hand, fell 33% to $4.64 million and now has $11.64 million in total; however, the film is already a huge financial success so there's little reason for the studio to be upset over this drop-off. The final film in the top five was Munich as it added $3.76 million to its disappointing two-week total of $8.93 million.

There were five other new releases this week, but they were all well down the charts. The Producers and Something New finished in 14th and 15th places respectively with $2.13 million and $1.77 million. Next up was Doogal in 19th place with $1.29 million; the less said about this film's domestic performance the better. Finally, we have two film's whose theatrical runs were so short they are practically direct-to-DVD releases. Duma managed to place 33rd with $760,000 while Winter Passing was several places behind in 37th place with $610,000.

The overall market was down 2.7% from last week hitting $140.3 million, however, that was 5.3% higher than the same weekend last year. That was enough to push the year-to-date number to $3.1 billion, which puts 2006 tied with 2005's pace.

The sales charts had a similar look to the rentals charts with the same two DVDs finishing one-two on both. After The Ringer and When a Stranger Calls, the first holdover was Nanny McPhee, which managed to remain in third place over the week. Something New performed much better on the sales charts than on the rentals finishing in fourth place, just ahead Big Momma's House 2, which fell from second to fifth.

Just missing the top five was The Producers in sixth while Doogal entered the charts in eighth place. The final new release to charts this weekend was Napoleon Dynamite - Like, the Best Special Edition Ever!, which opened in 15th place.

There were three new TV on DVD release to chart this week, but only one of them was in the top five. This allowed some holdovers to put in some solid performance led by Grey's Anatomy - Season 1, which climbed from fifth to first during its 14th week of release. The West Wing - The Complete Sixth Season remained in second while Scrubs - The Complete Third Season fell to third. The final holdover in the top five was Rescue Me - The Complete Second Season. The best of this week's crop was Home Movies - Season 4, which was also the final season in that amazing show.

The two other new releases were Hill Street Blues - The Complete Second Season in sixth and That Girl - Season One in seventh.


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Filed under: Big Momma's House 2, When a Stranger Calls, Munich, Nanny McPhee, Napoleon Dynamite, Rumor Has It, The Ringer, The Producers: The Movie Musical, Something New, Doogal, Duma, Winter Passing