Other new releases to chart this week include How to Eat Fried Worms in 12th place with $3.75 million. Idlewild placed 20th with $1.94 million, just ahead of The OH in Ohio with $1.89 million. Finally there's Lies and Alibis as the direct-to-DVD release placed 31st with $980,000.

While Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest was able to squeak out a win on the rental charts, it was absolutely dominate on the sales chart. During the first day, the film sold 5 million copies while over the full week its sales were a year's best 10.5 million. To put that into comparison, second place Miami Vice managed just over 1 million in sales this week. Cars remained in third place during its fifth week of release and is the oldest film in the top ten. Superman Returns fell from first to fourth and Ice Age: The Meltdown grabbed fifth place.

Just missing the top five was 24 - The Complete Fifth Season, just ahead of High School Musical - Two-Disc Remix Edition and Beerfest, which would be an interesting double-feature. Pulse just managed to grabbed 10th place, which was disappointing, but was well ahead of How to Eat Fried Worms in 14th place. Normally kids films perform much better on the sales chart than the rental, but that was not the case here and that is just one more disappoint for the filmmakers involved.

- C.S.Strowbridge

Date posted: 2006-12-16