There was another new releases to top the rental charts this week as Casino Royale earned $9.20 million during its opening weekend on the home market. This is not particularly strong compared to the film's theatrical run, but it was more dominant on the sales chart. This pushed Borat into second place but it still managed a healthy $7.99 million for a total of $17.17 million after two weeks of release. The Holiday opened in a very close third place with $7.95 million, which is reasonable given the film's theatrical release. Stranger Than Fiction held well in its third week of release down 18% to $4.81 million for the week while it total rose to $17.48 million. Rounding out the top five was The Departed with $4.30 million for a running tally of $34.66 million.

The rest of the new releases were short run or direct-to-DVD. Leading this pack was Harsh Times with $1.71 million and 16th place. The direct-to-DVD contingency was led by Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning in 26th place with $1.23 million while Subime placed 36th with $1.02 million. Finally there's A Little Trip to Heaven, which opened in 43rd place with just $710,000.

Over on the sales chart Casino Royale took first place with more than double the sales of the second place film, The Holiday. Peter Pan - 2-Disc Platinum Edition fell from first to third and was just ahead of Borat. Fifth place went to Barbie Fairytopia - Magic of the Rainbow, the first of several The direct-to-DVD films to chart this week.

Harsh Times and Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning placed 8th and 9th respectively. Subime was well behind in 15th place while Baby Einstein - My First Signs opened in 17th place.

- C.S.Strowbridge

Date posted: 2007-03-24