300 Times 5 Million Equals Number One

August 12, 2007

New releases made their presence felt this week, earning five spots on the DVD sales chart, including the first two places. The battle for first place wasn't even close, though, as 300 made a dominant debut, selling 5.10 million units, which was 2 million more than the rest of the top 30 combined. Its opening week sales of $115 million was double the rest of the top 30. Second place went to Hot Fuzz with a very respectable 676,000 units; you must remember, this is a film that only cost 8 million Pounds to make, roughly, which is about $17 million American. The film made more than that in just one week on the home market in combined rentals and sales, so everyone involved must be very, very happy indeed. Pathfinder's sales were stronger than its rentals as it moved 562,000 units for a total of $10.10 million in sales, which was more than it earned theatrically.

The only holdover in the top five was The Number 23, which was down 47% to 207,000 units for the week and 594,000 in total. The final film in the top five was Firehouse Dog with sales of 191,000 for the week; while it did place higher and earn more than it did on the rental chart, it is still a disappointing start.

The only other new release to chart was Bratz - Kidz Sleep-Over Adventure, which placed 11th with 87,000 units sold and $1.21 million in sales.

On a side note, if you added up the three releases for the Bourne franchise, it would have placed fourth with 225,000 in sales. This is obviously directly attributable to The Bourne Ultimatum and bodes well for that film's long-term profitability.

- DVD Sales Chart

On the rental chart, 300 nearly doubled Hot Fuzz $11.90 million to $6.41 million. This pushed The Number 23 into third place with $6.04 million, although that was down only 13%. Zodiac also fell only 13% to $5.82 million for a total of $12.52 million after two weeks of release. Rounding out the top five was Premonition, which added $5.18 million to take its three-week total to $18.81 million.

The best of the rest was Pathfinder with $4.46 million, which was good enough for sixth place. Firehouse Dog was not as fortunate, coming in ninth with just $2.94 million, but it did better on the sales chart. Well back was Lonely Hearts as that film debuted in 20th place with $1.33 million. Finally, The Darwin Awards opened in 22nd spot with $1.26 million.

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Filed under: Premonition, The Number 23, Zodiac, Hot Fuzz, Firehouse Dog, Pathfinder, Lonely Hearts, The Darwin Awards, 300