Kong Crowned King of the Home Market
April 8, 2006
King Kong was the best of this week's batch as it easily took top spot on the rental charts with $10.31 million in DVD rentals. This is higher than expected as I had assumed the vast majority of people who were interested in seeing it would buy it, but instead the buyers lead the renters by only a 2 - 1 margin.
Derailed slipped a spot to second with $5.85 million; that was down 30% from its opening week and lifted its total to $14.32 million so far. The only other new release in the top five was Memoirs of a Geisha with a disappointing $5.64 million. Two holdovers, Chicken Little and A History of Violence, were in a close batter for fourth place with the former winning $4.25 million to $4.21 million. However, the latter holds the advantage on the total rentals side at $19.63 million to $10.04 million.
There were a trio of other new releases to chart this week, each of which had disappointing theatrical runs. Get Rich or Die Tryin' could only place seventh with $3.82 million and that's low even compared to its theatrical run. Stay debuted in 13th place with $2.18 million, which is more than half of what it earned theatrically. The last new release to chart this week was A Sound of Thunder in 24th place with $1.05 million. Good news is, that was more than half of what it earned during its entire theatrical run. Bad new is, it will still go down in history as one of the biggest bombs ever.
The overall rental marker returned to winning ways even though it was down 3.3% for the week to $156.2 million. Compared to last year it was up an excellent 8.7% and the year-to-date deficit was cut to 1.9% with a running tally of $2.1 billion.
There weren't as many new releases on the sales charts, but there were more in the top five led by King Kong. The film sold 6.5 million units during its first six days of release for a total of $100 million in sales, which was a record for a Universal release. If the film hadn't broken into the black before, it has now. Memoirs of a Geisha finished second on the sales charts as opposed to third on the rental charts. Also topping its rental chart placing was Chicken Little in third, Get Rich or Die Tryin' in fourth, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in fifth. That final film finished in 15th on the rental charts with $1.96 million; while its $18.38 million in total rentals may not seem like much, it is artificially depressed due to the amazing sales numbers.
There were no other new releases to chart this week.
It was an incredibly busy week in terms of TV on DVD sales with three new releases in the top five and seven in the top ten. Despite this huge influx of new competition, South Park - The Complete Seventh Season remained in first place during its second week of release. The first of the new releases was Robot Chicken - Volume 1; while the DVD was a contender for DVD Pick of the Week, I didn't think it would sell this well. Next up was Six Feet Under - The Complete Fifth Season. Northern Exposure - The Complete Fourth Season was the final new release in the top five coming in fourth while Grey's Anatomy - Season 1 remained the oldest release in the top ten finishing fifth during its seventh week of release.
Wonder Showzen - Season 1 was another release that performed better than expected finishing in sixth place. Quantum Leap - The Complete Fourth Season debuted in eighth place ahead of the first season releases of both The Andy Milonakis Show and Knots Landing.
The only other TV on DVD release in the top ten was Mind of Mencia - Uncensored Season 1, which fell from fifth to seventh.
Filed under: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, King Kong, Chicken Little, Memoirs of a Geisha, Derailed, A History of Violence, Get Rich or Die Tryin', Stay, A Sound of Thunder