Evolution of the Home Market

June 17, 2006

It was another incredibly busy week with three new films occupying the top three spots and four of them in the top five. Leading the way on the rental charts was Underworld: Evolution with $8.68 million in DVD rentals. Firewall wasn't far behind with $7.79 million and well ahead third place Glory Road and the $5.49 million it brought in. The only holdover in the top five was Date Movie as it fell 44% to $4.55 million for the week and $12.74 million after two. The final film in the top five was Running Scared with $3.87 million during its first week of release, which is more than half of what the film earned during its entire theatrical run.

There were two other new releases to chart this week with The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada opening in 13th place with $1.97 million while the direct-to-DVD release, Like Mike 2: Streetball, managed only 27th place with $870,000.

The glut of new releases didn't help the overall box office as it fell 3.2% to $152.3 million, however, that was 7.0% higher that the same weekend last year. It was also enough to lift the year-to-date totals to #3.6 billion increasing its lead over 2005 to 0.4%.

On an interesting side note, this is the first week where there were no VHS rentals in the top 30. The last film to top the charts that had any VHS rental was Big Momma's House 2, and while that film is still in the top 30 five weeks later, the VHS component dropped below the $10,000 mark and is no longer registering on the charts. The next major milestone in the evolution of the home market is the introduction of HD-DVD / Blu-Ray sales and rental charts. But it will take a few more early adapters before that happens.

Every single DVD in top five on the sales chart was a new release this week led again by Underworld: Evolution. Glory Road and Firewall finsihed in reverse order than they did on the rental charts while Running Scared finished a spot higher coming in fourth. Rounding out the top five was Dumbo - Big Top Edition.

Other new releases to chart this week, and there were six of them, were led by Like Mike 2: Streetball in ninth place while a duo of TV on DVD releases, Entourage - The Complete Second Season and Charmed - The Complete Fifth Season, came in 10th and 11th places respectively. 12th place went to the second special edition on the charts, Mr. & Mrs. Smith - Unrated 2-Disc Collector's Edition. The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada opened in 16th place, significantly below its ranking on the rentals charts, while the 1941 Film Noir flick I Wake Up Screaming opened in 18th place.

The TV on DVD charts saw High School Musical remain in top spot for the third week in a row as it finished in sixth place overall. Entourage - The Complete Second Season and Charmed - The Complete Fifth Season started their run in second and third place respectively. For some reason, 24 - The Complete Fourth Season shot up into fourth place, just ahead of The 4400 - The Complete Second Season

There were two other new releases to chart this week Time Tunnel - Season 1 - Volume 2 opening in seventh place while He-Man and the Masters of the Universe - Season 2 - Volume 1 opened in 10th place.


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Filed under: Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Big Momma's House 2, Underworld: Evolution, Firewall, Date Movie, Glory Road, Running Scared, Los tres entierros de Melquiades Estrada