Crowded Competition can't Overthrow Hitch

July 2, 2005

Hitch held onto top spot on the rental charts this week despite four new releases making the top five, and it wasn't even a close contest. The film added $10.58 million in combined rentals, down just 16% from last week for a $23.21 million two-week total.

The rest of the top five were all newcomers with places 2 through 4 being separated by a mere $570,000. Coach Carter captured second place with $7.94 million in combined rentals from $7.08 million in DVD rentals and $860,000 VHS. Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous finished second with $7.82 million in combined rentals, but was the only film to crack $1 million on the VHS rental charts. Hostage also did well bringing in $7.37 million in combined rentals while Cursed was a distance fifth place with just $4.56 million in combined rentals.

The only new release in the top forty was The Jacket, which came in eighth place with $2.62 million, or relatively close to half its total domestic box office.

Overall market was up by 2.96% from last weekend at $139.1 million, but down 6.4% from last year. Year-to-date, 2005 has now seen $3.8 billion in rentals, down 2.4%. On the other hand, DVD sales grew by 9.8% during the past 12 months and the TV on DVD sector grew by a mind-blowing 49.5%.

The same five films that lead the rental charts also finished in the top five on the sales charts, just in a different order. Hostage led the way followed by Coach Carter. The only holdover in the group, Hitch came in third ahead of Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous. Rounding out the top five was Cursed.

The only other new releases to make the top ten were American Psycho - Uncut Killer Edition and The Jacket, which came in ninth and tenth place respectively. There were also a couple of new TV on DVD releases that made the top twenty, but we'll get to those in a second.

Chappelle Show Season 2 claimed the top spot on the TV on DVD charts for the fourth time in its five week release. Coming in second was Bewitched - The Complete First Season, which appears to be doing better than the movie. Sopranos - The Complete Fifth Season came in third place, but it is tumbling down the overall charts dropping from fifth to 17th place. Fellow fifth season release, Oz was next on the charts, just ahead of Seinfeld - The Complete Fourth Season. On a side note, all five releases on the top of the TV on DVD charts placed in the top twenty sales charts further emphasizing the growth in that particular market.


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Filed under: Hitch, Coach Carter, Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous, Hostage, Cursed, The Jacket