Kingdom's Start far from Heavenly

October 22, 2005

Kingdom of Heaven was able to capture top spot on the home market rental numbers with $7.24 million in DVD rentals and $540,000 in VHS rentals for a combined total of $7.78 million. However, while these numbers were enough for the film to finish in first place, it was still not a great start, especially when taking into account the film's massive production budget.

Kicking and Screaming opened in second place with $6.62 million, which is also a less than inspiring total. The Interpreter had the best week-to-week drop-off in the top five, dropping by 28% to $6.30 million for the week and $15.21 million during its run. Fourth place went to The Longest Yard during its fourth week of release, earning $5.33 million for a total of $33.81 million. Just behind was Unleashed, with $5.22 million, a start sufficient for it to top its domestic total relatively quickly, but it's not enough for the film to show a profit any time soon.

Just missing the top five was The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants with $5.06 million. Other new releases to chart this week include High Tension with $2.34 million and Undead with $650,000.

One last note, The Amityville Horror fell from first to seventh this week falling 47% in the process. That's a very steep drop-off.

Overall the total rental market was down 2.2% for the week to $144.2 million, but that was 2.2% more than the same week last year. That's two weeks in a row of year-to-year growth and that has cut the year-to-date deficit to 4.9% with 2005 bringing in $6.0 billion.

Kingdom of Heaven also topped the DVD sales chart this week ahead of fellow newcomers Unleashed and Kicking and Screaming. Fourth and fifth places went to holdovers Cinderella and Robots.

There were also plenty of new releases charting this week. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants came in seventh place while High Tension came in tenth. Two TV on DVD releases, South Park - The Complete Sixth Season and Arrested Development - The Complete Second Season, came in 11th and 12th respectively. Finally, the direct-to-DVD release, Bionicle 3 - Web of Shadows, finished in 18th place.

Over on the TV on DVD side Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin - The Untold Story kept its hold on first place. South Park - The Complete Sixth Season and Arrested Development - The Complete Second Season came in second and third place respectively. Lost - The Complete First Season slipped down to fourth place while Firefly - The Complete Series remained in fifth in the TV on DVD charts and climbed to 17th on the overall charts.

Two other new TV on DVD releases charted with Veronica Mars - The Complete First Season coming in eighth place and The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air - Buy from Amazon coming in tenth.

-

Filed under: The Longest Yard, Robots, Monster-in-Law, The Interpreter, The Amityville Horror, Kicking and Screaming, Kingdom of Heaven, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Danny the Dog, High Tension, Undead