Slevin was More Than Just Lucky
September 23, 2006
The rental chart was not overburdened by numerous new releases, however, the top two DVDs were both new to the charts. Leading the way was Lucky Number Slevin at $7.37 million, which is a good start given its theatrical run.
The same can't be said for The Wild as its opening weekend of $3.86 million was barely more than 10% of its total domestic run, but it did perform better on the sales chart. The Sentinel landed in third place with $3.16 million and now has $16.55 after three weeks of release. R.V. remained a strong rental placing fourth with $2.70 million for the week and $28.33 in total. Capturing the final spot in the top five was Take the Lead with a respectable $2.58 million raising its total to $12.52 million.
There were only two other new releases to chart with Goal! being the best of the rest, however, with an opening of just $1.27 million it was only able to place 16th. Further back in 23rd place was Grey's Anatomy - The Complete Second Season - Uncut with $720,000, but in this case it is a strong start since TV on DVD, especially full-season sets rarely chart.
The overall rental market continues to suffer down 3.1% for the week and 4.7% from the same week last year with a total of $119.8 million. Year-to-date 2006 has pulled in $5.6 billion and holds a 1.7% lead over 2005.
The Wild was able to top the sales chart, which is a bit of a surprise given how poorly it performed theatrically. The film cost $80 million to make and barely matched that worldwide so showing a profit is almost entirely out of reach regardless of how well it does now. But at least it can minimize the loses for all involved. Grey's Anatomy - The Complete Second Season - Uncut just missed becoming the second TV on DVD release in a row to top the charts while Lucky Number Slevin managed third. The next three releases were Star Wars re-releases, which finished in order: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
Other new releases to chart this week include two other TV on DVD releases: The Office - The Complete Second Season in eighth place and Smallville - The Complete Second Season. Next up was Goal! The Dream Begins in 13th place, which was only marginally better than its placing on the rental charts. The final new release was Fullmetal Alchemist - The Movie in 17th place. It is very rare for Anime to make the list since it has niche market appeal and to compound matters, the market is flooded with such releases every week. Normally niche markets are under-served, but since Anime is such a huge seller in Asian markets there are plenty of demand for the releases there and most of these are released domestically.
There were only three TV on DVD new releases to chart this week, and they finished 1-2-3 and since they all charted on the overall sales charts, there's little surprise which ones they were: Grey's Anatomy - The Complete Second Season - Uncut, The Office - The Complete Second Season, and Smallville - The Complete Second Season. Falling from first to fourth was Lost - The Complete Second Season while Arrested Development - The Complete Third Season managed fifth place.
There were no other new release to chart, however, Grey's Anatomy - The Complete First Season returned to the charts for the 28th week finishing in sixth place.
Filed under: R.V., The Wild, The Sentinel, Take the Lead, Lucky Number Slevin, Goal! The Dream Begins