Who Stays on Top Because New Releases Can't Compete

August 20, 2005

Guess Who was able to repeat as the champion on the home market thanks in part to the weak competition, but also due to the miniscule 8% drop-off from its opening week numbers. The film earned $8.01 million in DVD rentals, $630,000 in VHS rentals for a combined total of $8.64 million this week, which lifted its two-week total to $18.23 million.

The only new release in the top five was Because of Winn-Dixie, which actually led the VHS rental charts with $640,000, however, its DVD rental numbers were significantly weaker, relatively speaking, at $3.02 million for a $3.65 million running tally. While Guess Who held up amazingly well, Alexander was no so lick with a 49% drop-off landing at just $3.59 million for the week and $10.73 million so far. On the other hand, Million Dollar Baby dropped just 18% to $3.37 million rising back into the top five in the process. Lastly we have Constatine with $3.34 million during the week and $25.59 during its run so far.

The only other new release in the top 30 was Kung Fu Hustle with $3.04 million in combined rentals, strong enough for seventh place.

There were a couple of films that managed to top their domestic totals on the rental market this past week. Man of the House took just four weeks to earn $19.19 million compared to its $19.12 million it earned domestically. While 19 weeks for Spanglish to do the same, granted, its domestic total was much higher at $42.04 million, but it has reached $42.45 million so far.

The overall market was another disaster this week bringing in just $117.9, down 14.0% from last week and a clinically depressing 23.2% from the same week last year. Year-to-date 2005 has now made $4.8 billion, off 4.1% from 2004.

The top five sales chart had a different look with Kung Fu Hustle leading the way. Second place went to Guess Who, which was just ahead of the other newcomer, Because of Winn-Dixie. Alexander then Constatine finished in fourth and fifth places respectively.

There were 6 other new releases in the top twenty, but they were all from the TV on DVD category, although The Muppets' Wizard of Oz is a TV Movie, so it doesn't really fit in either category really well.

The TV on DVD charts were dominated by newcomers with 4 of the top five spots going to new releases. Leading the way was The Muppet Show - Season One - Special Edition, proving once again that studios should stick with Full Season Sets and not Best Of releases. The final season of Roswell came in second ahead of Thundercats - Season One - Volume One and Columbo - Season 3. The only holdover in the top five was Laguna Beach - The Complete First Season, which finished in fifth place.

The only other new release in the top ten was Dallas - Season 3, which came in sixth place.


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Filed under: Million Dollar Baby, Constantine, Guess Who, Spanglish, Alexander, Because of Winn-Dixie, Man of the House, Kung Fu Hustle