‘The Walking Dead’ Tops Movies on Home-Video Sales Chart
Netflix may have become synonymous with “binge viewing” of TV shows, but the subscription streaming goliath hasn’t killed off the once-booming TV-on-disc business.
A disc collection of season five of the hit zombie series “The Walking Dead” topped both national home video sales charts the week ending Aug. 30. The Anchor Bay package debuted at No. 1 on both the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert chart, which tracks overall disc sales, Blu-ray Disc and DVD combined, and Nielsen’s dedicated Blu-ray chart.
Sony Pictures’ “Aloha,” a theatrical underperformer that took in just $21 million in U.S. theaters, also found itself in high demand among consumers purchasing discs last week, bowing at No. 2 on the overall disc sales chart and No. 3 on the Blu-ray chart. The film generated 31% of its total unit sales from Blu-ray.
DreamWorks Animation’s “Home,” distributed by 20th Century Fox, slipped to No. 3 on the overall disc sales chart after a week at No. 1, while Lionsgate’s “Insurgent” also dropped two notches to No. 4.
Rounding out the top five on the overall disc sales chart was Warner’s direct-to-video “Lego DC Super Heroes: Justice League — Attack of the Legion of Doom!,” followed at No. 6 by another new release, Anchor Bay’s “Big Game,” an action-adventure film starring Samuel L. Jackson. The Finnish film premiered at the 2014 Toronto Film Festival and stars Jackson as the president, whose Air Force One is shot down in (where else but) Finland.
On Home Media magazine’s video rental chart for the week, “Home” shot up to No. 1 now that its 28-day holdback from Netflix is over. “Aloha” debuted at No. 2 (Sony Pictures gives Redbox access to its titles the day they come out), while Warner’s “Hot Pursuit,” the previous week’s top rental, slipped to the No. 3 spot.
Rounding out the top five are eOne’s newly released “Lila & Eve,” which bowed at No. 4, and Warner’s “Get Hard” at No. 5 (down from No. 3 the previous week).
Thomas K. Arnold is editorial director of Home Media magazine, http://www.homemediamagazine.com.
Top 20 Nielsen VideoScan First Alert chart for the week of 8/30/15:
1. The Walking Dead: Season 5 (new)
2. Aloha (new)
3. Home
4. Insurgent
5. LEGO DC Super Heroes: Justice League – Attack of the Legion of Doom! (new)
6. Big Game
7. Walt Disney Animation Studios Short Films Collection
8. Descendants
9. Hot Pursuit
10. The Runner (new)
11. Skin Trade (new)
12. The Longest Ride
13. Do You Believe?
14. Get Hard
15. Despicable Me 2
16. Space Jam
17. Unfriended
18. Kingsman: The Secret Service
19. Lila & Eve (new)
20. Despicable Me 2: 3 Mini-Movie Collection
Top 10 Home Media Magazine rental chart for the week of 8/30/15:
1. Home
2. Aloha (new)
3. Hot Pursuit
4. Lila & Eve (new)
5. Get Hard
6. Insurgent
7. The Longest Ride
8. The Water Diviner
9. Big Game (new)
10. The Runner (new)
For complete sales and rental charts, visit HomeMediaMagazine.com.
Related stories
'Aloha,' 'Entourage' Prove It's Not Easy to Rescue a Bad Film
'Entourage' Retains Weekly Ad Spend Title as 'Aloha' Debuts
Cameron Crowe on Casting Emma Stone: 'I Offer You a Heart-Felt Apology'
Get more from Variety and Variety411: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter
