'Batman Begins,' 'The Dark Knight' Top Blu-Ray Disc Sellers for the Week

5:58 PM PDT 7/25/2012 by Thomas K. Arnold

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Dark Knight Rises Batman at Night Still - H 2012

Warner Bros.

"The Dark Knight Rises"

In the wake of the theatrical opening of "The Dark Knight Rises," fans rushed to pick up copies of the two earlier installments.

The massacre at a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Colorado last week certainly cast a pall over the film’s theatrical release. Security is being beefed up, theater stocks fell and the opening weekend haul of $160.9 million, while the third-best debut of all time, was still off $10 million to $15 million from initial expectations.

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The tragedy may have been a factor in “Batman” fans rushing to video stores to pick up copies of the two earlier installments in the Christopher Nolan trilogy, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, which were the top Blu-ray Disc sellers for the week ending July 22.

The films captured the No. 1 and No. 2 spots on the weekly Nielsen VideoScan Blu-ray Disc sales charts, leaving the week’s highest-profile new theatrical release, 20th Century Fox’s Three Stooges ($44.2 million domestic gross), with a No. 3 debut.

On Nielsen’s overall disc sales chart, Three Stooges did snag the top spot, with Batman Begins and The Dark Knight finishing second and third, respectively.

The week’s only other new theatrical release, Sony Pictures’ Lockout, with a $14.3 million box office gross, debuted at No. 5 on the overall sales chart and No. 4 on the Blu-ray Disc sales chart.

But because Sony is one of the only studios with no holdback from rental dealers, the film bowed at No. 1 on Home Media Magazine’s weekly video rental chart, bumping 21 Jump Street, also from Sony, to No. 3. 21 Jump Street had been the top rental for three weeks.

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The No. 2 spot on the rental chart went to Universal Studios’ Wanderlust, a comedy that jumped up from No. 75 once its holdback from select rental outlets ended.