'Brave' Tops Home Entertainment Charts as Black Friday Deals Lure Shoppers

Black Friday madness certainly had an impact on the weekly video charts, as shoppers took advantage of bargain Blu-ray Disc and DVD prices to stock up on discs for holiday gifts -- and for themselves.

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One studio president said his studio sold more than 6 million catalog titles alone on Thanksgiving night, when Walmart stores opened at 8 p.m. and Target at 9, and Black Friday the following day.

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But Nielsen data shows the biggest beneficiaries of the shopping frenzy were recent hit theatricals that had been marked down to below $10. Consumers may have been lured in by the cheap catalog fare -- Walmart had more than 100 DVDs at $1.96 and 60 Blu-ray Discs at $3.96, while Target was selling Semi-Pro and American Pie for a buck apiece -- and they certainly bought plenty of it.

But they also opened up their pocketbooks to pick up deep-discounted summer theatrical hits like Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, from Universal Studios, and Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games, both of which sold for less than $10 at Walmart, Best Buy and Target -- and soared back up the Nielsen VideoScan sales charts for the week ending Nov. 25 months after their initial appearance.              

Walt Disney Studios’ Brave remained the overall best seller for the second consecutive week on both the First Alert chart, which tracks total discs sales, and Nielsen’s dedicated Blu-ray Disc chart. It, too, was available in combo-pack form for $8.96 at Walmart and $10 at Target.

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On First Alert, the No. 2 and No. 3 spots went to Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax and The Hunger Games, with DreamWorks’ Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted finishing at No. 4 its sixth week in stores and Lionsgate’s new The Expendables 2 debuting at No. 5.

Bargain-priced titles that found their way back into the First Alert top 10 include Warner’s Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (No. 6) and Universal Studios’ Bridesmaids (No. 7), with a bevy of others finishing in the top 20, including three older Twilight films, Warners’ The Lucky One and Universal’s Snow White and the Huntsman.

On Home Media Magazine’s rental chart for the week, The Expendables 2 debuted at No. 1, bumping Sony Pictures’ The Amazing Spider-Man to No. 2. Twentieth Century Fox’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, fresh off its 28-day holdback from Netflix and Redbox, shot up the chart to No. 3 from No. 89 the previous week, while Sony Pictures’ Arthur Christmas slipped to No. 4 from No. 3. Rounding out the top five was Disney’s Brave.

For complete DVD and Blu-ray sales and rental charts, visit www.HomeMediaMagazine.com.