'Skyfall' Dominates Home Video Sales Charts

MGM’s Skyfall, the highest-grossing film in the 50-year-old history of the James Bond franchise, easily topped both national home video sales charts in its first week in stores, bowing at No. 1 on both the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert chart, which tracks overall disc sales, and Nielsen’s dedicated Blu-ray Disc chart.

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On Home Media Magazine’s rental chart for the week ending Feb. 17, however, Paramount’s Flight remained in the top spot for the second consecutive week, a result of Skyfall distributor 20th Century Fox’s 28-day delay in shipping new releases to Netflix and Redbox.

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Skyfall, which grossed $304 million in U.S. theaters, not only won the weekly disc sales battle, but it also won big. The actioner sold more than five times as many copies as it closest competitor, Sony Pictures’ Hotel Transylvania, which remained at No. 2 for the second consecutive week. Flight, the prior week’s top seller, slipped to No. 7.

On the Blu-ray Disc chart, the discrepancy was even more pronounced. Walt Disney Studios’ Peter Pan, which debuted at No. 1 the previous week, was bumped down to No. 2, but the animated classic in its second week in stores only sold 12 percent as many units as Skyfall. Nielsen data shows that 63 percent of Skyfall’s first-week sales came from the Blu-ray Disc version.

Two other new releases also made impressive sales debuts. Lionsgate’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower, a romantic drama with a $17.7 million domestic box office gross, bowed at No. 3 on First Alert and No. 7 on the Blu-ray Disc sales chart, while Universal Studios’ Man with the Iron Fists, an actioner set in feudal China, bowed at No. 4 on both sales charts. Man with the Iron Fists earned $15.6 million in U.S. theaters and generated 48 percent of its first-week sales from Blu-ray Disc, compared with just 21 percent for The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

On Home Media Magazine’s rental chart, 20th Century Fox’s Taken 2 rose to No. 2 after coming off its 28-day rental holdback. The highest new release on the rental chart was Perks, which bowed at No. 6.