'True Blood' Tops DVD, Blu-ray Sales Charts

Who says TV DVD is dead?

HBO Home Entertainment topped both national home video sales charts the week ending June 5 with the complete third season of the hit HBO vampire series True Blood, an elegantly packaged set that costs three times as much as a movie on DVD and Blu-ray Disc.

A quarter of total sales came from the Blu-ray Disc version, which carries a suggested retail price of nearly $80.

True Blood: The Complete Third Season debuted at No. 1 on both the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert sales chart and Nielsen’s dedicated Blu-ray Disc sales chart. Sales were so strong that the season two set, released a year ago, returned to the overall disc sales chart as well, bowing at No. 9. Season one, released in May 2009, also is back on the chart, at No. 14.

The only high-profile theatrical release to come out on disc last week, Summit Entertainment’s Drive Angry, a theatrical underperformer starring Nicolas Cage, debuted at No. 2 on both charts – selling just 31 percent as many copies as True Blood, according to Nielsen data. The film earned just slightly more than $10 million at the box office, on a budget pegged at $50 million.

Walt Disney Studios’ Gnomeo & Juliet, the previous week’s top seller, slipped to No. 3 on both charts.

In rental stores, kiosks and services, Drive Angry debuted at No. 1, according to Home Media Magazine’s rental chart. The Universal Studios comedy The Dilemma, with a $48.5 million theatrical take, finished at No. 2 after coming off its 28-day holdback from Netflix and kiosks.

Walt Disney Studios’ I Am Number Four, the previous week’s top renter, slipped to No. 3.