'Drive,' 'In Time' Debut Atop DVD Charts

Now that the big theatrical tentpoles from last summer and fall have all been released, the studios are clearing out their vaults in preparation for the next big burst of home video sales activity, which should begin Saturday with the release of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part I.

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As a result, the sales and rental charts are full of theatrical underperformers and direct-to-video releases that are awaiting their moment in the sun on disc.

Four of the five top-selling discs for the week ending Feb. 5 are new releases. None hit the $40 million box office mark, and three sold more copies on Blu-ray Disc than they did on standard DVD.

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Debuting at No. 1 on both the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert sales chart, which tracks overall disc sales, and Nielsen’s dedicated Blu-ray Disc sales chart is Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s Drive, a crime drama, starring Ryan Gosling, that earned just slightly more than $35 million its September 2011 theatrical release. Drive generated 57 percent of its first-week sales from Blu-ray Disc.

On First Alert, the No. 2 spot went to Walt Disney Studios’ Treasure Buddies, the latest installment in the successful kid-friendly film franchise about a group of mischievous pups. On the Blu-ray Disc chart, the No. 2 spot went to 20th Century Fox’s In Time, a sci-fi thriller starring Justin Timberlake with a $37.5 million domestic theatrical take. In Time generated 54 percent of its sales from Blu-ray Disc.

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In Time debuted at No. 3 on First Alert, just ahead of Disney’s Real Steel, the previous week’s top seller. Rounding out the top 5 is Universal Studios’ The Thing, a prequel to the 1982 John Carpenter classic of the same name, which earned just $16.9 million in theaters. The Thing generated 55 percent of its sales from Blu-ray Disc.

Real Steel and The Thing also finished at No. 4 and No. 5 on Nielsen’s Blu-ray Disc sales chart, with the No. 3 spot going to Transformers: Dark of the Moon, a pre-Christmas tentpole release that was reissued last week as a 3D Blu-ray.

On Home Media Magazine’s video rental chart for the week, Drive debuted at No. 1, bumping the prior week’s top rental, Real Steel, to No. 2.

Warner’s Contagion, coming off its holdback from Redbox and Netflix, jumped to No. 3 from No. 57 the previous week.