The approach of spring break continues to find studios stepping up their release schedules of high-profile titles, as Hollywood home video marketers take aim at out-of-school kids and their Easter gift-giving parents.
Three new releases landed in the top three slots on the weekly Nielsen VideoScan First Alert sales chart, which tracks all disc sales at most big retailers except Walmart and Sam’s Club, as well as Nielsen’s dedicated Blu-ray Disc sales chart.
On the overall sales chart for the week ending March 18, Warner Home Video’s Happy Feet Two, which earned $64 million in U.S. theaters, debuted at No. 1. Paramount’s The Adventures of Tintin ($77.6 million) bowed at No. 2, and 20th Century Fox’s The Descendants ($82 million) arrived at No. 3.
The first two films are animated family features; Descendants is a dramatic comedy that stars George Clooney in his Oscar-nominated performance as a wealthy father in Hawaii who tries to reconnect with his daughters after his wife is left comatose after a boating accident.
On the Blu-ray Disc sales chart, all three films also captured the top three spots, albeit in a different order. The top-selling Blu-ray Disc was Tintin, with Descendants at No. 2 and Happy Feet Two trailing at No. 3.
Accordingly, Nielsen research shows Tintin generated 50 percent of its sales from the Blu-ray Disc format, compared with 32 percent for Descendents and just 23 percent for Happy Feet Two.
On Home Media Magazine’s weekly video rental chart, Tintin was an easy winner, in part due to the fact that Paramount gives rental dealers immediate access to all its new releases, unlike Warner or Fox.
Sony Pictures’ Jack and Jill slipped to No. 2 after two weeks in the top spot, followed by another new release, Summit Entertainment’s The Three Musketeers, which debuted at No. 3.
