By : Thomas K. Arnold | Posted: 09 Oct 2008
tarnold@questex.com

Home entertainment’s historic resiliency to turbulent economic times was struck home last week by a big, fat iron fist.

As the markets were tumbling, Iron Man posted the strongest first-week sales tally of any new release this year, with distributor Paramount Home Entertainment selling 7.2 million DVDs and more than 500,000 Blu-ray Discs.

Day one Blu-ray Disc sales alone amounted to 260,000 units, a single-day record, according to Paramount.

In just one week, Iron Man has already become the best-selling Blu-ray Disc title all year. The title also spiked total weekly Blu-ray Disc sales to record heights.

The sales frenzy easily pushed Iron Man, at $318.3 million the year’s No. 2 box office hit, to the No. 1 spot on Nielsen VideoScan’s First Alert sales chart for the week ended Oct. 5. Nielsen data shows Iron Man outsold its nearest competitor, fellow newcomer Forgetting Sarah Marshall, from Universal Studios, by a margin of nearly 7-to-1.

Iron Man also debuted at No. 1 on the Blu-ray Disc sales chart, with second-ranked Sarah Marshall selling fewer than 7% as many copies as the Marvel Comics-inspired summer blockbuster.

On Home Media Magazine’s video rental chart for the week, Iron Man scored its third chart victory, with Sarah Marshall debuting at No. 2.

On all three charts, the two newcomers pushed the previous week’s top seller and renter, Warner’s Sex and the City: The Movie, to No. 3.
 

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