'Deadpool' Dominates Disc Sales Charts

18 May, 2016 By: Thomas K. Arnold

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Twentienth Century Fox once again bumped Walt Disney's Star Wars: The Force Awakens to the No. 2 spot on the national home video sales charts, this time with Deadpool, the latest superhero movie, based on a Marvel comic book, to be released on disc.

Deadpool, about a former Special Forces operative-turned-mercenary who after a rogue experiment is left with accelerated healing powers, earned more than $362.5 million at the domestic box office. The film was released on the Digital HD format 11 days before its May 10 Blu-ray Disc and DVD debut and sold 1 million downloads its first week, according to Fox.

Deadpool easily took the No. 1 position on the NPD VideoScan First Alert sales chart, which tracks combined DVD and Blu-ray Disc unit sales, for the week ended May 15, as well as VideoScan’s dedicated Blu-ray Disc sales chart.

VideoScan data shows the film, in its first week on disc, easily outsold all 19 other films in the weekly top 20, which collectively sold less than 38% as many units as Deadpool.

In April, Force Awakens was knocked out of the No. 1 spot by 20th Century Fox’s The Revenant, currently at No. 4 on the overall chart, just behind third-ranked The 5th Wave, an alien invasion thriller from Sony Pictures that had debuted the prior week at No. 2.

The fifth spot on the overall disc sales chart went to the horror film The Boy, from Universal Pictures, about a creepy doll left in the care of a nanny. The film earned $35.8 million in U.S. theaters.

On the Blu-ray Disc-only chart, Revenant finished the week at No. 3, with 5th Wave at No. 4.

According to VideoScan data, Deadpool generated 71% of its total unit sales from Blu-ray Disc, compared with 37% for The Boy. Among the non-releases in the top five on both charts, Force Awakens generated 64% of its sales from Blu-ray Disc, compared with 47% for Revenant and 39% for The 5th Wave.

On Home Media Magazine's rental chart for the week, The 5th Wave was again No. 1, with Lionsgate’s The Choice and Universal Pictures' Sisters switching spots to No. 3 and No. 2, respectively. Anchor Bay Entertainment’s Regression, a crime drama with Ethan Hawke and Emma Watson, debuted at No. 4. The film, which reportedly cost $20 million to make, enjoyed a limited theatrical release from the Weinstein Co. in February and was released 30 days after its opening on Amazon Instant Video.

Rounding out the top five on the rental chart was Paramount’s Daddy’s Home.

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