'Equalizer' Shoots to Top of Disc Charts

7 Jan, 2015 By: Thomas K. Arnold

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Sony Pictures Home Entertainment began the new year with a bang, snagging the No. 1 spot on all three national home video charts the week ended Jan. 4 with the newly released The Equalizer, a crime thriller starring Denzel Washington that earned just over $100 million in U.S. theaters.

The film, an adaptation of the 1980s TV series about a former black ops operative who becomes a vigilante, debuted at No. 1 on both the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert sales chart, which tracks overall Blu-ray Disc and DVD combined unit sales, as well as Nielsen’s dedicated Blu-ray Disc sales chart.

The Equalizer also bowed at No. 1 on Home Media Magazine’s video rental chart, since Sony Pictures is one of three studios that does not hold back new releases from Netflix and Redbox, the two biggest rental outlets.

Nielsen data shows that The Equalizer outsold its nearest competitor, Disney’s month-old Guardians of the Galaxy, by a nearly four-to-one margin.

The previous week’s top seller, Paramount's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, slipped to No. 3 on both sales charts, followed at No. 4 by 20th Century Fox’s The Maze Runner, down a notch from No. 3 the previous week.

Rounding out the top five on the overall disc sales chart was Disney’s Frozen, while on the Blu-ray Disc sales chart the No. 5 spot went to 20th Century Fox’s Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

The Equalizer generated 51% of its first-week unit sales from Blu-ray Disc. In its fourth week of release, Guardians of the Galaxy generated 52% of its unit sales from Blu-ray Disc, compared with 43% for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, 43% for The Maze Runner and just 19% for Frozen.

On Home Media Magazine’s video rental chart for the week, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes soared to No. 2, right behind The Equalizer, now that its 28-day holdback from Netflix and Redbox is over.

Guardians of the Galaxy remained at No. 3, while 20th Century Fox’s Let’s Be Cops slipped to No. 4 from No. 2 the previous week.

Rounding out the top five: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which fell to the No. 5 spot after two weeks at No. 1.

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