'Fifty Shades Darker' Ties Up the Top Home Video Sales Spots
17 May, 2017 By: Thomas K. Arnold
Universal Pictures again scored the country’s top-selling home video release the week ended May 14, this time with Fifty Shades Darker, a sequel to the erotic drama Fifty Shades of Grey that earned just under $115 million in U.S. theaters, about 70% as much as the 2015 original.
The film debuted at No. 1 on both the NPD VideoScan First Alert sales chart, which tracks combined DVD and Blu-ray Disc unit sales, and the dedicated Blu-ray Disc sales chart.
Universal’s A Dog’s Purpose, about the life of a dog through four different reincarnations, slipped to No. 2 on the overall disc sales chart, a week after it bowed at No. 1.
The Lionsgate musical La La Land moved back up to No. 3 on the overal disc sales chart, with 20th Century Fox’s Hidden Figures at No. 4 (up from No. 6) and Disney’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story at No. 5 (down from No. 2).
On the Blu-ray Disc sales chart, La La Land moved back up to No. 2 (from No. 3) while A Dog’s Purpose finished at No. 3. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story fell to No. 4 from No. 1, while Warner’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them moved back into the top five from No. 6 the prior week.
Buoyed by the home video release of Fifty Shades Darker, Fifty Shades of Grey reappeared in the top 20 on both sales charts, finishing the week at No. 11 on the overall disc sales chart and No. 14 on the Blu-ray Disc sales chart.
VideoScan reported that Fifty Shades Darker generated 58% of its total unit sales during the week from Blu-ray Disc, compared with 44% for Fifty Shades of Grey, which got a bit of a boost by being released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, which accounted for 21% of total Grey sales, about half its Blu-ray total (UHD accounted for 3% of Darker sales).
On Home Media Magazine’s rental chart for the week, Hidden Figures soared to No. 1 now that its 28-day holdback from Redbox is over.
Why Him?, also from Fox, slipped to No. 2 after taking the top chart position the previous two weeks.
Warner’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them remained at No. 3 for the second consecutive week.
Lionsgate’s Gold slipped to No. 4 after debuting at No. 2 the prior week, while the No. 5 spot went to Universal Pictures’ Sing.