'Hobbit' Returns to Top Sales Spot; 'Life of Pi' Tops Rentals

17 Apr, 2013 By: Thomas K. Arnold

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A dearth of new releases had several big theatrical features that recently came out on disc battling it out for dominance on the national home video sales charts the week ended April 14.

Indeed, the highest-charting newcomer was The Sorcerer and the White Snake, from Magnolia Pictures, a Jet Li actioner from Hong Kong that enjoyed a limited theatrical release in the United States and bowed at No. 10 on the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert chart, which tracks overall disc sales.

The film bowed a notch higher, at No. 9, on Nielsen’s dedicated Blu-ray Disc sales chart.

Other than that, the top half of the First Alert top 20 consisted of older releases.

In its fourth week in stores, Warner Home Video’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey made, well, an unexpected journey back to the No. 1 spot on both First Alert and the Blu-ray chart. The fantasy film had spent the two prior weeks at No. 3 after having debuted at No. 1 the week it came out.

Fox’s The Bible: The Epic Miniseries, which bowed at No. 1 on both charts the previous week, slipped to No. 2 on First Alert and No. 4 on the Blu-ray Disc charts. And the Walt Disney Studios-distributed Lincoln, from DreamWorks, slipped to No. 3 on First Alert and No. 2 on the Blu-ray Disc chart.

Other recent releases that appeared or remained in the First Alert top 10 include Universal Studios’ Les Misérables (No. 4 after four weeks), Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph (No. 5 after six weeks), and Life of Pi (No. 7 after five weeks).

On Home Media Magazine’s video rental chart for the week, Life of Pi bowed at No. 1 now that its 28-day holdback from key rental outlets Netflix and Redbox is over. The film displaced another Fox title, Red Dawn, which slipped to No. 2. Lincoln held on to the No. 3 spot for the second consecutive week.

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