'Mechanic' Fixes Way to No. 1

25 May, 2011 By: Thomas K. Arnold

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Sony Pictures Home Entertainment scored a triple slam the week ended May 22, as the ‘R’-rated crime actioner The Mechanic, a theatrical underperformer that grossed less than $30 million at the domestic box office, topped all three home video charts.

The film bumped Paramount’s Justin Bieber: Never Say Never from the top spot on the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert sales chart for the week, although Bieber fever remained strong: the concert film slipped to No. 2 but still managed to sell 94% as many copies as the newly released Mechanic.

Debuting at No. 3 was the Warner horror film The Rite, starring Anthony Hopkins, which was outsold by Mechanic even though it had higher box office earnings ($33 million) and a ‘PG-13’ rating.

A third film with a still-higher theatrical gross, Sony Pictures’ The Roommate ($37.3 million), debuted at No. 7.

On Nielsen’s dedicated Blu-ray Disc sales chart, Mechanic scored an easy victory, bumping Warner’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1 to No. 3. The Rite finished a weak second, with fewer than 40% as many unit sales as Mechanic.

In rental stores, Mechanic also was No. 1, according to Home Media Magazine’s weekly rental chart, with the previous week’s top rental, Paramount’s No Strings Attached, slipping to No. 2. The Roommate debuted at No. 3; The Rite was nowhere to be found due to Warner’s policy of withholding new releases from Netflix and Redbox for 28 days after street date.

Another studio that delays sending titles to the two rental leaders, 20th Century Fox, scored a No. 5 finish for Gulliver’s Travels, which came out a month ago but prior to last week has only been available at Blockbuster and other brick-and-mortar rental outlets.
 

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