'Resident Evil' Finale Outpaces 'Xander Cage' on Home Video Sales Charts

24 May, 2017 By: Thomas K. Arnold

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Two new releases, both sequels, snagged the two top spots on the national home video sales charts for the week ended May 21.

Sony Pictures’ Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, the sixth film in the movie series based on the survival horror video game franchise, topped the NPD VideoScan First Alert sales chart, which tracks combined DVD and Blu-ray Disc unit sales, despite a domestic box office of less than $27 million.

Paramount’s xXx: Return of Xander Cage, the third installment in the action series, debuted at No. 1 on VideoScan’s dedicated Blu-ray Disc sales chart.

Xander Cage marks the return of Vin Diesel to the franchise, after he starred in the 2002 original film but skipped the 2005 sequel.

On the overall disc sales chart, Xander Cage bowed at No. 2, with 93% as many total unit sales as Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, which debuted at No. 2 on the Blu-ray Disc chart. VideoScan reported that Resident Evil: The Final Chapter generated 53% of its total unit sales from Blu-ray Disc, compared with 58% for Xander Cage.

The "Resident Evil" finale likely would have topped the Blu-ray chart as well if not for a significant percentage of consumers opting instead to pick up the film as part of a Blu-ray collection of all six films. Resident Evil: The Complete Collection was the No. 14 Blu-ray, selling about 9% as many copies as Xander Cage. Accounting for this would put Xander Cage Blu-ray sales at about 93.7% as many copies sold of Resident Evil.

The previous week’s top seller, the erotic drama Fifty Shades Darker, slipped to No. 3 on both charts.

On the overall disc sales chart, Univeral Pictures’ A Dog’s Purpose slipped to No. 4 from No. 2 the prior week, while Walt Disney’s Moana rounded out the top 5, moving a notch back up the chart from the previous week.

On the Blu-ray Disc sales chart, Disney’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story remained at No. 4, with the No. 5 spot going to Moana.

One other new release, a theatrical underperformer panned by critics, made the ViceoScan top 20 for the week. Universal Pictures’ The Space Between Us, a sci-fi romance about a teenage boy born on Mars who travels to Earth, bowed at No. 12 on the overall disc sales chart and No. 11 on the Blu-ray Disc sales chart.

Meanwhile, excitement about Warner Bros.’ upcoming theatrical release of Wonder Woman put Warner's "Commemorative Edition" re-release of the 2009 direct-to-video animated movie on the charts at No. 13 overall and No. 12 on the Blu-ray disc chart.

On Home Media Magazine’s rental chart for the week, xXx: Return of Xander Cage debuted at No. 2, with two Universal Pictures films that have just come off their month-long holdbacks from Redbox, Split and Sleepless, moving up to No. 1 and No. 3, respectively.

Fox’s Hidden Figures, the previous week’s top rental, slipped to No. 4, while another Fox release, Why Him?, dropped to No. 5, from No. 2 the previous week and No. 1 the week before that.

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter debuted as the No. 10 rental.

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