Smiths Fight Their Way to the Top
December 10, 2005
Mr. and Mrs. Smith won the race to the top of the weekly rental charts and nearly had the same total as last week's winner. Over the week the film pulled in $15.44 million in combined rentals, just $100,000 behind War of the Worlds opening.
War of the Worlds slipped to second place after losing nearly half of its opening falling to $8.04 million for the week and $23.76 million in total. The second newcomer of the week, Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, came in third with $5.74 million, which is more than a quarter of what it earned domestically. The Polar Express was the only other holdover in the top five and it suffered a similar drop-off as the first one falling to $4.84 million for the week and $14.49 million during its run. A pair of new releases battled it out for the final spot in the top five with Sky High just beating March of the Pengiuns $4.76 million to $4.56 million.
There were no other new releases that charted this week, which explains why the total rental market was down 19.2% for the week to $151.3 million, and 20.8% from the same week last year. Year-to-date, 2005 has earned $7.1 billion in total rentals, which is down 4.8% from last year's pace.
The sales chart was very similar to the rental chart with Mr. and Mrs. Smith again leading the way. The biggest difference was March of the Pengiuns, which came in second place. The War of the Worlds slipped a spot to third place ahead of Sky High and Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo.
The only other new release to chart this weekend and it was a TV on DVD release as Family Guy - Volume 3 finished in seventh place.
Family Guy - Volume 3 was able to reign atop the TV on DVD sales chart, which should surprise nobody as the series is the poster child for the TV on DVD category. It also helped Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin - The Untold Story bounce back into second place. Seinfeld - Season 5 slipped to third place. Both Lost - The Complete First Season and Friends - The Complete Tenth Season remained steady on the charts finishing in fourth and fifth place respectively.
Meanwhile, Seinfeld - Season 6 fell to sixth place while the Re-Gift Set dropped to eighth.
The only other new release to chart this week was C.S.I. - The Complete Fifth Season, which came in 10th place.
Over on the rental charts, Lost - The Complete First Season remained in first place for with $300,000. Family Guy - Volume 3 was well back with just $109,000, but most people who were interested in the show most likely bought the set instead. Desperate Housewives - The Complete First Season fell a spot to third with $106,000 just ahead of fellow long-timers Six Feet Under - The Complete Fourth Season and Alias - The Complete Fourth Season with $95,000 and $93,000 respectively.
It was a rather uninteresting week with not many new releases charting outside the top five, but at least we have Serenity Watch to keep things interesting. Firefly - The Complete Series is out of the top ten on both charts, but is it still in the top twenty on the Amazon Top 100 chart and is currently in 17th place. That is a couple of places below Serenity DVD, which is currently in 15th place.
Filed under: War of the Worlds, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, The Polar Express, La marche de l'empereur, Sky High, Serenity, Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo