Fox Home Entertainment’s drama Runaway Jury, starring John Cusack, Rachel Weisz, Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman, sold more than 1.3 million combined DVD and VHS units during its first 24 hours in release Tuesday, generating about $26 million in gross consumer spending.
Disney’s animated feature The Lion King 1 1/2 was the nation’s No. 1 selling DVD and VHS during its debut week ending Feb. 15. The sequel sold 1.5 million units its first day on retail shelves. The debut captured the No. 11 slot on Video Store magazine’s weekly rental chart, generating an estimated $3.47 million in weekly rental revenue.
The nation’s No. 1 video rental last week was Universal Studios Home Video’s romantic comedy Intolerable Cruelty, starring George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones, generating $7.25 million in estimated rental revenue for the week ending Feb. 15. The film debuted as the second-best-selling DVD during the same frame.
Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment’s debut of In the Cut, starring Meg Ryan, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Mark Ruffalo, came in at No. 9 on Video Store magazine’s weekly rental chart but failed to appear on VideoScan’s top 10 DVD First Alert weekly sales chart.
Meanwhile, video rentals of Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment’s independent drama Whale Rider rose 69% during the first week after Oscar nominations and was tracking 53% above pre-nomination activity for the week ending February 8.
