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Paramount Home Media Distribution continued its winning streak in the home video arena the week ending on Sept. 22, once again topping all three charts — this time with inventive zombie movie World War Z.
The summer blockbuster, which pulled in a better-than-expected $202.1 million in U.S. theaters, debuted at No. 1 on both national sales charts — Nielsen VideoScan’s First Alert, which tracks overall disc sales, DVD and Blu-ray Disc combined, and Nielsen’s dedicated Blu-ray Disc chart — as well as Home Media Magazine’s weekly rental chart.
STORY: Paramount, Brad Pitt Set Sights on ‘World War Z’ Sequel
The film bumped another Paramount title, Star Trek Into Darkness, to the No. 2 spot on all three charts. The second installment in director J.J. Abrams’ reboot of the franchise based on the celebrated 1960s TV series had debuted at No. 1 on all three charts the previous week.
Also new on the sales chart is a double feature, exclusive to Walmart, bundling Star Trek Into Darkness with the first entry in the Abrams reboot, 2009’s Star Trek. The two-pack debuted at No. 4 on the First Alert sales chart and No. 3 on the Blu-ray Disc sales chart.
Blu-ray Disc fans continue to drive the sales frenzy as the critical fourth-quarter selling season draws near. Of World War Z’s total unit sales, 58 percent were on Blu-ray. The week before, a whopping 72 percent of Star Trek Into Darkness’ total unit sales were Blu-ray, although the percentage dropped to 50 percent in week two.
The Lionsgate crime thriller Now You See Me remained in high demand in its third week in stores, finishing the week at No. 3 on First Alert and No. 4 on the Blu-ray Disc chart. The film, which earned nearly $118 million at the box office, also finished the week at No. 3 on the Home Media Magazine rental chart.
Rounding out the top 5 on both sales charts: Warner’s The Great Gatsby, unchanged from the prior week on the Blu-ray Disc chart but back up from No. 8 on First Alert.
Rounding out the top 5 on the rental chart: the animated feature Epic, from 20th Century Fox, finished the week at No. 4 now that its 28-day holdback from rental outlets Netflix and Redbox is over, while Universal Studios’ Oblivion, which came off its holdback two weeks earlier, was perched at No. 5, down from No. 3 the previous week.
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