For the week that ended on January 6th, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment scored the top Blu-ray and overall package media sales with its release of Looper. Filmmaker Rian Johnson's twisty, viscerally engaging science-fiction tale garnered strong critical and popular notices when it made its theatrical premiere last September - the modestly budgeted feature (it cost an estimated $30 million) grossed over $166 million worldwide, and it accrued a Metacritic score of 84%. This performance was quite strong for an R-rated thriller, and its home media showing is no less admirable; the film, which managed an HD market share of 50%, beat out more conventionally satisfying genre fare as The Dark Knight Rises and Ted.
Coming in at number two on the Blu-ray list is The Dark Knight Rises; director Christopher Nolan's final entry in his Academy Award-winning Dark Knight trilogy has generated a healthy revenue in the five weeks since its small-screen debut, and though it has fallen to the second sales position, it has still continued to thrive in the top five sales positions. This week, the film, which had a decent HD market share of 40%, sold 28% as many Blu-ray copies as Looper and 34% as many total units.
Finally, Universal Studios' Ted rounded out the last of the top three spots on the Blu-ray-only list. The first live-action feature from Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, Ted grossed over $500 million worldwide after its theatrical premiere last June and then maintained a strong foothold in the package media market, never falling out of the top three spots in its first three weeks of sales; just today, it received yet another accolade, winning an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song. The film sold 26% as many Blu-rays (and enjoyed an HD market share of 32%) and 41% as many total units as Rian Johnson's sci-fi drama, and it actually beat The Dark Knight Rises in terms of overall units sold, coming in at number two (just one below Looper and one above the musical-comedy Pitch Perfect).
