For the third week in a row, Warner Bros. and Christopher Nolan's Batman franchise has dominated both theatrical and home media markets; The Dark Knight Rises continues to outrank other films at the box office, while Batman Begins and The Dark Knight retain strong positions on the Blu-ray sales rankings. Batman Begins is, once again, number one and has a robust HD market share of 71%, and The Dark Knight now resides at number three, selling 87% as many discs as its predecessor and enjoying a 61% Blu-ray market share.
The Batman entries' primary competitor is Sony Pictures Home Entertainment's Hatfields & McCoys. This fact-based miniseries premiered on the History Channel earlier this year to great critical and commercial acclaim - the Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton-starring drama became the most watched non-sports telecast in advertising-supported cable television history - and its Blu-ray debut certainly evinced a similar degree of viewer anticipation. On the Blu-ray rankings, Hatfields & McCoys opened at number two, forcing The Dark Knight into third place and selling 96% as many copies as Batman Begins. While the miniseries sold well among available Blu-rays, it did garner a markedly smaller HD market share than either The Dark Knight or Batman Begins; only 34% of its total units sold came from the high-definition format.
However, the overall package media rankings shifted the placement of these three somewhat. On that list, Hatfields & McCoys led at number one, with The Dark Knight in second place and Batman Begins just behind it. The differences in sales amounts between the titles was far more pronounced; The Dark Knight sold 51% as many total units as Hatfields & McCoys, and Batman Begins managed only 60% as many units. These figures were a far cry from the Blu-ray-only list, and they also made room for The Three Stooges, which remained in the top five for its third week of sales, as did Warner Bros.' action-comedy Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.
