| By Joal Ryan
Spider-Man's been swallowed up by the little fish that could.
Summer blockbuster Finding Nemo is now a home-video blockbuster, moving a record 8 million DVDs and VHS tapes in its first 24 hours of release, Disney and Pixar announced Wednesday.
The record, established on Tuesday, Nemo's first day in stores, smashed the one-day sales standard of 7 million copies set last year by Spider-Man.
"What parent is going to say no to your kid when they say they want Finding Nemo?" asked Peter M. Bracke, editor-in-chief of DVDFile.com, neatly summing up the appeal of the G-rated, fish-in-water tale.
Seemingly few parents denied their little critics access to Nemo when it was in theaters (and, in fact, it's still playing on nearly 350 screens). Through last weekend, the CGI toon had grossed $339.2 million, tops among all 2003 flicks.
But Nemo's prowess on DVD and video is another story altogether. On its first day in theaters last May, the film sold as many as 3.5 million tickets, estimated Brandon Gray of the Website Box Office Mojo. On its first day in supermarkets, Wal-Marts and the like, Nemo sold more than twice that many DVDs and videos (but mostly DVDs--Disney said roughly 90 percent of its sales came from the geek-friendly format).
Bracke said he thinks Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is the only other 2003 home-video release likely to rival Nemo's sales this holiday season. With $301.8 million looted at the box office since July, Pirates is the year's other mega-movie, and Disney's other mega-hit. It's due on DVD and video on December 2.
If Pirates doesn't clip Nemo's one-day sales record, Bracke expects something else will--eventually.
"It's always sort of a trump game. Every new release sells more than the last one," Bracke said. "I think it'll [hold] the record for a while...but it's one of those fleeting victories."
Nemo's big catch comes a month after the DVD debut of Disney's animation standard-bearer, The Lion King. That was a release Bracke termed "kind of a disappointment."
The 1994 Oscar-winner sold 3 million DVDs in its first two days of release. While that's a whole lot of business, The Lion King has its own lofty standards to uphold. Upon its VHS release in the pre-DVD days of 1995, it sold and sold and sold and sold, until 32 million videos, the all-time, home-video record, were helping baby sit the nation's toddlers.
Looks like Nemo still has some swimming to do. | |
