"Bee Movie" finds DVD honey pot

By Thomas K. Arnold

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Consumers were buzzing over "Bee Movie" during the week ended March 16, when the animated comedy topped the national DVD sales chart in its first week in release.

The Paramount/DreamWorks release is the biggest comedy to be released on DVD so far this year, as well as the biggest family movie.

Miramax's "No Country for Old Men," buoyed by its best-picture Oscar win, finished a strong second on the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert sales chart for the week. The drama also topped Home Media Magazine's video rental chart for the week, generating an estimated $10.2 million in rental revenue to $9 million for the second-ranked "Bee Movie."

"Bee Movie" generated a combined total of about $50 million in consumer spending in its first week, or 40 percent of its theatrical gross of $126.6 million.

Two other new releases, Fox's "Hitman" and Disney's "Dan in Real Life," debuted at No. 3 and No. 5, respectively, on First Alert, flanking the previous week's top seller, Disney's "101 Dalmatians," which slipped to No. 4 in its sophomore week.

"Dan" debuted at No. 3 on the rental chart with estimated earnings of $8.4 million, followed at No. 4 by "Hitman" with $7.9 million.

The previous week's top renter, Paramount's "Beowulf," slipped to No. 6, right behind "Into the Wild," also from Paramount, which bowed the previous week at No. 2.

"No Country" was the top Blu-ray Disc seller for the week. "Bee Movie" came out only on standard DVD; Paramount has not yet slotted any Blu-ray releases.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter