ANIMATED FILMS DOMINATE HOME VIDEO SALES

It is that time of year when DVDs of animated movies take the place of toys under the Christmas trees at many homes and last week’s sales of home media reflected that annual trend. The No. 1-selling DVD for the week was Disney’s Monsters University, followed by Planes, which came in at No. 2 on the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert sales chart. Monsters University had actually been out for four weeks, while Planes, which was originally planned as a straight-to-DVD movie but had a better-than-expected run in theaters, was in its second week on the charts. No. 3 on the list was another animated film, DreamWorks Animation’s Turbo. All three were being discounted heavily at mass retailers like Walmart and Best Buy. Lionsgate’s Red 2 debuted on the chart in fourth place, followed by The Dark Knight Rises, which was originally released on DVD last December but returned to the chart largely because of discounted sales.