HBO’S GAME OF THRONES DEBUTS AT NO. 1 ON DVD CHART

There is an apparent sea change in TV viewing. Time was when episodic TV shows faced declining audiences — too many people couldn’t be bothered to watch serialized dramas at an appointed time each week or even bother to set their DVRs to record them regularly. But with the advent of Netflix and other online video services, people are increasingly watching such shows several episodes at a time — or even an entire season at a time. And now, it would appear, they’re not only interested in watching them once, but keeping the shows as part of their DVD or Blu-ray disc collection. Take the case of the third season of the HBO series Game of Thrones, which debuted on home video last week. According to Nielsen VideoScan First Alert, the $80 boxed set (Walmart sells it for about half that amount) quickly rose to the top of the sales list, knocking the previous week’s best-seller, Disney’s The Jungle Book, to second place. Summit Entertainment’s Ender’s Game, Universal’s The Best Man Holiday, and Sony’s Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 each slipped down one place to No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 respectively. On Home Media magazine’s rental chart, Ender’s Game moved into the top spot, followed by Universal’s Riddick and Paramount’s Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa.