DESPICABLE ME OUTSELLS INCEPTION

Universal’s Despicable Me beat out Inception to remain the top DVD seller during the week ended Dec. 26, which included the final days of Christmas shopping, according to Nielsen’s VideoScan First Alert survey. While Inception only sold 64 percent as many copes as Despicable Me on standard DVD, it outsold the animated film on the Blu-ray sales chart. Some 42 percent of buyers chose Blu-ray over standard DVD in their purchases of Inception, while only 23 percent of Despicable‘s sales were in the Blu-ray format. Both films were distributed by studios that withhold films from the principal renters, Netflix and RedBox, for 28 days after they hit retail shelves. Only Blockbuster and a few small mom-and-pop stores had them available for rent. It is a measure of Blockbuster’s current impotence that neither film managed to make it onto Home Media magazine’s top-ten rental list.