‘Catching Fire’ Continues ‘Hunger Games’ Hot Streak On DVD Sales Charts
Catching Fire, the second installment in the blockbuster Hunger Games film franchise, continued its torrid run atop the home video sales charts, easily outpacing the competition for the week ending March 16, the second week in a row Catching Fire has blazed a trail to the top spot.
Coming in second on the overall home media sales charts for last week, the Universal pictures Jason Statham-topped thriller Homefront, co-starring Jams Franco in a villainous turn. But Homefront did only about 17 percent of the sales racked up by Catching Fire.
The previous week’s second place finisher, the Academy Award Best Picture winner 12 Years A Slave, dropped to third place on the overall chart, and fifth place on the Blu Ray chart, which was also topped by Catching Fire.
In Blu Ray sales, the Marvel Comics Norse mythology epic Thor: The Dark World took second place, followed by another multi-Oscar winner in the Sandra Bullock sci-fi suspense film Gravity. Homefront placed fourth. Interestingly, the solid performance of Homefront in home media sales stands in contrast to its theatrical box-office performance where it was a certified bomb.
Made on a budget of $22 million, Homefront took in just over $20 million in domestic box office receipts. The movie doubled that on the world market, ending up with a unimpressive $43 million overall.
But it seems that audiences were more disposed to watch the actioner on their home screens.
Catching Fire by contrast was 2013’s top grosser, raking in $424,098,843 domestically, the 10th-highest domestic moneymaker in Hollywood history. Adding in foreign receipts, Catching Fire accumulated a staggering $863,996,459.
The scorching DVD sales will only push the total take from Catching Fire closer to the billion dollar mark, if it hasn’t exceeded that milestone already.
The two-week dominance of Catching Fire is expected to end this week, however. Disney released its animated hit Frozen onto the home media market Tuesday, and first day sales were already at 3.2 million. By the end of the week, the kids’ cartoon should freeze out Catching Fire.
