"Baby Mama" wins DVD race by narrow berth

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-09-18 17:55

The Tina Fey comedy "Baby Mama" topped the national home video sales and rental charts in its first week in stores, according to data issued Wednesday.

The action film "The Forbidden Kingdom" came in a close second on both charts, and debuted at No. 1 on the Blu-ray Disc sales chart.

Both films performed similarly at the box office, with a slight edge going to "Baby Mama" at $60.3 million compared with $52 million for "Kingdom."

The two films were among five new releases snagging the top five spots on the Nielsen VideoScan sales chart for the week ending September 14. The direct-to-video "Barbie and the Diamond Castle," debuted at No. 3. A pair of TV season sets -- the fourth season of ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" and the seventh-season set of the CW's "Smallville" -- bowed at Nos. 4 and 5, respectively.

The previous week's top seller, Season 4 of NBC's "The Office," slipped to No. 6.

On Home Media Magazine's video rental chart, "Baby Mama" and "Kingdom" pushed the previous week's top renter, "What Happens in Vegas," to No. 3.

On the Blu-ray Disc chart, "Kingdom" bumped the incumbent champ "Transformers," to No. 2, but sales demand remained strong for the film, which was initially released a year ago on DVD and HD DVD only. In its second week, "Transformers" still managed to sell 80% as many copies as "Kingdom."