“Matrix” creators’ “Cloud Atlas” sci-fi drama tops DVD charts

PanARMENIAN.Net - Warner Home Video topped the national home video sales charts the week ending May 19 with Cloud Atlas, a sci-fi drama with an ensemble cast that includes Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent and Hugh Grant, The Hollywood Reporter said.

The film was a theatrical underperformer – it earned just over $27 million in U.S. theaters, on a budget estimated at more than $100 million – but was highly praised by critics, with the late Roger Ebert giving it four stars and calling it “one of the most ambitious films ever made.”

Cloud Atlas bowed at No. 1 on both the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert sales chart, which tracks overall discs sales, as well as Nielsen’s dedicated Blu-ray Disc sales chart.

The film bumped the prior week’s top-selling disc, 20th Century Fox’s Safe Haven, to No. 2. Nielsen data shows that 44% of Cloud Atlas’ unit sales came from the Blu-ray Disc version.

Several other new releases bowed in the top 20 on the sales charts. Lionsgate’s Texas Chainsaw 3D, the latest sequel to the 1974 horror classic, debuted at No. 4 on both charts. From Paramount Home Media Distribution, season seven of the popular TV series “Dexter,” about a murderously vengeful medical examiner, debuted at No. 5 on First Alert (and No. 7 on the Blu-ray Disc chart).