Category: Home Entertainment

X-MEN: THE LAST STAND (Fox Home Ent.) and THE LITTLE MERMAID DVDs (Buena Vista Home Ent.) kick-started the fourth quarter on Oct. 3 with combined sales exceeding $80 million for an opening day fourth quarter record, reported the industry trades.

Industry sources estimated first-day sales of X-MEN at 2.6 million units and LITTLE MERMAID at 1.6 million units (including sales to rental dealers).

X-MEN is the biggest October DVD debut ever, and LITTLE MERMAID is the biggest animated DVD debut for October.

THE LITTLE MERMAID, Disneys 28th animated masterwork from 1989, is back on DVD Oct. 3, 2006, in a restored two-disc special edition (Disney DVD, $29.99) with greatly improved image and sound.

X-MEN: THE LAST STAND strikes on DVD Oct. 3, 2006 (Fox Home Ent., $29.98). Director Brett Ratner takes over from Bryan Singer in the third installment of the popular mutant hero franchise. Featuring new recruits The Beast and Angel, the X-Men, led by Professor Charles Xavier, battle once and for all with Magnetos Brotherhood to stave off world domination. THE LAST STAND stars Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen. Famke Janssen, Anna Paquin, Patrick Stewart and Kelsey Grammer.

Warner Home Video has officially announced Bryan Singers SUPERMAN RETURNS on DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc for Nov. 28 ($28.98 for single-disc DVD with no bonus features, $34.99 for two-disc special edition DVD, $39.99 for HD-DVD/DVD combo and $34.99 for Blu-ray).

The spooky, all-CG MONSTER HOUSE will arrive on DVD, Blu-ray Disc and PSP in time for Halloween on Oct. 24 (Sony Home Ent., $28.95, $38.95 and $28.95, respectively).

The second Imagemotion performance capture movie following THE POLAR EXPRESS, MONSTER HOUSE is from first-time director Gil Kenan with a script by Dan Harmon & Rob Schrab and Pamela Pettler, and exec produced by Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg. Vfx supervisor for Sony Picture Imageworks was Jay Redd.

THE TICK, featuring the big blue, somewhat confused animated superhero and his accountant sidekick, based on Ben Edlunds comic, debuted on DVD in late August in THE TICK VS. SEASON ONE collection (Buena Vista Home Ent., $34.99). However, the two-disc set contains only 12 out of 13 episodes from 94. According to the studio, Due to creative considerations episode 11 ("The Tick vs. The Mole Men") is not included. However, we hope to include it in future Tick releases."