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Simon (Matthew Gray Gubler), Alvin (Justin Long) and Theodore (Jesse McCartney) in ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS(2007).
© 20th Century Fox

ALVIN Slices Sweeney in DVD Race.

By: Jarrod Sarafin
Date: Thursday, April 10, 2008
Source: Hollywood Reporter

It seems the family audience clearly won out this past week in the DVD department. Fox Home Entertainment's Alvin and the Chipmunks topped the national DVD sales chart in its first week in stores, beating by a wide margin fellow newcomer Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street from DreamWorks/Paramount.

The animated comedy also managed to best "Sweeney" in rentals, topping Home Media Magazine's rental chart for the week ending April 6 with estimated revenue of $8.7 million to $8.1 million for the Johnny Depp musical.

Fox said consumers snapped up 2.6 million DVDs of "Alvin" on its first day in stores, the equivalent of about $45 million in spending.

Warner's I Am Legend, No. 1 on both charts the previous week, slipped to No. 3 on both. The actioner generated an additional $7.4 million in rentals to bring its take after three weeks to $27.5 million.

The top-selling Blu-ray Disc for the week also was "Alvin," with the previous week's topper, I Am Legend, falling to No. 2.

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Comments/Responses

UberGeek • Apr 10, 2008, 03:31am •

I'm ashamed to say that I actually had to buy a copy of Alvin and the Chipmunks. We were watching my nephew for the week and he kept pestering me until I bought it for him.

What a $h!tty movie.

larkcall • Apr 10, 2008, 04:23am •

It is a sad day in heck...

Dazzler • Apr 10, 2008, 04:40am •

My Best buy and Walmart were sold out! I was not looking to buy of course. *shifts eyes left to right* Looks like we have another Garfield franchise except this one had a good B.O.

WhiteKnight • Apr 10, 2008, 07:18am •

Meant to catch the Chipmunks on the big screen, but it wasn't in the cards. Saw Sweeny in theaters three times and do not understand the WB's decision not to push it harder.

As such, I'm glad to see both films are doing well on DVD. I'll buy Sweeny for sure, but I'll need to rent the Chipmunks before I'd even consider buying it.

Bryzarro • Apr 10, 2008, 08:51am •

Well I took my son to see it. He enjoyed it, and I thought it was enjoyable for what it was.....a live action version of cartoon chipmunks.

The script was corny and cheesy but thats what kids eat up. Case in point is my little brothers DVD collection has Big fat liar with Malocom in the middle and New York Minuite with the Olsen twits. From back a while but when he was younger he loved those movies.

miko34 • Apr 10, 2008, 10:19am •

"Alvin and the Chipmunks" wasn't that bad. It's not another "Garfield" or "Underdog." It got the characters from the cartoon down pretty good. Jason Lee might not have been my choice to play Dave. They needed someone a bit more innocent, but he wasn't horrible. It could've been a lot worse. They could've used real chipmunks and put a cgi mouth on them -- that would've been bad. Sweeney Todd is good, but I don't think I'd buy it (not that I'd buy Chipmunks either -- not until I have kids).

ultrazilla2000 • Apr 10, 2008, 10:48am •

I didn't find Alvin "sh*tty" at all...in fact, I thought it was pretty well done and kept the spirit of the classic albums and cartoons perfectly. Why do people act like they have to hate on something just because it's kid friendly?

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ALVIN Slices Sweeney in DVD Race.

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