'GRINCH' PAYS OFF FOR UNIVERSAL.Byline: Greg Hernandez Staff Writer UNIVERSAL CITY - With consumers snapping up DVD DVD: see digital versatile disc. DVD in full digital video disc or digital versatile disc Type of optical disc. The DVD represents the second generation of compact-disc (CD) technology. and VHS (Video Home System) A half-inch, analog videocassette recorder (VCR) format introduced by JVC in 1976 to compete with Sony's Betamax, introduced a year earlier. versions of ``Jurassic Park III,'' ``Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas,'' ``The Mummy Returns'' and ``Shrek,'' Universal Studios Home Video surpassed $1 billion in sales and rentals in a single quarter this week, setting an industry record. The staggering fourth-quarter success was accomplished with the sale of an unprecedented 60 million units of only five titles which also includes the rapid-selling ``The Land Before Time 8: Big Freeze The Big Freeze (also Big Chill) is a scenario in which the universe becomes too cold to sustain life due to continued expansion and the decay of free energy due to the action of entropy. The Big Freeze is a theory of a possible fate of the universe. ,'' the latest in a durable direct-to-video franchise. ``We went back and looked, and there has never been a quarter where one supplier has generated on their new release slate over $1 billion in consumer spending Consumer demand or consumption is also known as personal consumption expenditure. It is the largest part of aggregate demand or effective demand at the macroeconomic level. ,'' said Craig Kornblau, president of Universal Studios Home Video. ``What's more is that we did it with only five titles.'' Approximately one-third of the sales were in the increasingly popular DVD format See VOB and DVD. , but the VHS format continues to remain strong, especially among families, Kornblau said. Universal's record quarter kicked off with the Oct. 2 release of ``The Mummy Returns,'' one of this year's top hits and one of the few films to cross the $200 million mark at the box office. ``Mummy'' sold 2 million DVDs in its first week. Next came the Nov. 2 release of ``Shrek,'' a DreamWorks film released on home video by Universal. ``Shrek'' also grossed more than $200 million at the box office and is vying with ``Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'' to be the year's top moneymaker in theaters. The home video version of ``Shrek'' had a record-breaking three-day opening and has maintained momentum throughout the holiday season, dominating both the DVD and VHS sales charts with 5.5 million copies sold. ``Shrek'' was followed quickly out of the gate by ``The Grinch'' on Nov. 12. Last year's box office champ was strategically held back from home video release to coincide with the 2001 holiday season. ``The Grinch'' sold more copies in its first week than any other live-action film except for ``Titanic Titanic (tītăn`ĭk), British liner that sank on the night of Apr. 14–15, 1912, after crashing into an iceberg in the N Atlantic S of Newfoundland. More than 1,500 lives were lost. .'' The latest ``Land Before Time'' sequel released on Dec. 4 is selling particularly strongly on VHS and is expected to outsell out·sell tr.v. out·sold , out·sell·ing, out·sells 1. To surpass (another) in an amount sold: a book that outsold all others of its kind. 2. all seven of its predecessors on home video. |
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