SUBMITTED BY Lynnith

June 4, 2002 — From Yahoo! News:

Warner Home Video's "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" has become the top-grossing first-week rental title of all time, earning an estimated $19.1 million after five days on video store shelves, according to Video Store magazine research.

The previous rental record holder was Universal Studios Home Video's January release of "The Fast and the Furious," starring Paul Walker and Vin Diesel, which earned an estimated $18.65 million during its debut week on rental shelves, according to Video Store director of market research Judith McCourt.

Rental stores each stocked an average of 29 "Potter" videos for rent, with an average of 33% of those copies representing DVD, according to Video Store data.

Domestic retailers have been reporting brisk sales of the "Potter" VHS and DVD, and several mass merchandisers, as well as grocery and drugstore chains, have been discounting the popular title, driving down the cost to consumers to as low as $12 each, in some cases.

The little wizard already has worked magic in the overseas video market, besting all previous DVD sales in Japan, selling more than 1 million units in only 14 days after its May 15 release, according to WHV executives.

"Potter" also broke the U.K. record by beating the VHS-only release of "Titanic" of 1.1 million units, selling 1.25 million combined VHS and DVD units during its initial release.

Read the full article at the link below.