DVD/Blu-Ray Sales: 'The Social Network' makes a ton of new friends, 'Alpha and Omega', 'Piranha 3D' don't have much bite

The Social Network is having quite the week! Not only did the well-reviewed film nab a whopping eight Oscar nominations, it also sold pretty darn well on the home market, moving about 1.96M copies between DVD and Blu-Ray in its first week—a terrific result for a straight-up drama. Also debuting on the chart were kiddie flick Alpha and Omega and gory B-movie Piranha 3D, but neither managed to break out. After the jump, check out a lot more sales info, The-Numbers' full DVD sales chart, and TBOJ's exclusive Blu-Ray sales chart. Lots of impressive/interesting Blu-Ray results this week. If you aren't a believer that the format is growing/taking over, you are simply incorrect.

On DVD, The Social Network moved about 1.1 million copies for an easy first place finish and $14.1M in revenue. The Facebook film earned $95.4M in theaters and generated endless discussion, so that figure might seem low, but we must remember that this is just a normal drama—no crazy special effects sequences or explosions. No talking animals and zingy humor. For most consumers, The Social Network is not a visual feast like Avatar, and its plot and dialogue aren't all that accessible. So the 1.1M figure is actually quite good, especially when you consider the 880,000 Blu-Ray copies it sold.

Alpha and Omega was way back in second with 337,139 copies and $5.8M. The animated film only managed $25.1M in theaters, and its home market run looks like it will be equally unremarkable. Despicable Me, on the other hand, is performing on another level completely. The runaway hit passed 6.5M copies-sold over the frame, and it has joined the ranks of How to Train Your Dragon (5.5M) and Toy Story 3 (9.7M) as major animated smashes. Shrek Forever After, meanwhile, has sold just under 3 million copies. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Rounding out the top five, Machete and Dinner for Schmucks plummeted by 59.7% and 62.7%, respectively. Piranha 3D finished in sixth with first week sales of 204,556 copies and $3.5M. Check out the full chart below.

DVD Sales for the Week Ending January 16, 2010

Rank	Title	Units this Week	% Change	Total Units	Sales this Week	Total Sales	Weeks in Release
1	The Social Network	1,082,307	-.-%	1,082,307	$14,059,168	$14,059,168	1
2	Alpha and Omega	337,139	-.-%	337,139	$5,849,362	$5,849,362	1
3	Despicable Me	314,302	-32.3%	6,502,128	$6,372,724	$112,283,548	5
4	Machete	267,438	-59.7%	930,422	$4,276,334	$14,877,448	2
5	Dinner for Schmucks	208,452	-62.7%	767,812	$3,541,599	$13,045,126	2
6	Piranha	204,556	-.-%	204,556	$3,475,406	$3,475,406	1
7	Inception	182,802	-24.6%	3,891,192	$2,528,188	$66,696,549	6
8	The Twilight Saga: Eclipse	174,035	-11.8%	7,777,154	$3,478,960	$141,353,825	6
9	The Other Guys	159,207	-9.3%	1,623,839	$2,614,179	$30,327,435	5
10	Salt	156,718	-41.9%	1,478,957	$2,801,742	$24,125,413	4
11	Toy Story 3	151,090	-24.0%	9,693,197	$2,421,278	$170,779,778	11
12	The Town	140,916	-32.3%	1,594,076	$1,910,821	$24,324,335	5
13	Resident Evil: Afterlife	129,227	-56.3%	991,505	$2,389,407	$17,118,842	3
14	The Expendables	118,080	19.7%	2,522,814	$1,548,702	$41,153,952	8
15	The Last Exorcism	111,911	-50.6%	338,320	$1,877,867	$5,692,858	2
16	Easy A	110,179	-33.0%	843,130	$1,982,120	$14,551,743	4
17	Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps	109,421	-11.2%	790,133	$1,749,642	$12,634,227	4
18	Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'hoole	108,904	12.5%	653,271	$2,196,910	$10,587,227	5
19	Shrek Forever After	105,200	-27.3%	2,996,666	$1,731,697	$52,657,170	6
20	The A-Team	97,408	-28.1%	1,490,851	$1,668,599	$23,239,538	5
21	Eat Pray Love	91,003	-33.1%	1,812,944	$1,578,902	$29,928,324	8
22	Fringe: The Complete Second Season	90,158	-.-%	516,529	$1,995,197	$17,633,257	18
23	Family Guy: It's a Trap!	87,775	-37.7%	850,644	$1,152,486	$11,183,371	4
24	Knight and Day	79,152	-50.3%	1,472,507	$1,254,559	$20,020,609	7
25	Beauty and the Beast	73,597	-3.0%	-	$1,078,064	-	432
26	The American	68,943	-51.6%	416,754	$1,161,690	$6,375,376	3
27	24: Season Eight	57,520	-18.3%	504,870	$2,300,225	$19,291,547	5
28	Step Up 3	56,388	-40.0%	446,283	$1,011,105	$9,354,341	4
29	Nanny McPhee Returns	54,593	-.-%	422,116	$1,001,782	$7,738,505	5
30	How to Train Your Dragon	49,769	-20.2%	5,508,031	$747,929	$107,995,802	14

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On the Blu-Ray front, The Social Network's results were perhaps even more impressive than its DVD sales, as the film sold 880,000 copies, which represents a massive 45% of its total sales. The film naturally appeals to the techie crowd, so those numbers make sense, and they continue to illustrate the growth of the format. Inception moved another 245,000 Blu-Rays outdoing its DVD performance by about 63,000 units and pushing its Blu-Ray total to about 4.75M. Wow.

As usual, a bunch of male-appealing/action/sci-fi movies made up the top rungs of the chart, natching some impressive figures. Piranha 3D attacked about 184,000 homes and almost matched its DVD performance. The Other Guys, The Expendables, The Town, and The A-Team all sold more Blu-Rays than DVDs. Check out the Blu-Ray sales estimates below:

Blu-Ray Sales Estimates for Week Ending Jan 16, 2010

Rank	Title	Units this Week
1	The Social Network	880,000
2	Inception	245,344
3	The Other Guys	193,072
4	Piranha 3D	184,536
5	The Expendables	165,968
6	The Town	163,416
7	The A-Team	159,192
8	Machete	148,104
9	Beauty and the Beast: Diamond Edition	143,704
10	Despicable Me	139,832
11	Toy Story 3	133,672
12	The Twilight Saga: Eclipse	114,664
13	Alpha and Omega	108,768
14	Resident Evil: Afterlife	99,880
15	Salt	95,920
16	Dances with Wolves: 20th Anniversary Extended Cut	85,096
17	The Sorcerer's Apprentice	84,216
18	Avatar	59,224
19	Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps	52,624
20	Dinner for Schmucks	51,568