Ultimate Electronics sales fell 1.7% for the 3rd quarter ended Oct. 31 to $159.7 million on an 8% same- store sales decrease, the chain said Thurs. It said the figures were preliminary and subject to adjustment. CEO Dave Workman said the same-store sales decline could be blamed on “traffic and execution issues” that contributed to a weak start to the quarter, but performance improved significantly in Sept. and Oct. He said Ultimate believed “turnaround initiatives” launched earlier in the year were beginning to bear fruit, “and we look forward to continued improvement as we gear up for a successful holiday selling season.” Ultimate has set the release of 3rd-quarter results Dec. 2.
Despite 2 strong new releases, Fox’s The Day After Tomorrow held on to its #1 position on the U.S. DVD rental chart, Rentrak said its preliminary Home Video Essentials data for the week ended Oct. 31 showed. Rentrak said the disaster movie, in its 3rd week, earned an additional $6.49 million on DVD in the week, for $25.24 million to date. In their first week available, Universal’s Dawn of the Dead remake ($6.28 million in the week, $6.36 million to date) and Columbia TriStar’s comedy White Chicks ($5.90 million and $5.98 million) were #2 and #3.
As expected, Take-Two Interactive’s Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for PS2 was the #1-rented videogame in the U.S. its first week available. Rentrak said its preliminary Home Video Essentials data for the week ended Oct. 31 showed that the game earned $1.63 million in rentals -- the most any game had ever made its first week. The title even “outperformed the weekly earnings of the top 10 renting VHS titles” in the week, Rentrak said. Calling the “earning power” of the Grand Theft Auto franchise “a true phenomenon,” Rentrak Home Video Essentials Vp-Business Development Brad Hackley said Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City -- the previous 2 entries in the series -- had “grossed more than $45 million in rental revenue to date” on PS2 and Xbox. San Andreas far outperformed every other game in the week, earning 4 times as much as the #2-rented title, Midway’s Mortal Kombat: Deception on PS2 (an additional $329,074 in its 4th week, for $1.45 million to date). The Xbox version of the latter was #5 (up one, earning an additional $228,659 in the week, $999,486 to date). LucasArts Entertainment also had 2 SKUs in the top 10: Star Wars: Battlefront for PS2 at #4 (down one in its 6th week, $235,625 and $2.06 million) and the Xbox version at #8 (up 2, $176,939 and $1.43 million). But Electronic Arts had the most top 10 games -- 3 -- all for PS2: Madden NFL 2002 at #6 (down 2 in its 12th week, $200,867 and $4.39 million), Def Jam: Fight for N.Y. at #7 (down 2 in its 6th week, $179,997 and $1.78 million) and NCAA Football 2005 at #10 (up one in its 16th week, $174,057 and $4.17 million). Rounding out the top 10 were Activision’s Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 for PS2 at #3 (down 2 in its 4th week, $320,247 and $1.55 million) and Microsoft’s Xbox game Fable at #9 again in its 7th week ($175,441 and $1.52 million).
Amended Preliminary AD Duty Determination
The International Trade Administration (ITA) has initiated a new shipper review for the antidumping (AD) duty order on hot-rolled flat-rolled carbon quality steel products from Brazil with respect to the following company, as both exporter and producer, and review period:
U.S. Dist. Judge John Coughenour, Seattle, issued a temporary restraining order late last week to stop the import and sale of cheaply designed game systems containing pirated copies of Donkey Kong and many other Nintendo games. Calling it “the largest piracy problem” that it has faced in the U.S., Nintendo of America (NOA) said it believed the piracy operation had cost it “millions of dollars.”
(The ITA notes that Richelain Farms was not selected for individual examination during the CV duty investigation and requested that the ITA conduct an expedited review of the CV duty order on hard red spring wheat from Canada.)
For the 2nd consecutive week, the PS2 version of Activision’s Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 was the top-rented videogame in the U.S. It was the game’s 3rd week in stores. Rentrak said its preliminary Home Video Essentials data for the week ended Oct. 24 showed that the title earned an additional $410,634 on PS2, for $1.23 million to date. The Xbox version of the game was #8 again, earning an additional $205,434 in the week, for $622,030 to date. Activision had one other title in the top 10: X-Men: Legends for PS2 at #7 again in its 5th week ($232,491 in the week, $1.07 million to date). Midway Games, LucasArts Entertainment and Electronic Arts (EA) each had 2 SKUs in the top 10. Midway’s were Mortal Kombat: Deception for PS2 at #2 again in its 3rd week ($373,311 in the week, $1.12 million to date) and the Xbox version at #6 again ($265,158 and $770,827). LucasArts’ Star Wars: Battlefront for PS2 was #3 again in its 5th week ($295,582 and $1.83 million) while the Xbox version was #10 (down one, $201,571 and $1.26 million). EA’s Madden NFL 2005 for PS2 was #4 (up one in its 11th week, $283,727 and $4.19 million) and its Def Jam: Fight for N.Y. on PS2 was #5 (down one in its 5th week, $269,757 and $1.6 million). Microsoft’s Xbox game Fable was #9 (up one in its 6th week, $202,021 and $1.34 million).
The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued a preliminary negative antidumping (AD) duty determination on bottle-grade polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin from Taiwan as the preliminary dumping rates for Far Eastern Textile Ltd. (Far Eastern) and "all others" firms are both 0.09%, which is de minimis.
Fox’s disaster movie The Day After Tomorrow was the top-rented DVD in the U.S. for the 2nd consecutive week, Rentrak said its preliminary Home Video Essentials data for the week ending Oct. 24 showed. Rentrak said the title earned an additional $8.58 million on DVD in the week, for $18.75 million to date. The movie earned a combined $23.49 million in DVD and VHS rentals to date. In its first full week available, Universal’s horror action film Van Helsing was the #2-rented DVD, earning $6.88 million, for $6.98 million to date. Other new DVDs in the top 10 were Fox’s Garfield: The Movie at #3 ($5.58 million in the week, $5.63 million to date) and Warner’s A Cinderella Story at #4 ($4.12 million and $4.16 million).