The Weekly Watch Report: Can’t stop Sonic the Hedgehog

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

While we slowly inch closer to the return of some kind of theatrical moviegoing experience (at least one where you don't watch from your vehicle), in the place of regular box office reporting we'll be checking out what audiences are viewing at home with the Weekly Watch Report. You can catch up with last week's column RIGHT HERE.

The Digital Entertainment Group (DEG) tracks the activity of home media and calculates the most popular titles across DVD and Blu-Ray sales, and Digital VOD sales and rentals. (Note that their metrics do not include "Premium" VOD titles, which typically run $19.99 for a 48-hour rental.)

Below are the most recent DEG rankings for the week ending June 6, 2020.

With a lack of major new releases on VOD or physical media, the home viewing list appears to have stabilized for the moment. The PG-rated video game adaptation SONIC THE HEDGEHOG kept ahead of the competition for a third straight week as the comedy-adventure with James Marsden, Jim Carrey, and the voice of Ben Schwartz as the blue speedster, seems to be extremely popular on TV screens. 

The low-budget R-rated horror-thriller THE INVISIBLE MAN maintained its second place position, followed by a cluster that either held firm or moved slightly from the previous week. The only significant changes were Adult Swim's cartoon "Rick and Morty" jumping several spots, and the latest season of "RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars" strutting onto the list. The saga-ending STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER also reappeared on the list like a Force ghost, and the HARRY POTTER series received sudden attention, presumably because of author J.K. Rowling recently making headlines (and not in a positive way).

Meanwhile, the biggest movie curently on iTunes is… the Will Smith vs. Will Smith action-thriller GEMINI MAN? Director Ang Lee's ambitious and expensive movie didn't make a huge impression when it arrived in theaters last year ($166 million global box office total on a $140 million cost) but appears to be getting a second life. Behind that is the 1939 epic drama GONE WITH THE WIND, which returned to the spotlight this week after streaming service HBO Max dropped it from their viewing catalog in light of current events.

Speaking of HBO Max, just to make your streaming options slightly less (or more) confusing, HBO has decided to discontinue its HBO Go service, and has renamed their HBO Now to just HBO. Oh boy.

Over on Netflix, their Top 10 for the past week retained series "Sweet Magnolias", "Avatar: The Last Airbender" and "Fuller House", plus their recent docuseries "Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich" and the Steve Carell/John Malkovich comedy show "Space Force". Adding to their list was the new medical documentary series "Lenox Hill", more episodes of "Queer Eye", the under-appreciated horror show "Hannibal" with Mads Mikkelsen as the titular cannibal, and the Alice Braga cartel thriller series "Queen of the South". And leading them all was the final season of high school drama "13 Reasons Why".

Also, filmmaker Spike Lee's new Vietnam vet drama DA 5 BLOODS just hit the Netflix platform this weekend to positive critical response, particularly for star Delroy Lindo (check out the JoBlo review HERE).

On the theatrical front, the uncertainty continues as the release dates for anticipated movies keep sliding around the schedule like they're coated in popcorn grease. While the next Bond movie NO TIME TO DIE and BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC actually moved their dates forward, WONDER WOMAN 1984 has shifted back to October 2 after abandoning previous plans for June 5 and then August 14. And Christopher Nolan's mysterious thriller TENET, which seemed like the movie that was sticking to its guns the most, has elected to move back to July 31 (the Russell Crowe road-rage movie UNHINGED has pulled into its original July 10 date instead).

While cinema chain AMC Theatres struggles to recover from financial devastation, other upcoming blockbuster releases are heading further into the distance. The Tom Hanks sci-fi movie BIOS has moved from October to next April, and now we won't see Neo dodging bullets again in THE MATRIX 4 until April 2022. We haven't heard much from Disney in general lately, so the Marvel Cinematic Universe seems to still be on its current course with BLACK WIDOW arriving this November.

You can check out all previous box office reports, from the distant past when theaters (and pretty much everything else) were open for business, RIGHT HERE,

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