Monsters Smash

Disney/Pixar’s animated Monsters, Inc sells 5 million copies on first day of DVD/video release:

The computer animated feature “Monsters, Inc.” set a record for opening day sales of DVDs and videos, with 5 million copies snatched up on Sept. 17, Pixar Animation Studios Inc. and Walt Disney Co. reported on Wednesday.

The fast start let “Monsters” beat out the former lord of the video and DVD jungle, “The Lion King,” which sold 4.5 million units on its opening day, the companies said.

Pixar created a hit with its 2001 comedy about a pair of monsters who harvest the screams of scared children to power their city. Disney distributes and markets the film.

Pixar also added a new short, “Mike’s New Car” and snippets of unused pieces of the “Monsters, Inc.” film to the DVD.

I love the movie: the concept is clever, the alternate monster world (blatantly derived from Aah Real Monsters) is believable and compelling, the relationship between the John Goodman and Billy Crytal characters is engaging and relatively complex, and the story is good. We’ll have to se if it holds up to nearly infinite viewings by certain 2 year-olds.