That's $88 million, to be precise. Between sales ($80 million) and rentals ($7.6 million), Jerry Maguire on video made almost as much in its first week of release as Lost World made in its first three days in theaters.
The unlikely fable of a go-go sports agent's sudden conversion to people-person touchy-feeliness, which hit an impressive box-office return of $152 million, sold somewhere between 2.9 million and 3.5 million copies at a retail price of $22.98, according to industry estimates. The $80-million take--divided between video dealers and Columbia TriStar Home Video--represents the biggest debut of the year.
Of course, the figures are even more impressive alongside Jerry Maguire's weekend rentals of almost 3 million copies, an estimated $7.6 million in rentals, which the dealers get to keep for themselves. (All data come courtesy of the Video Software Dealers Association's VidTrac survey, a sampling from 4,500 video stores.)
When all receipts are counted, the Tom Cruise-starring romantic comedy is expected to top Columbia's previous best-selling smash Jumanji, which sold 8 million copies.
In some cases, when a title is released at the lower price, collector purchases tend to cannibalize rentals. In the past, video distributors had feared setting sell-through prices for films that were either R-rated or romantic comedies, but Pretty Woman's sturdy legs led to studios taking more chances. As one industry source put it, "There are no hard and fast rules anymore. It's film-by-film, a gut feeling by studios."
And, as Oscar-winner Cuba Gooding Jr. found out, Jerry Maguire has proven to be the perfect money man. As the president of Columbia TriStar Home Video, Ben Feingold, told the Hollywood Reporter: "This is a film that has a level of emotional happiness and significance that is rare."