According to the Neilson VideoScan survey, the Sin City DVD was number one in both sales and rentals for the week ending August 21st.  Directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller and based on Miller's Sin City graphic novels, Sin City earned over $74 million at the domestic box office earlier this year.  The film's success and notoriety also spurred unprecedented sales of the Sin City graphic novels in both the bookstore and direct markets.  Dark Horse has shipped over 400,000 copies of the various Sin City graphic novels, and sales of Volume One in the series are approaching 100,000 copies.  The release of the Sin City DVD also sparked an unprecedented spike in sales of Volume #1 of the graphic novel series, which rose from #37 to #7 in the BookScan list of graphic novels sold in bookstores during the week of the DVD's release (see 'The DVD Effect Materializes').

 

Sin City graphic novels and merchandise may even receive another sales boost when a 'director's cut' or special edition of the Sin City DVD is released early next year.  The Sin City DVD released this month was a bare bones affair with more appeal to 'civilians' than to hardcore movie fans.