Home Media Retailing is reporting that The Simpsons Movie was the best-selling DVD release for each of the final two weeks of 2007.  The Simpsons Movie held off new arrivals Rush Hour 3 and The Kingdom, as well as such potent December releases as Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, The Bourne Ultimatum, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Superbad, High School Musical 2 and Ratatouille, which has remained on the charts for eight straight weeks since its November debut.  The powerful year-end DVD performance of Matt Groening's dysfunctional family's first trip to the big screen demonstrates the continuing potency of the Simpsons property, which is continually fueled by the weekly TV series ('Ralph Wiggum for President') and Bongo Comics' equally humorous Simpsons comics.

The final VideoScan Top 20 reprinted in HMR provides an instructive snapshot of the state of the DVD market at the end of a highly competitive fourth quarter.  After The Simpsons Movie, new arrivals Rush Hour 3 and The Kingdom, comes the latest Harry Potter and The Bourne Ultimatum in fourth and fifth place, followed by four-week releases Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, and Superbad, followed by High School Musical 2, and Ratatouille.  After newcomer Eastern Promises at #10 comes Transformers at #11 a full eleven weeks after it debuted.  Other top 20 titles of special note include the surprisingly potent Underdog at #13, Shrek the Third at #19 after seven weeks and Stardust at #20 in its second week of release.  Notable by its absence was Spider-Man 3, the highest-grossing film of 2007, whose box office popularity failed to translate to the world of toys (where Transformers topped it for best action figure line) or DVDs, where it will be lucky to make the top ten in total 2007 sales.