VIDEO RENTAL CHARTS : ‘Batman’ Drops In on the Top Five

At $25 list, but often discounted to half that price, “Batman” was expected to be the big attraction in the home video sales market this holiday season. But in addition to doing boffo sales biz, “Batman” is an unexpectedly strong rental. This Caped Crusader feature crashed the Billboard chart at No. 5 and is a mighty contender for the top spot. “Scrooged,” Bill Murray’s updated characterization of Charles Dickens’ Ebenezer Scrooge, is doing excellent rental business (No. 8). When all the returns are in from Thanksgiving weekend, this one could be in the Top Five. Overachieving “Say Anything,” the teen romantic comedy starring Ione Skye and John Cusack, continues to be the surprise rental hit of the fall, inching up another notch to No. 6.

* K-9 is a bizarre buddy movie, pairing Jim Belushi--playing a loony narcotics cop--with a stubborn German shepherd. Like “Turner and Hooch,” the year’s other man-dog buddy movie, “K-9” was a box office hit, grossing more than $39 million--despite bad reviews. “K-9” is no dog in the rental market either, bounding onto the Billboard chart at No. 17--on its way to the Top Five.

Ranking Weeks Ranking 2 Weeks on Rental Top Rentals Last Week Ago Chart 1. “Working Girl” 1 1 7 (CBS-Fox) 2. “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” 2 3 6 (Touchstone) 3. “Major League” 4 3 6 (Paramount) 4. “Rain Man”(MGM/UA) 3 4 12 5. “Batman” (Warner) --- --- 1 * “K-9”(MCA) --- --- 1