While Americans sat at home this past weekend — not reading books, not attending movies or plays, not watching television, and not buying albums — what were they doing? Playing video games, we bet. Variety reports today that Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the new fighting game for the Wii, sold 1.4 million copies since its release last Sunday. They note that that number's not quite as big as Halo 3's first-week sales of 2.6 million last fall, but it's enough to make it Nintendo's all-time fastest-selling title ever.

With every single movie, TV show, and album falling short of already-diminished expectations these days, how is it that video-game companies can still convince people — in ever-increasing numbers — to cough up $50 for shiny plastic discs? Is it because they're harder to pirate? Just more fun? The fact that Brett Ratner has never made one? In any case, Hollywood is already worried about next month's Grand Theft Auto IV hurting box-office sales for Iron Man (which comes out the same week), and, well, it probably will.

'Smash Bros.' breaking records [Variety]