The UK video and DVD release of The Lord Of The Rings: Fellowship Of The Ring has outsold previous record-holder Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone by 20,000 copies on its first day - despite going on sale on a Tuesday as opposed to Potter's Saturday release.

UK distributor Entertainment in Video reported that LOTR sold 1.27 million units on August 7, compared to Potter's 1.25 million sold within 24 hours on May 11.

Potter went on to sell nearly 1.6 million copies in its first week, and was credited with increasing sales of DVD players by 280% in the week of its release.

Before Potter, the previous record was held by Titanic, with first-day UK sales of 1.1 million