Zoolander, Ben Stiller’s 2000 fashion world spoof, has been doing consistently well on iTunes’ movie download-to-own chart. NewTeeVee’s Chris Albrecht wonders why. “Wait, what? An eight-year-old comedy is more popular than Ratatouille, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, and High School Musical (parts 1 and 2)?”

Apple hasn’t released demographic information, but let’s try to imagine, for a second, who might be willing to spend $10 on a legal––but DRM-heavy––movie download at this stage of the game. First of all, it’s gotta be someone who uses Mac products exclusively: students, artists, upper-middle-class nerds, aging hipsters, style-conscious parents, the curious rich, celebrities. Albrecht has screen caps of several recent iTunes top sales charts, and it’s clear from a glance that adventurous cinephilies don’t seem to be yet represented––but then, with the exception of a handful of classic titles, iTunes’ movie catalog doesn’t seem to be going for adventure. So let’s assume that the cool hunter Apple user is getting their movies elsewhere, and concentrate on the more middle-of-the-road aspects of the Apple demographic.

Obviously, teen and tween friendly stuff is going to do well, because it’s easier to use Mom’s iTunes account to download Step Up than it is to learn how to download it illegally. As an extension of that, the adult for whom $10 isn’t a huge sum of money, who can’t be bothered to join a newsgroup or set up a torrent tracker, who just wants something to watch on their train commute or in a hotel on a business trip––that’s who’s renting unchallenging action stuff like Shooter, or catching up on something like No Country For Old Men based on the If It Won Oscars, It Must Be Good seal of approval.

Zoolander is the rare sort of thing that could appeal to both demographics: a 15 year old kid who’s a fan of more recent Stiller/Owen Wilson stuff, who maybe saw Zoolander on TBS and wants to watch it again without commercials; or an older, more harried MacBook toter who’s just looking for a familiar, funny safe bet to watch on a plane. This is the whole theory behind the DVD catalog, right––make the price point low enough and the barrier to acquisition next to painless, and a certain type of consumer can be trusted to impulse buy like crazy? Why wouldn’t it hold true for the DVD catalog?