The plot held no secrets, the characters were familiar, and yet neither the players nor fans who gathered at the premiere of the New England Patriots’ Super Bowl highlight video seemed to care that they saw most of the material before.

Although it first went on sale this week, the video has already set a record for sports videos, according to Joe Amodei, the president of the production company. A total of 400,000 videotapes and DVDs have already been shipped, he said — thanks to the drama of the game, the passion of the Patriots’ fans and the fact that 10 minutes of the halftime U2 concert was included.

2024-01-15: Dead links in this post have been removed and/or updated.