‘Ghost’ Asserting Itself in Marketplace : The box-office hit is setting sales records in cassette and laser-disc formats.

“Ghost,” the box-office blockbuster that won two Oscars this week, is setting sales records both in video and laser-disc formats.

In the cassette market, it’s the first rental title (those priced in the $90-$100 range) ever to crack 600,000 units. It also set a record in initial orders of laser discs, with 66,000.

Hollace Brown, Paramount’s vice president of sales and promotion, said that the company shipped more than 641,000 videocassettes, which translates into more than $41 million in wholesale revenue, and has received orders for at least 4,000 more.

Based on early reports, “Ghost” is a rental smash. “The phones are jammed with people calling about it,” said Peter Margo, vice president of the Palmer Video retail chain, based in New Jersey.

The Academy Awards for supporting actress (Whoopi Goldberg) and original screenplay (Bruce Joel Rubin) can only help. “The Oscars will further heighten consumer awareness of the title and possibly get some people to rent it that might not have rented it otherwise,” Brown said.

The record sales for “Ghost” go beyond the fact that it was an enormously popular film. In the cassette market, “Ghost” is merely the latest in a buying frenzy that started last fall with “The Hunt for Red October,” which shipped 437,000 units--then a whopping figure. Subsequent films such as “Dick Tracy” and “Die Hard 2” did even better, the latter breaking the 500,000 mark for the first time.

“There weren’t that many great titles to choose from since the fall, so retailers went overboard on the few that were out there,” Margo said. “Any time you’re coming out of a dry spell--with bad business and weak titles--retailers will jump on a hot title looking to kick-start their business.”

There’s a downside to the “Ghost”’ figures, however. Because retailers spent so much money stocking up on “Ghost,” other films, particularly B titles, will suffer. So for the consumer, there may be less to choose from in the coming months and fewer available copies of some major movies.

The other possible negative is more high prices. With “Ghost” cassettes selling so well despite the projected retail price of $99.95--about $5 higher than the current standard--other companies are more likely to release titles at that price. For the consumer, of course, that could lead to higher rental prices in the coming months.

The laser-disc industry is hoping that will mean good news, though.

“Ghost” can be purchased now on laser disc for $29.95 or less, in some places. At Music Plus, for instance, it’s being offered at $25--the same price that used cassettes will sell for when they’re available in June.

“When people see ads with a price situation like that, it may make them run out and buy a laser-disc machine,” said David Wallace, marketing manager of Pioneer LaserDisc Corp., which is distributing “Ghost” on disc. “They can buy a new laser disc of ‘Ghost’ now for a fraction of the $100-per-copy home video price.”

Sales at the Ken Crane outlet in Westminster, which specializes in discs, were pushed to new levels by “Ghost’ mania. Disc sales for the four-day period that included last weekend were $600,000, nearly doubling the previous record--for the weekend that “The Hunt for Red October” was released last November.

“ ‘Ghost’ really helped bring people in, with about 7 or 8 out of 10 people who came into the store buying ‘Ghost,’ ” said Ken Crane Jr., vice president of Ken Crane Home Entertainment.

Hardware sales have been affected too. In a sale of Pioneer laser-disc players at the nine Ken Crane outlets, 600 players--a huge number--were sold last weekend. “ ‘Ghost’ definitely added to sales,” Crane said. “Interest in the laser-disc sale helped bring people in and some of them bought players.”