I don’t think this is too terribly much of a surprise, but the STAR WARS box set is now the officially highest grossing Blu-ray release of all time. The numbers are coming in and the set has sold 515,000 units in North America alone in its first week. Worldwide sales have the set bringing in $84M, which would be a great one-week haul for an actual theatrical release of a film.
This is further impressive when you consider how many consumers are watching their movies digitally, and the fact that the box set, priced between $80-$100 most places, is a pretty hefty investment. Lucasfilm says it shows the power of brand:
“Star Wars is a franchise with universal stories that resonates as much today as it did 30 years ago,” said Mary Daily, Executive Vice President of Marketing for Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and Vincent Marcais, Senior Vice President of International Marketing for Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. “With the Blu-ray, audiences can go deeper into the mythology than ever before and reconnect with everything they love about the Saga in the best possible quality.”
Yes, there were complaints about the resurgence of George Lucas’s red editing pen which added a few extra lines of dialogue that were not appreciated (“NOOOO!”), but regardless, the fans that care enough to protest such changes are exactly the sort of fans that are going to be buying the set in the first place.
Did you pick it up? Was it worth the money?