Consumers were willing to shell out top dollar for the complete “Star Wars” franchise, which bowed on Blu-ray this week, with the collection selling more than 1 million units to break records for the high-definition homevideo format.
The nine-disc set generated more than $84 million from worldwide sales, with $38 million collected in the U.S. alone, from 515,000 units in North America. On average, the collection is priced at $79.99.
The sales figures made “Star Wars: The Complete Saga” the No. 1 pre-order and catalog title since the launch of Blu-ray in 2006.
Lucasfilm and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment have been promoting the release for the past 13 months, with the marketing campaign including Darth Vader and Stormtroopers taking over the Panasonic booth to announce the September release date at January’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and a first look at San Diego Comic-Con.
“Once again our fan’s enthusiasm to celebrate ‘Stars Wars’ continues to amaze us,” said Kayleen Walters, senior director, marketing at Lucasfilm. “Our goal was to deliver a premium product that they could enjoy with their family and friends and we are thrilled that they are enjoying it as much as we hoped they would.”
Episodes I-III and IV-VI are also available as separate Blu-ray trilogy collections for $39.99 each.
“Star Wars is a franchise with universal stories that resonates as much today as it did 30 years ago,” said Mary Daily, executive VP of marketing for Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and Vincent Marcais, senior VP 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.”The collection includes the six movies on the Blu-ray format for the first time, with deleted, extended and alternate scenes, new documentaries and “Star Wars” spoofs produced over the past three decades.
The first pic of the original trilogy didn’t bow on DVD until 2004, while the prequels came out sooner, beginning in 2000.
