Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment didn't need any Jedi mind tricks to make the new Star Wars Blu-ray a huge success. Apparently, the Force is strong with this one. Despite the controversy over George Lucas' latest batch of changes to the films, the boxed set of all six Star Wars movies -- their first ever release on Blu-ray -- finished its first week strong.
On Friday, the two companies announced sales numbers for Star Wars: The Complete Saga. The title has currently sold about one million units -- and 515,000 of those were sold in North America in the first week alone. To date, the boxed set has raked in a total of $84 million around the world, with $38 million of that total generated from North America sales.
According to Lucasfilm and Fox, those types of numbers are unprecedented for a nine-disc set and make this title the best-selling catalog Blu-ray of all time.
Our own Chris Chiarella had very high praise for the Saga's box set. "As they should be, all six movies are stepped up visually and sonically at least incrementally from their DVD incarnations, while Episodes II and III are high-def jaw-droppers," he said. Check out his full Star Wars: The Complete Saga Blu-ray Review or order the set for yourself on Walmart.com, where it's available for 43% off the list price:
Star Wars: The Complete Saga was first announced in August 2010. A 13-month campaign generated a lot of buzz for this one title. Of course, the companies really didn't need to say anything. This is Star Wars we're talking about!
"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."
Star Wars: The Complete Saga is a nine-disc set, which includes all six movies and three complete Blu-ray Discs dedicated to special features. The bonus content includes deleted and extended scenes, detailed interactive visual guides to props and models used in the film, documentaries, interviews and numerous featurettes detailing the making of the films. If you're not interested in all of the extras (or all of the movies), the series is also available in two separate Blu-ray Trilogy collections: one for the original trilogy (episodes IV, V and VI), and one for the prequels (episodes I, II and III).
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