Twilight bites 3 million DVD, Blu-ray buyers
Thousands turn out to glimpse stars at midnight sales
By Marcy Magiera -- Video Business, 3/22/2009 4:52:00 PM
MARCH 22 | Summit Home Entertainment said it sold 3 million copies of modern vampire tale Twilight in the first day following the title's midnight Saturday release.
Twilight's launch was celebrated with midnight parties.
According to the company, that number includes only consumer purchases of DVD and Blu-ray copies in the U.S., and no Canadian or rental channel sales.
About 5,800 stores nationwide stayed open past midnight Saturday morning to sell the title as soon as it became available.The midnight sales spanned Blockbuster, Borders, Hot Topic, F.Y.E., Hastings Entertainment and Wal-Mart locations.
Cast members made appearances at some stores, with 2,500 fans showing up in Salt Lake City to see Rachelle Lefevre (Victoria); 2,000 people in Los Angeles to see Ashley Greene (Alice); more than 1,000 fans in Dallas for director Catherine Hardwicke in Dallas; 700 fans lined up in New York for Edi Gathegi (Laurent); and 500 fans in Chicago for Nikki Reed (Rosalie), according to Summit.
Wal-Mart last week said the $191 million U.S. box-office hit represented its largest consumer pre-order ever. The mass merchant is the exclusive sell-through retailer for the single-disc DVD. It staged midnight events in about 2,400 stores, with an exclusive fan greeting broadcast exclusively through its in-store TV network. This message was filmed on the set of Twilight’s sequel, New Moon.
Summit said Twilight's first-day sales ranked it among the top five best first day DVD releases over the past two years along with Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment's Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End; Warner Home Video's The Dark Knight and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix; and Paramount Home Entertainment's Transformers.
Summit Entertainment’s Co-Chairmen Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger said in a statement issued on Sunday: “The Saturday release in conjunction with the groundbreaking retail events across the country have proven to be overwhelmingly successful which in turn benefited Twilight fans as well as our retail partners. Home Entertainment President Steve Nickerson, the home entertainment group and the entire family at Summit are to be commended for the conceptualization and execution of this unique approach.”
“We are incredibly appreciative that Twilight fans came out to once again support this film at our midnight events across the nation,” said Nickerson. “With such a successful first day sales, it is apparent that our fans remain passionate about the Twilight saga and want to own a piece of the Edward and Bella story they have come to love. We look forward to the continued success for both the home entertainment and retail sales of this property as a whole.”
In addition to the Saturday release, Summit has taken a highly fragmented aproach to retail distribution of the title making the basic single-disc DVD for sale only at Wal-Mart, the Blu-ray Disc available only at Target and Best Buy and an elaborate two-disc special edition with exclusive content available only at Borders.
