The top-grossing movie of the weekend is “Avatar” with $130 million — on home video, according to source estimates.
In just four days of release the movie has become the top-selling Blu-ray Disc title ever with 2.7 million copies purchased in North America alone, surpassing the 2.5 million of “The Dark Knight” over 18 months. First-day Blu-ray sales of 1.5 million copies on Earth Day Thursday blew away the previous record-holder “The Dark Knight,” which sold 600,000.
“Avatar” has also become the top-selling home entertainment title of the year with 6.7 million DVD and Blu-ray copies combined. That tops the 6.5 mil. copies sold of “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” this year.
Industry observers are calling “Avatar” a format-driver, meaning the movie is sparking people to buy their first Blu-ray players and, in some cases, their first HiDef TV in order to experience the movie in full HiDef.
The sales validate Fox’s strategy of releasing the movie on disc in multiple forms to get consumers to buy the movie several times, beginning with this week’s bare-bones version that is in 2D and does no include any bonus features, not even a trailer. A multi-disc special edition will be released in November followed by a 3D version in 2011.
23% of responders to a poll here at HollywoodInHiDef.com say they will buy this first edition and then also buy the special edition in November.
— By Scott Hettrick