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Looks like that boycott called by hardcore fans didn’t amount to much. 
Nor were buyers perturbed by some very controversial changes in the 9-disc Blu-ray release of Star Wars: The Complete Saga with 40 hours of extras. Instead, the Complete Saga on Blu-ray release broke global sales records with 1 million units sold and $84 million filling cash registers. It quickly becomes the #1 pre-order and #1 catalog title since the launch of the high-definition format. Needless to say, Lucasfilm Ltd and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment are high-fiving today’s announcement that Star Wars is the bestselling catalog Blu-ray Disc of all time, including 515,000 units sold in North America in its first week alone. This worldwide consumer spend included $38 million in North America – unprecedented for a 9-disc Blu-ray collection at a premium price:
The 13-month campaign to launch the SAGA Blu-ray and engage consumers around the globe began in August 2010. From Darth Vader at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), a first look at San Diego Comic Con, a first-of-its-kind partnership with eBay, to creating the world’s largest lightsaber in the UK, the power of the Force continued to resonate around the world as fans came out in droves to have fun with that galaxy far, far away.
“Once again our fan’s enthusiasm to celebrateStars Wars continues to amaze us,” said Kayleen Walters, Senior Director, Marketing, 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.”
“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.”
The comprehensive collection includes the six movies with unparalleled high-definition picture and sound quality, and features numerous deleted, extended and alternate scenes, new documentaries and a cross-section of the countless Star Wars spoofs that have appeared in pop culture over the past three decades. Marking the first time ever that the full Saga is available in one complete collection,STAR WARS: THE COMPLETE SAGA on Blu-ray also features a coveted peek into the making of the Saga with vintage documentaries, audio commentaries, behind-the-scenes moments, interviews, prop and costume turnarounds, retrospectives and more.
Episodes I-III and IV-VI are also available as distinct Blu-ray Trilogy collections.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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honestly, i bought it…still going through it all.
Yeah, I buckled and bought the original trilogy – but watching them I wasn’t filled with any emotion anymore. Except misery. I winced too many times, the changes really got in the way this time. Like Michael Jackson’s face – which was a perfectly fine face to begin with – these movies are ruined forever now.
Go buy the movies individually on DVD. The individual releases (i.e. not the DVD box set), still widely available, include the original versions of the movies as “bonus features”. No post-release Lucas tampering. It’s wonderful.
Fuck Star Wars, that’s right I’m saying it. Fanboys get a f-ing life you pathetic losers. All he did was take Joseph Campbell’s Hero Journey and set it in space- whoppee! oh and the amazing effects and set pieces- well they are no longer relevant.
James Cameron is a god compared to Lucas the troll- he’s still working- still creating – still inventing. Lucas is a grade a franchise/brand masturbator.
Star Wars: the most profitable FLUKE of all time.
You mean “inventing” remakes of Dances With Wolves (in space)?
James Cameron’s idea of characterisation is having a human betray the rest of his species in order to get laid by a blue cat-alien. People only remember Avatar because of the graphics, and because they hate their own lives enough to want to live on fucking Pandora for some reason.
People remember Star Wars because of characters like Han Motherfucking Solo and Darth Bear-fighting Vader. Who the fuck’s going to remember the main character from Avatar in 30 years? I don’t even remember him now, except for that whole ‘species betrayal’ thing, and that’s not generally something you want your characters to be known for.
The people who’ll remember Avatar’s main character 30 years from now are the same people who get depression from not living on Pandora and who think Avatar was anything more than a vehicle for James Cameron to show off his VFX dick, also known as the least important people on Earth. Star Wars will always be bigger than Avatar, no one gives a shit about Cameron fanboyism, scribe.
Seriously, Vader kicked my ass a couple times.
A-fucking-men.
Okay, look, the genius of Star Wars comes from taking old farmiliar ideas and making them feel new again. That’s why its resonated so much in culture.
I agree that Star Wars (1977) now known as Star Wars: A New Hope was a fluke but the perfect action/adventure flick for the year it was released. I would not even give Lucas as much credit as you have, I think comparing Star Wars to Joseph Cambell’s, Hero Journey. What Lucas got right was the sets, costumes, casting and special effects. The Empire Strikes Back was by far his best Star Wars film and everything that came after that was uninspired. His main problem is that he need to hire talented writers because he is not a gifted writer.
James Cameron’s Avatar is very pretty but it just a remake of Disney’s Pochantas animated feature film. The main differences being that Avatar is set in the distant future, it’s all CGI and it’s in 3d. Oh, and it’s not nearly as good or memorable as Pochantas. Avatar is fun to look at but it isn’t original and it won’t stand the test of time.
Just my opinion.
Imagine how many units it would have sold if the originals were included in the package. I’ll bet it could have been another 200,000 plus. I’m curious what the week 2 sales will look like. They can brag all they want. No sale for me. Still not buying.
+1 to Jack Tor s. No sale. Not interested in the endless, mindless tweaks. If I have to wait til Lucas croaks…”So be it. Jedi.”
I agree. The release would have been a true blockbuster if fans (and not just the psycho fans — the ordinary boys who grew up in the 80s) had not been offended by Lucas’s contempt. I know about two dozen fans and not one who bought this or plans to buy it.
Yawn. I think they’re doing fine without you.
The week two sales won’t be as high, no. But wait until it drops in price just in time for the holidays. This set will have massive legs, sales wise. Meanwhile, you and the other 56 people who still cram a 25 year old VHS into your VCR so you can see Han Solo shoot first and a puppet Yoda.
You were probably one of those people who refused to buy the original trilogy when Georgie released it on DVD because it didn’t have a DTS audio track. You could get exactly what you want, the original trilogy in 1080p HD with 7.1 surround sound….and you’d still refuse to buy it because Vader’s breathing isn’t as audible as your old VHS copies.
95% of you “hardcore” fans probably bought this set anyway.
It’s goes way beyond “Han shot first” now. Lucas taken the most laughable moments in the prequel trilogy (“NOOOOOOOOOOO”) and slathered it all over one of the most powerful moments in cinema history (Vader killing the emperor to save his son).
I can live with Han shooting first, but crap like this?
Also can’t stand seeing Haydn Christensen superimposed in Jedi, grinning like an idiot like he can’t wait to tell his friends he’s in the original trilogy now.
Stevo – On the contrary, I have bought several of the previous releses on tape, Laser and DVD, and when the special editions came out, I really didn’t care about them not having 7.1 audio or even Han shooting first and I was indifferent about the puppet or digital Yoda. I wasn’t even against the idea of buying these on Blu, that was until I saw the “Noooooooo” footage of Vader. Its just silly. In the end I’ve just seen these films so many times and the new changes just pushed me over the edge and dulled my enthusiam about buying them again. Realistically, if I bought the set, it would end up sitting on my shelf next to my Star Wars DVDs collecting dust. There’s just too many other classic films in my collection (or coming out) that I haven’t seen and would rather spend time watching.
Regarding the sales (and this BS press release): Believe me, sales WILL drop off (unless they started selling the set on Black Friday for ten bucks). Avatar sold 2.7 million Blu-ray units in North America in the first four days. Star Wars only sold 515,000 units in a week. Think about that… Avatar sold 81% BETTER than Star Wars on Blu (and in less time). And Star Wars is definitiely bigger than Avatar in the realm of pop culture. Or you could look at it this way… Episode III: Revenge of the Sith grossed $380,270,577 at an average ticket price of of say $12 (in 2005) that’s 31,689,215 million tickets sold (to mostly Star Wars fans and fans of the genre). All of those fans who went to see the last released movie now had the opportunity to buy their favorite series on the HD format (while some may not own Blu-players, believe me, science fiction fans are definitely among the early adopters of the format or they have PS3s), with a quality that basically won’t get any better, but Fox only sold 515,000 units. Only 1.6% of those who were motivated to go see Ep. III bought this set. 1.6%!!! That’s a clear indication many fans stayed away, in my opinion.
What’s really deceptive about this press release is the $84 million “filling cash registers”. Those are RETAIL sales numbers. The Blu-ray set has an SRP of $139.99, which is an average cost of about $75 per unit / box set that the reatiler pays. At 515,000 sold, that’s a return to Fox (or mostly Lucasfilm) of about $38,625,000 (less than half the reported number) or $6,437,500 average gross per film. That ain’t all that impressive to me. Avatar sold 2.7 million Blu-rays with an average $15 wholesale cost and netted $40,500,000 in 4 days. I’m not saying that Avatar is some sort of cinematic masterpiece, But it is the same core demographic. Clearly people were more compelled to purchase Avatar. There was an immediacy to buying the Avatar Blu-ray that wasn’t there with the Star Wars set. Why… to many changes to the movies. Fans stayed away.
Now that the first week is over and the sets aren’t heavily discounted like they were during week one, sales will drop 60% – 70% next week, at least. Yes, its sales were okay, but no where near what they should have been (or should I say “could have been”).
With this press release, Fox is just spinning here, but then we all know how Fox likes to spin.
You CANNOT compare the $20.00 Avatar blu ray to the $80.00 Star Wars set (which had been been released on video already many times as opposed to Avatar). Making this comparison DISTRACTS from any other point you try to make.
NO, you are choosing not to listen to the other points
He’s not comparing it, he’s using it as an example.
I agree with you, But I think if the original versions were included for the first time in a HD format the numbers would have been a bit higher than you had projected. Im sure that in 2-3 years lucas will release the original cuts to blu-ray just as he did with the last DVD set…Except instead of taking from laserdisc masters and 2.0 stereo sound he will claim that he lost those and only has full screen VHS masters with mono soundtracks..
Ok seriously I’m done
The letters “George Lucas” don’t appear even ONCE in that press release…
Interesting how George is overshadowed by his creation. It didn’t happen for Spielberg: it would be unthinkable for a press release about some ET or Jaws event not to mention Spielberg’s name, the visionary genius etc.
Might be because Lucas was hardly alone in making these films classics. He has neither a screenplay nor a director credit for Empire, and only co-wrote Jedi.
And he basically co-directed Jedi, as well. And fully directed Vader’s unmasking.
Lucas wrote the plot for Empire, but he gave credit to Brackett out of respect since she passed away shortly after delivering her draft (which he ended up rejecting). Enough of this revising history to make Lucas look like he’s not responsible for the best of Star Wars.
And he basically co-directed Jedi, as well. And fully directed Vader’s unmasking.
Guess that’ll pay for Red Tails.
Wow the record for most Blu-Rays sold in a week is 1 million? That is sad. And I thought Blu-Ray was suppose to be this big thing.
One million copies of an $80 set is pretty impressive.
…And this is why Lucas will never release the original theatrical versions on Blu-Ray.
Lucas destroyed the original negatives in order to make the Special Editions. That’s why they’ll never get on Blu-ray. He’s a Butcher.
All those people are just enabling George Lucas.
Glad to see the big sales numbers and I’m not surprised. The fans who want to wait for the old versions probably won’t have to wait too long — with money like this being generated, they’ll double-dip and give us another edition in a couple of years with them on there.
They also left off lots of supplemental materials — hello, NO TRAILERS — likely in anticipation of another release down the line too, so I think it’s going to happen and this was part of the plan all along.
Ah crap. This almost guarantees he’ll continue to mine this decades old idea for a few more years instead of tackling new projects.
The force has got him bad.
Thank Thor for that. I’d hate to see what lucas would come up with if left to his own devices. He spent 16 years forgetting everything about film making, so I say leave him to carry on ruining this lot, I’ve got the originals on DVD so I’m fine.
Did they get rid of Jar Jar Binks?
With this release and the knowledge of all the additional sillyness, Lucas finally convinced me that THIS (in its current state) is not my Star Wars anymore. We all know what versions of the original films made Lucas his fortune, Thankfully with the blu ray editions fan editors are hard at work setting right what he has made wrong and with better source material to work from. Plus I can save 80 bucks cause its FREE….Thanks Internet !
I didn’t buy it, neither did anyone I know. Imagine what those sales numbers would have been if George had just left the originals alone.
George Lucas uses Star Wars as a cash cow. The fan might feel offended but the truth is that a the end of the day he owns the franchise and he can revamp it any way he wants to. this is the cold hard reality of the movie business, money talks.
i wanna buy it…need a extra 80 bones tho…
I’m over it.
never ever buying this, shame on anyone who did
Shame on anyone that bought it? Just because we want to see some of the best movies ever on Blu-Ray? When they come out with Super Duper High Definition Gold-Ray, I will buy the Saga again.
Yeah, yeah, call me a sucker or idiot or whatever you want to, I want to enjoy the movies I love with the best quality available. I’m not going to lose any sleep over people who are never going to buy it so why do you even post anything on here? Actually I might lose a little sleep watching the Saga on Blu-Ray, and love every minute of it.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
Am a huge fan. I worked at the Plitt and Avco for both Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back. That experience got me into this business.
I ran to buy the Star Wars three disk bluray featuring the original films. Got home and immediately started watching them. Man.Watching them in my home theater brought back the thrill these movies gave me
oh so many years ago. Forget the nonsense about what Lucas did or didn’t do. The films look and sound AMAZING. Of course they didn’t put out originals first. But you can count on the fact that they will. Insiders told me that’s a certainty. In case, go get the set, at least the first three and you will see what moviegoing so sorely lacks today. Stories and characters that you actually CARE about. Enjoy.
imagine what they would have sold if there was a lot of enthusiasm about the launch.
i bet they would have easily added another 200k to the US sales in just the first week. If not more.
Why settle for $200k? When they release the original versions unaltered as a separate release they’ll make another $100M.
It’s good to see all the sheep out in full Force.
Just wanted to say that as a dvd buyer in a busy retail chain store that I felt the sales were a bit of a disappointment. First day sales were strong and so were pre orders, but by the end of the week people were over it. I think once the price drop happens sales will go up again but overall it wasn’t as big as we thought it would be.
never ever buying this, shame on anyone who did
Millions starving in Africa and you people save your righteous anger for Star Wars. Laughable – well done on the boycott, very successful.
The millions of dollars that went into digitally enhancing these films should have gone instead to providing aid to those starving people in Africa.
I’m another long time original fan, but lost interest in SW years ago (funnily enough around 1997). There’s no way I would buy this set. The original versions are not there, and the prequels are coasters right out of the box.
I’d rather hand my dollars over to Red Letter Media for a box set of Star Wars reviews and a few pizza rolls.
Stanley Kubrick lived to 1999 and I don’t recall him ever reissuing “2001: A Space Odyssey” with CGI aliens or a Black Slab that showed a digital map to the stargate or, for had the other ape-man at the watering hole take the first swipe at Moon-watcher. I’m just saying.
I was hoping that he would do substantial changes to the prequels. Less Jar-Jar. Cut a few scenes here and there, tighten things up, ahh well they still suck in my opinion. But the originals…OMG! As far as the pictures and sound go these are the top of the pops. But holy shit is that moment ruined when Vader screams NOOOOOOO at the climax of Jedi.
Cameron needs to knock Lucas off his sci-fi perch with his Avatar trilogy. Star Wars needs to take a long rest.