Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games starring Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson debut on Blu-ray and DVD this past Friday at midnight unofficially kicked off the fall and holiday season of hot new home video releases. Like the theatrical powerhouse it proved to be, The Hunger Games exploded onto Blu-ray and DVD with some truly impressive early sales results.
Through its first 48 hours of release, approximately 3.8 million packaged copies of The Hunger Games on Blu-ray and DVD were gobbled up by fans and consumers. Of those, 1.3 million were Blu-ray and 2.5 million DVD.
Lionsgate mirrored the midnight launch party business plan that Summit Entertainment, now a part of Lionsgate, has used to launch each of the previous four Twilight films on Blu-ray. The odds were in favor of the plan working and sure enough, it did.
The Hunger Games topped the two most recent Twilight Blu-ray and DVD releases through 24 hours. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 sold 3.2 million units, while The Twilight Saga: Eclipse was the weakest with 2.7 million.
Katniss and friends tied the debut of the original Twilight on home video with 3.8 million sales. The Twilight Saga: New Moon is still the king of the home video landscape with a whopping 4 million sales through only two days of availability.
Additional sales of The Hunger Games via digital delivery were not included in the sales numbers.
Shop for The Hunger Games on Blu-ray for $19.99 at Amazon.com.
Source: L.A. Times
