Lord of the Rings is the franchise that wouldn’t die.
A boxed set featuring extended versions of the three films on Blu-ray Disc debuted at No. 2 on the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert sales chart, selling nearly 80 percent as many units as Sucker Punch, which bowed at No. 1.
Never mind the fact that the trilogy carries a hefty suggested retail price of $119.98 – or that theatrical versions of the three films, also neatly bound in a boxed set, have been available on Blu-ray Disc for more than a year.
Not surprisingly, the Lord of the Rings set easily topped Nielsen’s dedicated Blu-ray Disc sales chart for the week ending July 3, with Sucker Punch – an action fantasy, starring Vanessa Hudgens and several other hot young actresses, that grossed $36.4 million in theaters – debuting at No. 2.
Both releases are from Warner Home Video.
Two other newly released theatrical features, 20th Century Fox’s Season of the Witch, with Nicolas Cage ($24.8 million box office), and Sony Pictures’ Beastly, again featuring Hudgens ($27.9 million), debuted at No. 3 and No. 4, respectively, on First Alert, which tracks overall discs sales, DVD and Blu-ray Disc combined.
Season of the Witch, which generated 34 percent of its sales from Blu-ray Disc, also bowed at No. 3 on Nielsen’s dedicated Blu-ray Disc sales chart. Beastly, which only generated 20 percent of its sales from Blu-ray Disc, bowed at No. 9.
Beastly did manage to debut at No. 1 on Home Media Magazine’s weekly rental chart, as all the other new releases are held back from rental leaders Netflix and Redbox for 28 days.
