Summit Entertainment’s strategy to release its much-anticipated New Moon DVD on a Friday night — just as the studio did for the release of Twilight‘s DVD — is paying off handsomely. The studio reports that the DVD of The Twilight Saga: New Moon sold 4 million units over the weekend. The take surpasses Twilight‘s 2009 DVD release, which sold 3.8 million units its first weekend, and 9.2 million total, making it the top selling DVD title of the year.
Summit added to the fervor by spreading its cast around the country to make surprise stops at various retail outlets. Director Chris Weitz, Nikki Reed and Rosalie Hale showed up in Los Angeles while Peter Facinelli made a stop-off in New York and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg showed up in Seattle. As for Taylor Lautner, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson? Well, they were nowhere to be found. Between Pattinson and Stewart’s own promotional duties for their other projects (Remember Me and The Runaways) plus the intense media scrutiny they constantly live under, they probably felt it best to skip this event.
Nikki Reed and Rosalie Hale showed up in LA??? Hmmm let me think about that one…
Yeah, kind of impossible. I wonder what she actually meant…another cast member, perhaps?
Pretty sure it was Nikki Reed and director Chris Weitz who showed up in LA.
Yeah, that was funny. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the two of them in the same place before…
I had to read that twice. Ummm … yeah. hahahaha.
That comment actually made me LOL! I read too fast b/c I totally missed that!
LOL, I didn’t even notice that. That’s hilarious. She probably meant another cast member.
Rosalie Hale is not a real person. She is the character Nikki Reed plays in the series.
D”irector Chris Weitz, Nikki Reed and Rosalie Hale” – Nikki Reed plays the character of Rosalie Hale!
It’s called proofreading. My 12 year old son does it better than EW.
Unneccessarily harsh, really.
Hey girl. Have you seen the poster?
Is there something else besides the generic eclipse graphic? Link me!
But true.
Ah, just found it…hmm, while I’m sure YOU love it, And it might be appropriate for the storyline, I think that much Bella is a little overwhelming.
I actually hate it. Kristen is hot, as usual, but I hate it. Too boring and simple.
True. I actually stumbled on multiple fan made posters that were far superior.
that poster is terrible!
“It all begins … with a choice.”
What do they mean “it all begins”? This is the THIRD installment!
Love where they were going with this one (fan made)- though I’d change make some changes:
http://www.eclipsemovie.org/images/eclipse-poster-movie.jpg
It’s not that harsh when consider the number of dumb (and easily verified) factual and grammatical errors on this site. I’m a professional copy editor and I’d be embarrassed for myself if I let some of these errors get through. It’s bush league and makes EW look unprofessional.
And I’m not a fan of the poster either. I agree with mk. Where’s the “begins” here? I think I actually preferred New Moon’s and it looked like a Harlequin cover.
To be fair, I doubt your 12 year old is prollific enough to put out new material at the rate of EW, and if so, the proofreading may lapse a bi.
Well I would have gone to the Seattle one just to punch MR in the mouth.
I live close to Seattle, and had I known MR was there, I would have punched her in the mouth. Sure maybe SM isn’t the best writer, but c’mon, MR ruined the books and made the worst dialogue.
You know why the DVD sales have surpassed the first movie? Because Summit released so many different versions of the DVD, each with different special features, most without even the standard deleted scenes, in order to make more money off of twihards who want to see it all and won’t think twice before buying a copy of each version. It’s pretty manipulative if you ask me.
What are you talking about they did this with the Twilight DVD too.
I had expected it to be a LOT more than Twilight.
Based on the fact that there were not the repeat-theater-viewers (as there was with Twilight), I’m surprised that so many DVDs were sold.
I would think that the theater viewers who went multiple times to see the movie would be the ones who bought DVDs.
That’s a drawback of forcing the filming of each movie to be so close together–there’s just not the time or exposure to tweak the details of the release of the movie and DVD for the problems or really good things with the previous movie or DVD.
Also, since this is clearly frontloaded I don’t think it will beat Twilight’s 9.2m.
Twilight was also front-loaded.
The wal-mart DVD has tons of extra that are awesome!
I enjoyed the behind the scenes stuff! I thought it was pretty amazing how the CGI stuff was incorporated with the real stuff! Pretty cool to see how the movie came together! Great job Chris Weitz!
This isn’t a surprising. BUT THAT’S DAMN GOOD OVER 4 MILLION DVD’S in one weekend ? two days ? That’s not a week people that two days. WOW !
I don’t remember the last time I saw Nikki Reed and Rosalie Hale in the same place…
I liked Twilight bu I dont like New Moon. I will not buy it, for me first movie is enaught.
Maybe Eclipse can do better
I thought “Twilight” wasn’t horrible (not amazing), but “New Moon” was terrible. I could barely sit through it. I assumed that since the first movie made so much money, they’d up the ante and the second movie would be even better. I don’t plan on watching “Eclipse”.
okay, what drugs are you on. Twilight the movie was horrible and New Moon was loads better. Stay off the drugs and you’d see that.
Twilight was a better movie because its director was the perfect choice for the Twilight movie.
Twilight was in the theaters for months, and there were many people who saw the movie multiple times.
NM was in the theaters, what–a month at the most? Then it was GONE. The second week it was in our local theater, it had been moved down to the eensy-beensy theater in the 6-plex. That means those who saw the movie once were less inclined to see it a second time in the theater.
The large opening weekend numbers for NM was directly related to the popularity of Twilight. If NM had to make it on its own without being propped by Catherine Hardwicke’s Twilight, NM’s opening weekend take would have been much, much less.
Also, much has been made about the $700+million worldwide-release box office for NM. In our local theater, tickets cost $2.50 more now than they did when Twilight was released. That’s a 33% increase in ticket price. If you take the 33% in ticket-price away from the $700million, then comparing Twilight and NM’s box office take is a little different–NM would have only made $469million.
Also, the U.S. dollar is worth much less now than it was when Twilight was released. Today the exchange rate with the Euro is $1-Euro = $0.75 U.S. So to see New Moon in any country where they use the Euro, you’d have to spend $13.31 U.S. to buy a $10 ticket. Both of these economic factors mean that, comparing Twilight and NM box-office sales, there would be far fewer tickets sold for the same amount of money.
The DVD sales were gimmicked by featuring the Twilight actors at retail outlets. That actually sounds like Summit ran the numbers based on NM’s box-office ticket sales, realized the DVD sales would not be good, and so gimmicked the release to try to draw people in.
NM was a joke, worse than Weitz’s previous failure, Golden Compass. If he had not benefitted from zealous Twilight movie’s audience, his box office would have been as bad, or worse, than Golden Compass–the biggest studio loss on a picture in history.
2 funny! Author is obviously not in-the-know!