APRIL 7 | The fact that Star Wars: Episode I--The Phantom Menace isn't available on DVD apparently didn't hurt demand for the title, which flew off retail shelves in two VHS versions.
Fans were more than willing to take the latest chapter in the sci-fi epic on VHS. Within 48 hours on sale, the title sold 4.5 million units of the standard pan-and-scan version and 500,000 copies of the widescreen collector's edition, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment reported, representing an estimated $100 million at retail. Fox is believed to have shipped about 15 million units, putting sell-off in the first two days at an impressive 33%. It manufactured only 1.5 million units of the collector's edition and predicted they would sell out over the weekend.
Total sales are expected to easily reach 10 million copies by the end of the week and eventually reach 20 million copies in the U.S.
The special widescreen collector's edition, priced at $39.98, includes behind-the-scenes footage, a 35mm film strip from an original theatrical movie print and a 48-page book. The standard VHS is priced at $24.98.
The title was released globally April 3-8 (April 4 in the U.S.), an industry first.
Tower VP of video sales John Thrasher said consumer demand for Phantom Menace was "very strong," with the chain selling off 33% of its initial buy in the first two days. "The Sixth Sense has sold about that strong on the DVD side, so both of these are tremendous titles for late March, early April," he said.
A spokesman for Kmart said sales of Phantom Menace were "slightly above plan" there as well, a trend the mass merchant expects will continue at least for the next week.
Peter Busch, VP of video for the Musicland Corp., said the company was "very pleased with first-day sales in both pan-and-scan and widescreen versions."
Late-night events or early-morning openings celebrating the title's release were held at all of Musicland's Media Play locations and some of its On Cue stores, which serve smaller markets.
At Amazon.com, the collector's edition of Phantom Menace reigned supreme, taking the No. 1 spot on the e-tailer's VHS sales chart. The standard version of the release was the second-highest seller of the week.
"It compares very well to some of our DVD titles, including The Sixth Sense, which has been one of our best DVD sellers this month," Jason Kilar, general manager of Amazon's DVD & Video store, said.
Mike Dunn, executive VP of marketing and sales, said a record number of units of Phantom Menace were sold online, about 4% of overall sales or about 200,000 copies.
At BigStar.com, "The Phantom Menace actually in [VHS] did about the same number of units on our site as The Matrix in both DVD and [VHS] units," said CEO David Friedensohn.
However, Express.com VP of marketing Susan Daniher called response "good, not great." Express, which had been an all-DVD e-tailer, recently added new products for sale including The Phantom Menace on VHS.
The sheer size of the title's take in theaters--$430 million in the U.S. and Canada--even lured some video specialists back into the sell-through game for the title's release.
"I sold out of my Star Wars yesterday," said Steve Disney, owner of two Screenplay Video stores near Atlanta, on the title's second day of release. "I normally don't do a very good business in sell-through, and I didn't buy a lot for Star Wars, but I was able to price it competitively [$14.95] and it flew out the door."
Disney said he bought 130 copies of the title to share between his two stores.
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