‘Hunger Games’ Sells 3.8 Million DVDs and Blu-Rays in First Weekend

Sales of "The Hunger Games" are roughly in "Twilight" territory

The battered home entertainment market may have found a savior in "The Hunger Games."

The dystopian action film sold a massive 3.8 million DVDs and Blu-rays in its first weekend of release, Lionsgate said Tuesday. Those numbers put "The Hunger Games" in "Twilight" territory.

The most recent film in the vampire franchise, "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1," moved 3.2 million units when it debuted last February, and  "Eclipse," the third film in the series,  sold 2.7 million in its first weekend of release. 

Yet it could not dwarf the  3.8 million units sold by the first "Twilight" or the 4 million moved by its sequel, "New Moon."

Also read: Jena Malone Joins 'Hunger Games: Catching Fire' Cast

Despite that, "The Hunger Games" achieved blockbuster numbers in an age when the rise of streaming services like Netflix have substantially eroded the once-thriving home entertainment industry.

"The Hunger Games" was also a hit on digital platforms. Lionsgate said that the film was the largest digital and on-demand launch in its history, generating the biggest first day sales of any title on Xbox's Zune Video and scoring the biggest first day sales on Comcast of any film in the past four years. "The Hunger Games" had the biggest selling single day on iTunes in Lionsgate history.

"The Hunger Games" scored $684.7 million at the worldwide box office. A sequel, entitled "Catching Fire," is scheduled to hit theaters in Nov. 2013.

 

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