‘New Moon’ DVD sells 4 million units on first weekend

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The Twi-hards have struck again.

Fans of ‘The Twilight Saga: New Moon’ snatched up 4 million DVDs this past weekend after it went on sale Saturday, beating the launch of the original ‘Twilight’ last year, which sold 3.8 million units on its first two days.

The figure included discs sold directly to consumers, not rentals, digital downloads or video-on-demand.

The difference between the movies in DVD sales is substantially less than at the box office. ‘New Moon’ grossed $296.6 million domestically last year, compared to $192.8 million for the original ‘Twilight’ in 2008.

Given the 13% decline in U.S. DVD revenue last year, however, gaining any ground is something of a victory for independent studio Summit Entertainment.

‘Twilight’ went onto become the bestselling DVD of 2009, moving 9.2 million units. It remains to be seen if ‘New Moon’ will exceed that total or if, as happened at the box office, it will be largely a first weekend phenomenon.

-- Ben Fritz

Barbara Payne watches the ‘New Moon’ DVD at the ‘The Twilight Saga: New Moon’ DVD release event at Blockbuster Brookhaven on March 19 in Atlanta.