'New Moon' DVD gets the jump on 'Avatar' with 4 million sold

Michael Sheen as Aro in "The Twilight Saga: New Moon."

Credit: Summit Entertainment

As with seemingly every thing in the "Twilight" franchise, each new movie, album or DVD release means just another record waiting to be broken. 

After shattering the single day box office record last November, Summit Entertainment revealed that "New Moon" broke its own sales record when it debuted this Saturday and Sunday on DVD.  The four million units bested "Twilight's" 3.8 million last year.  That's particularly impressive considering the continuing decline of the home entertainment market overall. "Twilight" sold 9.2 million DVDs in 2009 making it the biggest seller of the year. "New Moon," on the other hand, could easily pass that figure, but has James Cameron's "Avatar" on the horizon to watch out for in the race for the 2010 title.

Hitting DVD and Blu-ray on April 22, it's pretty obvious that James Cameron's blockbuster has an excellent chance of surpassing "New Moon" in home entertainment sales this year.  And, to be honest, that is to be expected  considering "Avatar's" current mega global gross of $2.668 billion.  In the U.S., "Avatar" has made a record $737.2 million  alone ("New Moon" grossed $707 million worldwide).    The question is whether "Avatar" fans will go out and buy the 2-D version available next month or wait until later in the year (or possibly 2011) to buy a 3-D DVD version. 

While an "Avatar" sequel is still in the discussion phase, "Twilight" fans won't have long to wait to get their Bella and Edward fix.  "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" opens nationwide on June 30. 

Gregory Ellwood
Editor-in-Chief, Co-Founder

• Follow

With over a decade of experience in the movie industry, Ellwood survived working for two major studios and has written for Variety, MSN and the LA Times. A co-founder of HitFix, Ellwood spends his time relaxing hitting 3’s on the basketball court and following his beloved Clippers.