Summit Entertainment has confirmed that the Blu-ray edition of '
The Twilight Saga: New Moon' will have a wide release to all retailers on Saturday, March 20. The first installment, '
Twilight', had been released on March 21, 2009, but initially was available in high definition only at Best Buy and Target for a period of six weeks (see blu-ray.com,
January 22, 2009).
Only 3% of the 9.2 million total units sold of the first movie were on Blu-ray. Summit attributes that to the demographic of the franchise, although it can be argued that Wal-Mart and Amazon initially not carrying the BD didn't help either. Summit expects that, for 'New Moon', interest in the high-def version will be much higher.
“Because of the female-driven nature of the franchise, the amount of Blu-ray sales was less significant on Twilight than it was for other films of other genres,” said Summit Entertainment Steve Nickerson, who expects that to be the case also for 'New Moon', although he adds, “Blu-ray has really grown in the last year. It's big enough that all retailers want to be able to sell the product. Look at all the circulars, every title cover shot now shows the Blu-ray version.”