The DVD battles are on! It's a little over two weeks since SPIDER-MAN claimed the one day sales victory (with 7 million units), and now Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment has announced that STAR WARS: EPISODE II ATTACK OF THE CLONES is the "fastest selling" home video release of the year. "Our tracking shows that the sales velocity for EPISODE II is faster than any other major title released this year -- and possibly ever," noted Mike Dunn, executive VP of sales and marketing, Fox Home Entertainment. Fox stated that more than 25% of initial shipments were purchased at traditional retail outlets throughout North America on the first day of release (November 12, 2002), with sales at retail topping $75 million for that first day alone. Although the studio declined to give actual numbers, it is estimated that after one week in stores, EPISODE II has sold about 7 million units. SPIDER-MAN has been available since November 1, 2002, and is estimated to have sold double that amount. Considering EPISODE II is still in many theaters, including the recently released big screen version ATTACK OF THE CLONES THE IMAX EXPERIENCE, it's unlikely that this installment of the STAR WARS saga will outsell the web-slinger, which took in a home video record of $190 million in three days.
