"Revenge" Is Sweet on DVD

As Yoda might say, sales are strong with this one.

After just one week on sale, the DVD for Star Wars: Episode III--Revenge of the Sith and LucasArts' latest videogame, Star Wars Battlefront II, generated a Hutt-sized $210 million in combined worldwide sales, according to figures released Tuesday by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

Fox and Lucasfilm did not release the exact units sold for the DVD and videogame or how much money each made separately. But Jim Ward, senior vice president of Lucasfilm and president of LucasArts, said the numbers were mind-boggling.

"The phenomenal sales underscore the enduring strength of the series," said Ward. "In many territories, DVD and game sales were nearly double what we initially expected."

The long-heralded prequel, the last installment of George Lucas' epic six-part space saga, has been the biggest moneymaker of 2005, setting box-office records on its way to grossing $848 million in worldwide ticket sales. It was released on DVD in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Germany, Australia and Latin America on Nov. 1.

And, in a strategy choreographed with the precision of a 501st Legion maneuver, the Lucas Empire decided to debut the latest Star Wars videogame on the same day as the two-disc Sith set. Battlefront II, in which players can reenact the greatest battles in the movies, is poised to surpass last year's original to claim the title of best-selling Star Wars videogame of all time, with copies selling at a 40 percent higher clip than its predecessor.

In September 2004, LucasFilm and Fox released the DVD box set of the original Star Wars trilogy (with some minor, if controversial alterations) at the same time it put out the first Battlefront game, generating $115 million in first-day sales between them.

"Amid all this humdrum about disappointing box office and underwhelming CD and DVD sales, no one seems to mention the billions...of dollars Obi-Wan and company took to the bank in 2005," says Mike Restaino, columnist and reviewer for DVDfile.com. "Then again, Star Wars is just about the surest sale in the world: Even if the movie was called Star Wars: Episode III:--Jar Jar Binks Goes to Candyland, Lucasfilm would sell 3 trillion copies."

But some industry analysts said the Fox and Lucas boastings are hard to decipher.

"By combining the videogame sales with DVD sales, and reporting collective numbers on both from the U.S. and an array of other territories, it's difficult to measure the performances for either format against other titles in any of those markets," noted Scott Hettrick, editor of the trade paper DVD Exclusive. "There's no way to create an apples-to-apples comparison."

In any case, Hettrick said that initial U.S. figures show that the "Sith" DVD sold at least 5 million copies in the U.S. alone, besting Warner Bros.' "Batman Begins" DVD.

Although Hettrick said Star Wars DVDs have never been the top seller of any given year and have never broken any sales records, they are always among the top 10 titles. And while "Sith" will likewise not break any records this year, given the weak slate of competition and no franchise titles to contend with like Spider-Man, Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, Hettrick says "Sith" will almost certainly be the top-selling live-action DVD title of the year and may wind up as the second biggest DVD seller of 2005, well behind "The Incredibles."

Nonetheless, the Star Wars marketing machine is still a powerful force to be reckoned with.

Not only were characters from the space opera the most popular Halloween costume line this year, with Darth Vader leading the way, but Star Wars toys are outselling its closest rivals two-to-one, claiming 9.1 percent of the U.S. toy market. And the brand is expanding rapidly.

This Thursday, Donald Trump will host a special Star Wars-themed version of Apprentice. Promotional spots airing on TV and the Web show the Donald saying "you're fired" to a briefcase-toting Chewbacca and reprimanding Darth Vader for shoddy construction work on the Death Star. The Apprentice teams will compete to see who can put up the best Battlefront II display at Best Buy stores.