Bond 50 Becomes Bestselling Blu-ray Box Set of 2012
Posted December 13, 2012 02:01 PM by Webmaster
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM) and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment announced today that Bond 50 is the bestselling Blu-ray box set of 2012 with projected worldwide sales totaling $50 million in consumer spending to date. The unprecedented 23-disc premium collection features all 22 classic films on stunning Blu-ray for the first time and more than 122 hours of bonus features. The collectible box set was released on September 24 in the United Kingdom and September 25 in North America; additional international markets followed through October.
The Bond 50 box set release was timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary celebration of the Bond franchise in 2012. The year-long campaign launched globally at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, included a first of a kind exhibit of Bond vehicles at San Diego Comic-Con, the re-release of Dr. No in U.S. movie theaters and a Roger Moore International press day before culminating with the "007 Days of Bond: the Blu-relay Tour" throughout the UK.
Debuting just prior to the theatrical premiere of Skyfall, the Bond 50 box set includes an additional space for that Blu-ray when it is released next year.
Top selling in Units Sold may have been The Lord of the Rings: Extended Edition set. That would be guess, at least... with all of the sales it's been included in and the anticipation building for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
Even if it didn't sell in as high a volume as something else, it's still surprising, considering so many people elected to finish out their collections individually, instead of buying the set. This set was almost much more competitively priced than most, at it's release. Hope it sends a message that it's finally time to get rid of the BD premium with new release titles too.
2012 is not over yet, so I don't see why the company should make an official announcement for a total count of units sold. The box sets are still selling.
This box is SO hard to find in retail stores now - we pulled it from our shelves with no reason why and now it's no longer available in any retail store here in Calgary, Canada. I'm certainly not paying $400+ from "sellers" on Amazon, so thank god I hunted high and low and found the last one in the city and paid regular price
So it's not the 'best-selling' box set, just the most profitable. I'm guessing Star Wars or (as mentioned above) Lord of the Rings sold the most units, only with one-fourth to one-half the total price of the Bond set. I'm going to call MGM immediately and alert them to their error.
It is such a silly and trivial selling point (if it is a selling point at all) but what really impressed me was the empty place holder for Skyfall.
It is like the packaging designers were collector's with all the same quirks that we have. There's nothing more annoying to an A.D.D. collector than buying a set and then having a separate piece sitting on the outside. It doesn't match...it doesn't fit in. It is just a pimple on the outside of the set...taunting you and reminding you that your set is incomplete and that you are a wh@re of beelzebub.
At $150-200, currently almost $300, per unit (unless you grabbed the Black Friday Deal on Amazon) I'm not surprised. It would take three Star Wars or Indiana Jones set for every one Bond Set sold.