Despite being the most divisiveStar Warsmovie in the history of the franchise,The Last Jediis currently the best-selling Blu-ray of 2018. We’re roughly three-quarters of the way through the year and, by a pretty wide margin, director Rian Johnson’s entry in a galaxy far, far away is leading the pack with 3.02 million units sold. That means, divisive as it may have been, Lucasfilm is still raking in the dough.
Black Panthercomes in at the number two spot with 2.62 million units sold. Though, it’s arguable thatBlack Pantheris just as successful, or close to it, as the Marvel Studios release hit Blu-ray in mid-May, whereasThe Last Jedihit shelves back in March. Trailing those two billion dollar blockbuster behemoths is another MCU movie in the form ofThor: Ragnarok, with 2.34 million units sold so far in 2018.
The big takeaway here is thatDisneyis clearlyowning the movie marketplaceright now. Not only are they easily the most dominant studio at the box office currently, but as evidenced by this list, they’re also releasing movies that consumers like enough to own. Case in point, Pixar’sCococame in at the number four spot. The Mouse House is exercising a level of dominance that Hollywood frankly hasn’t seen before and that’s only going to increase, logic would dictate, once their purchase of 20th Century Fox is complete.
Controversy or no controversy, this list isn’t terribly surprising when looking at the numbers.The Last Jedigrossed $1.33 billion worldwide.Black Pantherdid very similar business at $1.34 billion worldwide. These sales figures seem to largely follow along the lines that the most successful movies at the box office go on to sell the most copies on home video. There are some exceptions to that rule, such asBlade Runner 2049, which is sitting at the number nine spot. The movie was a relative bomb but clearly has a very devoted fanbase. Those sales probably won’t be enough to save the movie from being something of afinancial misfire.
In part, these sales figures forThe Last Jedimay explain why Disney and Lucasfilm are still moving ahead with Rian Johnson’s originalStar Warstrilogy, which we still don’t have too much information on at the present time. Johnson did recently confirm that he’s still working on it though. Sorry, haters. you may check out a full list of the top ten highest-selling Blu-rays of 2018 so far for yourself below. The sales information used in this story was provided byThe Numbers.
