After earning more than $700 million at the box office worldwide, the DreamWorks/Paramount summer blockbuster Transformers has become the year’s top-selling home video release. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Michael Bay movie set a yearly record by selling more than 4.5 million units on Oct. 16, the day of its release. It also enjoyed the year’s best first week with 8.3 million units sold in its first six days at retail.
Other sales records were broken when Transformers also sold more than 100,000 high-definition DVDs on day one and 190,000 HD discs during its first week, demonstrating that the new format is catching on with consumers.
Exec produced by Steven Spielberg, Transformers raked in around $316.5 million domestically during its theatrical release, which is more than enough to warrant a sequel. Transformers 2 is on a fast track for a June 26, 2009 release. Director Bay and star Shia LaBeouf are expected to be back on board for another round of giant CG robot action based on the popular Hasbro toy line and ’80s animated series.
