The Phantom Menace has just conquered video stores, selling more than 5 million units in under 48 hours.
Twentieth Century Fox, which released the film, said Thursday that the Star Wars prequel brought in nearly $100 million in North American retail sales since its VHS release April 4.
The movie studio noted that about a tenth of the Phantom Menace tapes sold so far -- or 500,000 tapes -- were the widescreen collector's set, which comes packaged with an exclusive documentary, book and strip of 35 mm film. This indicates that a full third of all copies of the collector's edition have now sold.
"At this rate of sale, the collector's edition is on track to sell out this weekend," Fox warned would-be buyers.
Although international sales data were not yet available, the studio said that "all indications are that this type of enthusiastic retail reception is occurring globally."
The Phantom Menace soundtrack album has shipped an estimated 3 million copies worldwide, while the film itself took in some $922.6 million in global box office receipts during its theatrical release.
Despite the strong sales of the videocassette, many fans have expressed disappointment that Lucasfilm has said no DVD format release is likely before the entire prequel trilogy is completed -- 2005 at the earliest.
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