The original Star Wars Trilogy and the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy also released on BD on September 16, with the original set outselling the prequel set by three-to-one, at 24,000 and 8,000 units, respectively. Clearly, though, the main event was the complete set, available on BD for the first time with new archive materials from episodes IV, V, and VI, and new interviews and documentaries - enough to keep faithful fans busy until the upcoming theatrical release of the 3D conversion of Episode I: The Phantom Menace expected in February 2012. After the 3D versions hit theaters there will undoubtedly be another sales opportunity when they arrive on BD3D.

But the big question, as we stare down the barrel of the fourth quarter, is whether the impressive sales debut of the Star Wars BD sets marks a turning point for physical video sales in 2011. While sales of the two Star Wars BD trilogies were less than impressive, the debut of the premium-priced Complete Saga outsold the first week of the Toy Story Trilogy BD (40,000 units in November 2010), and both the Lord of the Rings Trilogy BD (85,000 units in April 2010) and LOTR Trilogy Extended Edition BD (18,000 units in June 2011) in their respective debut weeks. That's an exceptionally strong performance for a film property that, like the Toy Story and LOTR films, has long been a fixture in many, if not most, US video libraries.

Thor, with $181m in box office behind it and selling over a million copies in its first week, also achieved a stellar BD debut with 500,000 copies sold, comparing very favorably to the other two most recent releases to get the BD3D treatment, Rio and Priest. Priest had more niche appeal to the young male early-adopter set but just $29m in box office behind it; it sold an estimated 61,000 BD units in its debut week of 16 August, with BD3D representing 23 per cent of the total at 14,000 units. Rio, with $144m in box office and reflecting the typically strong sales of animated family films, sold an estimated 404,000 BD units in its debut week of 2 August, of which 23,000, or six per cent, were BD3D.

When results are in for Bridesmaids and Transformers: Dark of the Moon, we'll know for sure, but so far IHS Screen Digest analysis of the Nielsen VideoScan data suggests that September sales will mark a turning point toward brighter days. Weekly units sales comparisons for BD have gone from a 60 per cent year-over-year increase for the week ending 4 September, to a 131 per cent increase for the week ending 11 September, to 156 per cent growth in the week ending 18 September with the release of Star Wars and Thor. Lagging DVD sales have continually dragged totals into negative territory through the first eight months of the year, but the year-over-year weekly comparisons for total video sales have gone from -3 per cent to 0 per cent and then actually up by one per cent in the first three weeks of the month, with a couple of blockbuster titles yet to come.