The Star is coming to Blu-ray and DVD next month

The Star is coming to Blu-ray and DVD next month January 12, 2018

star-blurayNow that the Christmas season has come and gone, and now that the film has run its course theatrically, it’s time for The Star — which depicts the Nativity from the animals’ point of view — to come out on home video. And come out it will, on February 20, in a Blu-ray and DVD package that, strikingly, only barely hints at the Christmas elements of the story on its front cover (there’s a wreath and a bow, but no Mary, no Joseph, no Magi or shepherds…).

Perhaps the people who designed this package felt Christmas imagery wouldn’t help with sales so early in the new year. In any case, the disc will come with over an hour of bonus features, most of which will consist of lessons and activities aimed at kids (sing-alongs, arts-and-crafts videos, even a sermon).

The full list of bonus features includes:

  1. Star-aoke: Sing-Along with Bo & Friends — featuring an all-new song
  2. “Life Is Good” Dance-Along
  3. Lyric Sing-Along Videos for Mariah Carey’s ‘The Star’, Fifth Harmony’s ‘Can You See’, Kelsea Ballerini’s ‘Children Go Where I Send You’, Kirk Franklin’s ‘We Three Kings’ and A Great Big World’s ‘Life Is Good’
  4. Sweet and Sparkly Stars — how to bake star-themed cookies
  5. Star Mason Jar Votives — a how-to craft video
  6. Faith All Year Round with DeVon Franklin — a “children’s sermon” on “the themes of the film and how to keep the spirit of this inspiring story alive in us every day,” delivered by the film’s producer (who is also a real-life preacher)
  7. An All-Star Cast — a featurette on the film’s voice actors

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Incidentally, a brief update on the film’s box-office performance — which, as anticipated, dropped off sharply after the Advent season was over:

The Star has earned $40.5 million in the U.S. and Canada, and, given that as of yesterday it was earning only a few thousand dollars per day, that is roughly where it will stay. The film thus now ranks ninth among “faith-based” films in North America…

  1. 2004 — The Passion of the Christ — $370.8 million
  2. 2014 — Heaven Is for Real — $91.4 million
  3. 2015 — War Room — $67.8 million
  4. 2016 — Miracles from Heaven — $61.7 million
  5. 2014 — God’s Not Dead — $60.8 million
  6. 2014 — Son of God — $59.7 million
  7. 2017 — The Shack — $57.4 million
  8. 2011 — Soul Surfer — $43.9 million
  9. 2017 — The Star — $40.5 million
  10. 2006 — The Nativity Story — $37.6 million

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… and eighth among Bible-themed films released in the past 40 years:

  1. 2004 — The Passion of the Christ — $370.8 million
  2. 1998 — The Prince of Egypt — $101.4 million
  3. 2014 — Noah — $101.2 million
  4. 2014 — Exodus: Gods and Kings — $65 million
  5. 2014 — Son of God — $59.7 million
  6. 2017 — The Shack — $57.4 million
  7. 2009 — Year One — $43.3 million
  8. 2017 — The Star — $40.5 million
  9. 2006 — The Nativity Story — $37.6 million
  10. 2016 — Risen — $36.9 million
  11. 1981 — History of the World, Part I — $31.7 million
  12. 2016 — Hail, Caesar! — $30.5 million
  13. 2016 — Ben-Hur — $26.4 million
  14. 2002 — Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie — $25.6 million
  15. 1979 — Monty Python’s Life of Brian — $20 million
  16. 1980 — Wholly Moses! — $14.2 million
  17. 2006 — One Night with the King — $13.4 million
  18. 1988 — The Last Temptation of Christ — $8.4 million
  19. 2016 — The Young Messiah — $6.5 million
  20. 1985 — King David — $5.1 million
  21. 2003 — The Gospel of John — $4.1 million

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The Star has earned another $20.5 million overseas, which is a lot better than most “faith-based” films have done.1 The film now ranks fourth within the genre overseas…

  1. 2004 — The Passion of the Christ — $241.1 million
  2. 2017 — The Shack — $39.6 million
  3. 2003 — Luther — $23.6 million
  4. 2017 — The Star — $20.5 million
  5. 2014 — Left Behind — $13.4 million
  6. 2016 — Miracles from Heaven — $12.2 million
  7. 2014 — Son of God — $11.1 million
  8. 2015 — Little Boy — $10.9 million
  9. 2014 — Heaven Is for Real — $9.9 million
  10. 2016 — Risen — $9.2 million

…and eighth worldwide:

  1. 2004 — The Passion of the Christ — $370.8 + 241.1 = 611.9 million
  2. 2014 — Heaven Is for Real — $91.4 + 9.9 = 101.3 million
  3. 2017 — The Shack — $57.4 + 39.6 = 96.9 million
  4. 2016 — Miracles from Heaven — $61.7 + 12.2 = 73.9 million
  5. 2015 — War Room — $67.8 + 5.5 = 73.3 million
  6. 2014 — Son of God — $59.7 + 11.1 = 70.8 million
  7. 2014 — God’s Not Dead — $60.8 + 3.9 = 64.7 million
  8. 2017 — The Star — $40.5 + 20.5 = 61.0 million
  9. 2011 — Soul Surfer — $43.9 + 3.2 = 47.1 million
  10. 2006 — The Nativity Story — $37.6 + 8.8 = 46.4 million

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Note, however, that for all the film’s success relative to faith-based films, it has still done fairly poorly among animated films in general. The Star’s $61 million gross worldwide is by far the least that any Sony Pictures Animation film has earned; indeed, it is less than half of the $123.1 million that their second-lowest release, 2012’s The Pirates! Band of Misfits, took in worldwide. Whatever else it was, The Star was not a cross-over hit on the order of, say, The Prince of Egypt (which earned $218.6 million worldwide in 1998).

Finally, here are the DVD bonus features that are already online:

First, the lyric videos:

To my knowledge, there is no “lyric video” for the Mariah Carey song online, but there is an official music video:

There is also one lyric video online that does not appear to be on the Blu-ray:

And then there are the how-to baking and crafts videos:

Again, there is one more crafts video online that does not appear to be on the Blu-ray:

You can get links to other videos and featurettes at the bottom of this post.

1. The foreign-gross figures at Box Office Mojo are incomplete and sometimes out of date. In some cases, a movie’s summary page will list no foreign grosses at all, but clicking on the “foreign” button will produce a list of grosses from individual countries. And sometimes, when a film does have a figure that sums up the film’s foreign grosses, that figure is less up-to-date than the information for the individual countries. So, I have clicked on the “foreign” buttons for the top 50 “faith-based” films and, when the “foreign” figure is older than the figures for the individual countries, I have tallied the foreign figures myself. But the stats could still be incomplete.


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