Tag: BASE

‘Top Gun’ Movies Ruled 2022 U.K. Home Entertainment Sales, Rentals

Paramount Home Entertainment’s Top Gun movie franchise dominated 2022 U.K. home entertainment sales and rentals, according to new data released Jan. 5 by the British Association for Screen Entertainment (BASE) and the Official Charts Company.

Top Gun: Maverick was the biggest-selling home entertainment title in 2022, with more than 1.2 million sales across DVD, Blu-ray Disc, and digital sellthrough. The original Top Gun (1986) was the most-rented title with nearly half a million digital transactions. 

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s Spider-Man: No Way Home (the 2021 global box office champ) finished No. 2 with more than 900,000 sales across DVD, Blu-ray and digital sales, plus a rental performance of more than 450,000 transactional VOD units. 

BASE said more than 50 titles were released on premium VOD and sellthrough.

Meanwhile, subscription VOD continues to resonate with U.K. consumers, who ended 2022 with nearly 50 million subscriptions, up 6.4% from 2021. Disney+ and Netflix introduced lower-cost ad-supported options, while Paramount+ launched in the U.K., and FAST channels like Paramount’s Pluto TV continued to grow. Animated musical Encanto was the best-selling children’s title alongside it’s release on Disney+. 

HBO Max’s “House of the Dragon” dominated the TV charts, snatching the No. 1 spot with its home video release at Christmas. Longtime British favorite series, “Doctor Who” also dominated the TV disc chart with three titles in the top 10, including the last series starring Jodie Whittaker in the title role in “Doctor Who: Flux,” and “The Abominable Snowmen,” animated episodes of the lost classic set to the surviving 1967 audio recordings. 

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment’s Downton Abbey: A New Era underscored the resilience of DVD with more than 190,000 unit sales.  BASE said that more than 680 million DVDs have been sold over the last 10 years. In 2022, more than 40% of packaged-media sales were Blu-ray Disc and 4K UHD Blu-ray, with Warner Bros. Home Entertainment’s 2021 release Dune the top-selling title for the high-definition format. 

 “U.K. home entertainment has evolved at an electrifying speed to meet the needs of savvy audiences,” Liz Bales, CEO of BASE, said in a statement.

Bales said that with myriad home entertainment distribution choices, the box office still remains the greatest indicator of movie’s retail success.

“So, it was fantastic to see Top Gun: Maverick convert its outstanding cinema performance into the biggest sales of the year, and the original Top Gun prove once again that audiences love nostalgia,” Bales said. 

Official Video Chart 2022 (Blu-ray Disc and DVD, Digital Sellthrough, TVOD)

  1. Spider-Man: No Way Home (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
  2. Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount Home Entertainment)
  3. No Time to Die (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment)
  4. Top Gun (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
  5. Uncharted (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)

 

Official Video Chart 2022 (All Digital Retail; Blu-ray Disc and DVD, Digital Sellthrough)

  1. Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount Home Entertainment)
  2. Spider-Man: No Way Home (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
  3. Dune (2021) (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment)
  4. The Batman (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment)
  5. Ghostbusters – Afterlife (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)

 

Official Video Chart 2022 (All Blu-ray Disc & DVD)

  1. Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount Home Entertainment)
  2. Spider-Man: No Way Home (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
  3. No Time to Die (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment)
  4. Dune (2021) (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment)
  5. The Batman (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment)

 

Official DVD Chart 2022

  1. Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount Home Entertainment)
  2. Downton Abbey: A New Era (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment)
  3. No Time to Die (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment)
  4. Spider-Man: No Way Home (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
  5. Elvis (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment)

 

Official Blu-ray Disc Chart 2022

  1. Dune (2021) (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment)
  2. Spider-Man: No Way Home (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
  3. The Batman (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment)
  4. Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount Home Entertainment)
  5. No Time to Die (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment)

 

Official Film Download Chart: Digital Sellthrough 2022

  1. Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount Home Entertainment)
  2. Spider-Man: No Way Home (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
  3. Sing 2 (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment)
  4. Ghostbusters – Afterlife (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
  5. Dune (2021) (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment)

 

Official Film Download Chart: Digital Rental 2022

  1. Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount Home Entertainment)
  2. Spider-Man: No Way Home (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
  3. Uncharted (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
  4. Spider-Man: No Way Home (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
  5. Venom: Let There Be Carnage (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)

 

Official Film on Video Chart 2022

  1. Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount Home Entertainment)
  2. Spider-Man: No Way Home (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
  3. Spider-Man: No Way Home (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
  4. Dune (2021) (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment)
  5. The Batman (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment)

 

Official Children’s Video Chart 2022

  1. Encanto (Walt Disney Home Entertainment)
  2. Sing 2 (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment)
  3. Minions: The Rise of Gru (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment)
  4. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Paramount Home Entertainment) 
  5. The Boss Baby 2: Family Business (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment)

 

Official Catalog Video Chart 2022 on Disc

  1. Dune (2021) (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment)
  2. No Time to Die (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment)
  3. Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount Home Entertainment)
  4. The Batman (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment)
  5. Encanto (Walt Disney Home Entertainment)

 

Top-Selling Boxed Sets (Disc and Digital Sellthrough)

  1. Harry Potter: The Complete Collection
  2. Jurassic World: Ultimate Collection
  3. The Hobbit Trilogy
  4. The Godfather Trilogy
  5. Hobbit Trilogy/Lord of the Rings Trilogy

 

© The British Association for Screen Entertainment, The Official Charts

U.K. Home Entertainment Group Drops Q4 Trailer Featuring U.S. Movies, TV Shows for Rent or Purchase

The British Association for Screen Entertainment & Industry Trust for IP Awareness has dropped a new fourth-quarter promotional video outlining the latest movies and TV shows consumers can rent or purchase digitally in their home without the need for a subscription.

As usual, the selection of titles includes U.S. studio releases, including Warner Bros. Pictures’ psychological thriller Don’t Worry, Darling, Sony Pictures Entertainment’s big screen adaptation of Delia Owen’s Where the Crawdads Sing and Disney’s star-studded Amsterdam.

Other titles include Universal Pictures’ Minions: The Rise of Gru and the animated Tad the Lost Explorer and the Curse of the Mummy.

New series include “House of the Dragon,” “Gangs of London,” “Whitstable Pearl” and “Frozen Planet 2,” among others.

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U.K. Home Entertainment Group Posts Video Primer on Buying, Renting Digital Movies, TV Shows

In a market gone streaming, where transactional video-on-demand has had been offset by unlimited subscription access to movies and TV shows, the U.K. home entertainment trade group believes consumers need a refresher on buying and renting content.

The British Association for Screen Entertainment Oct. 11 released the group’s first multi-channel educational video showcasing a step-by-step guide on renting or downloading a movie or TV series from an online retail platform.

The step-by-step video guide informs viewers how the process works across digital stores, including Prime Video, Sky Store, the Apple TV App, Rakuten TV, Microsoft Store, Vudu, Google Play Store, FandangoNow and Redbox Digital.

The video helps spotlight the simplicity, flexibility and ease of digital transaction, and reinforces that buying or renting movies and TV shows allows consumers to take advantage of the best in screen entertainment in their own homes without a subscription.

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BASE/DEGI: U.K. Home Entertainment Market to Top $6 Billion in Revenue by 2025

The U.K. home entertainment market is predicted to grow to £5.5 billion ($6 billion) in consumer spending over the next three years (2025), which includes £2.4 ($2.8 billion) spent on movie sales transactions.

That’s according to a new report, released Sept. 23, from The British Association for Screen Entertainment (BASE) and DEGI: The Digital Entertainment Group International (formerly DEG Europe).

The U.K. home entertainment sector was worth £3.3 billion ($3.6 billion) in 2020, and £3.7 billion ($4 billion) in 2021.

In the new report, The Evolution of Home Entertainment Report 2020 – 2025, BASE and DEGI maintain the revenue growth reflects a rise of 114% on pre-pandemic predictions and underscores category optimism showcasing the potential of multiple entertainment formats, distribution channels and access to more than 75,000 transactional titles.

“The evolution of home entertainment is in full force … where transactional formats expand to embrace premium VOD, SVOD embraces AVOD, joined by FAST, all offering consumer choice and taking a share of growing consumer engagement,” Liz Bales, CEO of BASE and DEGI, said in a statement.

Citing additional insights from Ampere Analysis, Futuresource Consulting, Kantar, the British Screen Forum, Digital Entertainment Group and The Digital Entertainment & Retail Association, Official Charts Company, the Intellectual Property Office, and Amy Jo Smith, president/CEO of DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group, among other sources, the report contends that as consumers re-emerge from the pandemic, so too will the release of new movies and subsequent consumer spending across retail and rental channels.

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“The U.S. market continues to be the starting point for much of the change that is flowing into home entertainment markets around the world, and DEG members now span the globe,” Smith wrote in the report. “As we extend our global reach, closer collaboration with DEG International to align messaging and provide communication support for members in multiple regions and territories is paramount.”

Craig Armer, strategic insight director (entertainment) at Kantar, found that 35.1% of consumers in the U.K. visited the cinema at least once in the 52-week period through June 26, 2022, compared with 46.2% in the same period in 2019, equating to a drop of 24%. This downward trend then impacted the home entertainment market through a 40% drop to 5.1 million U.K. consumers renting or buying movies, compared with nine million home entertainment consumers in 2019.

“Expect this [trend] to bounce back over the next few years as the flow of new content becomes more consistent, possibly attracting as many as two million additional shoppers back into home entertainment,” Armer wrote.

At the same time, the dearth of new releases continues to spike VOD transactions for catalog titles.

“VOD is the largest source of catalog consumers, with 3.6 million more renters vs. pre-pandemic times,” Armer wrote.

The analyst added that packaged media, notably DVD, remains a cost-effective distribution channel for consumers. Specifically, the retail price of a new movie on DVD is virtually unchanged over the past nine years. Indeed, James Bond fans buying the 2012 release of Skyfall at £9.99 ($10.90) on DVD would also be able to find the 2021 release No Time to Die at the same price.

“Maintaining a strong visible presence for disc in physical retail, and continuing the drive for digital adoption, will ensure the industry navigates challenging economic circumstances whilst recovering from the disruption of the last few years,” Armer wrote.

British Home Entertainment Group Ups Retail Marketing of U.S. Movies

The British Association for Screen Entertainment (BASE) June 6 announced a collaboration with the U.K.’s most extensive online network for parents, Mumsnet, to amplify the availability of U.S. studio home entertainment movies for rent and purchase.

Dubbed the “What to Watch Club,” the online marketing effort aims to recruit Mumsnet’s 8 million members to host reviews and recommendations of the latest movies and TV shows to buy and rent across disc and digital download.

The marketing includes touting Sandra Bullock in Paramount Pictures’ comedy-adventure The Lost City, Universal Pictures’ Downton Abbey: A New Era, and Camila Cabello in Amazon Studios’ re-imagining of Cinderella. Other selections include Disney musical Encanto, featuring Lin-Manuel Miranda’s soundtrack, or catch up with the latest series of the scandalous “Gentleman Jack.”

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“This ground-breaking new partnership places transactional entertainment at the forefront of consumers’ minds and conversations, reaching the huge userbase Mumsnet has across multiple touchpoints,” Liz Bales, chief executive of BASE, said in a statement. “We look forward to amplifying the continued success story of disc and digital download we’ve already seen in this last year alone.”

The First “What to Watch Club” Titles are:

Amazon Studios’ Cinderella, 20th Century Films’ Death on the Nile, Universal Pictures’ Downton Abbey: A New Era, Disney’s Encanto, Universal’s Jurassic World: 5-Movie Collection, Respect, Sing 2, Paramount Pictures’ Sonic the Hedgehog 2, The Lost City, Pixar Animation’s Turning Red and Sony Pictures’ Uncharted and Morbius, among others.

DEG International, BASE Bow U.K., France Home Entertainment Retail Campaigns

Sony Pictures’ Spider-Man: No Way Home is still generating millions at the box office, but the webslinger’s home entertainment journey would appear to be just around the corner, according to a new home entertainment campaign in the United Kingdom.

While there’s been no official retail release date given for the movie, Amazon U.K. has been teasing a June 15, 2026, packaged media release date — with the ludicrous year likely to be changed at a moment’s notice.

FindAnyFilm.com, the website launched by the U.K. Film Council in 2009 to jumpstart local home entertainment retail interest in British movies, now primarily markets Hollywood releases. The latest YouTube promotional campaign cleverly leads with No Way Home footage, while previous releases Spider-Man: Far From Home and Spider-Man 2 both rank among the projected top 10 best-selling movies on disc and digital through Jan. 18, according to the Official Film Chart.

Per FindAnyFilm.com:

“Get ready to experience one of the most-talked-about movies of 2021, with Spider-Man: No Way Home battling his greatest foes yet or prepare to journey into whole new worlds — with sci-fi epic Dune. Catch up ahead of awards season and witness Lady Gaga in true to life revenge drama, House of Gucci, or discover the trials and tribulations of tennis icons, the Williams sisters — in King Richard. The kids will go barking mad for an adventure with Clifford the Big Red Dog or get back to business with The Boss Baby 2.”

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Separately, in France, the DEG International and the Syndicat de l’Edition Vidéo Numérique (SEVN), launched “Les VODays,” a new week-long digital campaign across nine of the top digital retailer platforms in France.

Digital retailers include Apple TV, CanalVOD, Filmo, Microsoft Movies & TV, VOD from Orange TV, Amazon Prime Video, Rakuten TV, UniversCine and Netgem.

The promotion includes movies from Universal Pictures Video France, Sony Pictures Entertainment France, SND Films and WarnerMedia France. The digital retailers will be offering a selection of new and catalog titles at promotional retail and rental prices across both electronic sellthrough and video-on-demand (VOD).

“Les VODays” is the first campaign in France to be delivered by the DEGI following the success of the Mega Movie Week U.K., Germany, Nordics and Australia campaigns over the last few years.

The consumer-focused campaign, backed by a nationwide media campaign, includes social media posts across Facebook and Instagram, Catch-up TV on MyTF1, 6 Play, France Television, and display advertising across the ALLOCINE network.

“The DEGI team is thrilled to be working with SEVN in France, and to share the expertise we have developed over the last few years across the wave of digital-growth, driven by the promotional and educational campaigns we have delivered internationally,” James Duvall, head of business insights and intelligence U.K. and international at DEG International, said in a statement. “Our insights around constantly evolving consumer behavior continue to drive our activity and recommendations, and we hope for many more opportunities with distributors and retailers in France, and internationally in the near future.”

 Yves Elalouf, president of SEVN, said the main objectives around the promotional campaigns are generating new customers and bringing back lapsed home entertainment consumers. 

“Creating awareness of the benefits of buying movies digitally is the primary goal,” Elalouf said.

2021: U.K. Home Entertainment Revenue Up 13% to $5 Billion, More than 21 Million Discs Sold

Consumers in the United Kingdom continued to embrace home entertainment in 2021, spending more than $5 billion across physical and digital media, which was up 13.3% from $4.4 billion spent in 2020, according to new year-end data from the British Association for Screen Entertainment. The trade group bases data from the Official Charts Company, Futuresource Consulting, Omdia, and Kantar, among other sources.

More than 21.1 million discs were sold in the U.K., the world’s No. 2 home entertainment retail market — underscoring resilience of disc sales despite challenging retail market conditions. Warner Bros. Home Entertainment was the biggest distributor in the U.K.

Meanwhile, more than 50% of U.K. households have embraced subscription video-on-demand (SVOD), with 16 million households subscribing to at least one service. That said, the growth of SVOD slowed in 2021, with growth of 28%, down from 44% in 2020.

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MGM/UA Releasing’s No Time to Die was the biggest retail title of the year with 1.15 million unit sales, including 717,500 combined DVD/Blu-ray Discs sold in two weeks, generating the largest first-week disc sales since 2017, and the biggest ever on 4K UHD Blu-ray. On Blu-ray, the movie sold 237,000 units, of which 15% was 4K UHD — surpassing the previous No. 1, Disney’s Avengers: Endgame.

The last movie with Daniel Craig as Agent 007 was also the biggest-selling title of the year on digital retail with sales of over 430,000 units.

The cross-format performance of No Time to Die underscores the home entertainment options now available to consumers, with an initial release in theaters, followed by premium video-on-demand (PVOD), electronic sellthrough, DVD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD, with traditional VOD still to come.

“2021 has no doubt been one of the most challenging on record for the U.K. home video sector, but continued consumer thirst for transactional content in 2021 was evident despite a more limited slate, with digital library sales growing year-over-year once more,” David Sidebottom, principal analyst, entertainment at Futuresource Consulting, said in a statement. “The sector remains incredibly robust heading into 2022, with transactional digital video sales set to bounce back, potentially to record levels, boosted by a plethora of new movie releases.”

Indeed, the ongoing impact of the pandemic, including shuttered theaters earlier this year drove home entertainment retail the first six months of 2021, and the consequent lack of big-screen content was felt throughout the
year. The traditional content pipeline was fractured for the first time, and the U.K. gross box office stood at 40% of pre-pandemic levels, with just over half the number of theatrical releases compared to 2019.

With the reopening of cinemas in May, the big screen experience re-emerged and began its build back steadily across the second half of 2021, as audiences grew in confidence and a blockbuster slate began to land.

This culminated in a game-changing $130 million U.K./Irish box office for
No Time to Die. The title’s success across digital and physical formats demonstrated the new landscape of co-existing multi-format screen entertainment.

Across the digital landscape, the final week of 2020 saw the biggest value week ever for electronic sellthrough, at just under $11 million, and the Christmas week saw the biggest combined value for the home entertainment sector since the pandemic began, with a value of $30 million.

The success of PVOD and digital sellthrough underscored the ongoing transactional role at the heart of the home entertainment experience for consumers. There were 17.7 million digital sale transactions in 2021, where Peter Rabbit 2 (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment) was the second-biggest selling title following No Time to Die. There were more than 27 million VOD transactions in the first 9 months of 2021, with Wonder Woman 1984 (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group) ahead of the pack as the No. 1 VOD title.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group)
was the No. 2 Blu-ray Disc seller with almost 26,000 units in the format. Black Widow (The Walt Disney Company), The Thing (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment), Wonder Woman 1984, The Suicide Squad, Godzilla vs Kong and Tenet (Warner) all sold more than 10,000 units at the higher price-point in the premium format. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy delivered the highest value for 4K UHD sales, with over $1.7 million against 19,200-unit sales.

“The figures released today show what we at Sony Pictures firmly believe: that despite a challenging period for the industry due to the pandemic, the consumer appetite for Film and TV remains as strong and vital as ever,” said Rob Marsh, BASE chairman and SVP of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Official Video Chart 2021 (All Digital; Blu-ray and DVD, EST and VOD)
1. NO TIME TO DIE
2. WONDER WOMAN 1984
3. PETER RABBIT 2
4. GODZILLA VS. KONG
5. TENET

Official Video Chart 2021 (All Digital Retail; Blu-ray and DVD, EST)
1. NO TIME TO DIE
2. PETER RABBIT 2
3. WONDER WOMAN 1984
4. GODZILLA VS KONG
5. ZACK SNYDER’S JUSTICE LEAGUE

Official Video Chart 2021 (All Blu-ray; DVD)
1. NO TIME TO DIE
2. BLACK WIDOW
3. WONDER WOMAN 1984
4. PETER RABBIT 2
5. F9: THE FAST SAGA

Official DVD Chart 2021
1. NO TIME TO DIE
2. PETER RABBIT 2
3. BLACK WIDOW
4. F9: THE FAST SAGA
5. WONDER WOMAN 1984

Official Blu-ray Chart 2021
1. NO TIME TO DIE
2. ZACK SNYDER’S JUSTICE LEAGUE
3. BLACK WIDOW
4. WONDER WOMAN 1984
5. THE SUICIDE SQUAD

Official Film Download Chart: EST 2021
1. NO TIME TO DIE
2. PETER RABBIT 2
3. THE GRINCH (ANIMATED)
4. THE GRINCH
5. ELF

Official Film Download Chart: DIGITAL RENTAL 2021 (JANUARY TO SEPTEMBER)
1. WONDER WOMAN 1984
2. TENET
3. HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE
4. GODZILLA VS. KONG
5. A QUIET PLACE

Official Film on Video Chart 2021
1. NO TIME TO DIE
2. BLACK WIDOW
3. WONDER WOMAN 1984
4. F9: THE FAST SAGA
5. ZACK SNYDER’S JUSTICE LEAGUE

Official Children’s Video Chart 2021
1. PETER RABBIT 2
2. RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON
3. SOUL
4. LUCA
5. PAW PATROL: THE MOVIE

Official TV on Video Chart 2021
1. STAR TREK: PICARD — SEASON ONE
2. THE CROWN: SEASON FOUR
3. THE CROWN: SEASON THREE
4. GAME OF THRONES: COMPLETE 8TH SEASON
5. SUPERNATURAL: THE COMPLETE 15TH SEASON

U.S. Studios Launch U.K. Radio Campaign Touting Holiday Movie Purchases

U.S. home entertainment studios, working with the British Association for Screen Entertainment trade group, have launched a promotional radio campaign encouraging consumers in the world’s No. 2 home entertainment market to purchase packaged media and digital movies.

For the first time on British radio, the 40-second spots will deliver the Official Film Chart — the U.K.’s top weekly releases on Blu-ray Disc, DVD and digital download as compiled by the Official Charts Company — directly to consumers via an editorial-style paid campaign.

A concurrent regional PR blitz aims to drive awareness of “What to Watch at Home This Weekend,” utilizing expert interviews to reach new and lapsed packaged media consumers to the category, and let them know what their neighbors and friends are watching.

Participating U.S. studios include Lionsgate, Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Walt Disney Studios and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group.

“We are now beginning to witness the impact that the re-opening of cinemas this summer has on the new release home entertainment slate,” Liz Bales, CEO of BASE, said in a statement.

Bales said that while catalog and TV shows sold well during the pandemic, new-release movies drive most consumer purchases on disc and digital.

“Amplifying this through a national broadcast and PR campaign, and simultaneously helping customers with their content choices, is a perfect … lead up to Christmas,” she said.

U.K. Home Entertainment Group Bows Winter Holiday Movie Disc, Digital Gift Promo Video

It’s never too early to think about gift buying for the winter holidays. The British Association for Screen Entertainment, the U.K.’s home entertainment trade group, Oct. 14 released a promotional YouTube video designed to inspire consumer buying of movies and TV shows on DVD, Blu-ray Disc and digital platforms in the fourth quarter.

Dubbed “Give the Gift of Film & TV,” the 2:53 minute video features a montage of clips from myriad movies, including the latest James Bond actioner No Time to Die; 20th Century Studios’ action comedy Free Guy; Disney’s Jungle Cruise; Paramount Pictures’ Paw Patrol: The Movie; Warner Bros. Pictures’ Space Jam: A New Legacy, and Universal Pictures’ F9: The Fast Saga.

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TV shows include “Killing Eve” star Jodie Corner in “Help,” and “Strictly Come Dancing: Motsi & Anton’s Strictly — The Best,” and Netflix’s award-winning drama “The Crown.”

U.K. Tops 100M Digital Movie Sales, Led by ‘The Greatest Showman’

The United Kingdom recorded its 100 millionth digital movie sale through June 23, according to the British Association for Screen Entertainment, the country’s home entertainment trade group. The milestone was tabulated by the Official Chart Company, which has been tracking digital movie sales in the U.K. since 2016.

“This is a huge moment of celebration for the home entertainment category as it shows just how much audiences have embraced the freshest ways to grow their film library, with a number that translates to around five film downloads per household in the U.K.,” Liz Bales, CEO of BASE and DEGE: The Digital Entertainment Group Europe, said in a statement. “It’s also so exciting to see digital formats snapping at the heels of the nation’s long held favorite, the DVD, and sister premium formats Blu-ray Disc and 4K UHD Blu-ray. Today’s news, coupled with the billions of physical film sales since the inceptions of those formats, continue to demonstrate just how much audiences love watching their favorite films at home as well as in cinemas”.

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The top-selling digital release was 20th Century Film’s The Greatest Showman, which has generated 1.1 million unit sales. It was the first film to ever reach 500,000 “Download & Keep” sales, and was the first — and only — film to surpass the 1 million mark on the digital format.

The rock group Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody took the second spot, followed closely by Disney/Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame — which became the fastest-selling digital film of all time after selling more than 335,000 digital downloads in its first week back in 2019. Its predecessor Avengers: Infinity War landed at No. 4.

Musical films were among the most popular with the U.K. public, with five of the top 10 musically influenced. Family favorite musicals  Moana (No. 5), Frozen 2 (No. 6) and Trolls (No. 7) also appeared in the top tier.

Action, adventure and sci-fi sequels were also among the U.K.’s favorite genre on digital, as Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens landed at No. 8 and No. 9 respectively. The 2000 Dr. Seuss adaptation How The Grinch Stole Christmas, starring Jim Carrey rounded out the chart at No. 10.

The U.K.’s Official Top 10 biggest films on digital download

Position Movie
1 The Greatest Showman
2 Bohemian Rhapsody 
3 Avengers: Endgame
4 Avengers: Infinity War
5 Moana
6 Frozen 2
7 Trolls
8 Jurassic World:  Fallen Kingdom
9 Star Wars: The Force Awakens
10 How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

© Official Charts Company 2021