U.K. Blu-ray Disc Sales Up 20% in Q3

31 Oct, 2016 By: Erik Gruenwedel

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Sales of Blu-ray Disc movies in the United Kingdom increased 20% in the third-quarter (ended Sept. 25) — and are up 12% year-to-date, according to new data from .

The London-based research firm attributed the increase to a varied release slate of movies suited to 1080p resolution, including Warner Bros. Home Entertainment’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War, among others.

The two titles rank 13th and sixth, respectively, in Blu-ray Disc sales on the Official Charts Company’s ranking since their British retail release dates earlier this year. 

Other top-selling BD titles for the week through Oct. 30 include Warcraft: The Beginning (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment) (third); Marvel’s Ant-Man (fourth); Universal Pictures’ Miss Saigon (featuring London cast) in fifth; Disney’s Zootropolis (seventh); 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment’s Deadpool (ninth); Warner’s The Conjuring 2 (eighth) and The Man Who Fell to Earth (Studiocanal) in 10th.

Kantar Worldpanel analyst Fiona Keenan said a decline in packaged media consumers continues to affect physical video, but it’s not all bad news. She attributed the spike in Blu-ray shoppers helped slow the overall decline.

Major U.K. entertainment retailers HMV, Sainsbury’s and Zavvi all managed to up consumer activity during the past 12 weeks. Indeed, HMV overtook Amazon to become the UK’s largest music retailer, attracting 41,000 new shoppers and growing its share of the overall physical entertainment market by 2.7 percentage points.

“Blu-ray’s share of video sales grew during the quarter higher than at any point in 2015,” said Keenan. “Sales … were helped by big-action releases particularly well-suited to viewing in high-definition.”

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