Universal Tops 2016 U.K. Home Entertainment Market

11 Jan, 2017 By: Erik Gruenwedel

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Fox No. 1 in Blu-ray Disc sales

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment finished 2016 as the top studio in the United Kingdom, taking 20.2% market share, in addition to 18.5% in sales, according to the British Association for Screen Entertainment (BASE). The studio had 38 releases with unit sales of at least 100,000 each in the world’s third-largest home entertainment market.

Top-selling titles included The Secret Life of Pets, Star Trek Beyond (for Paramount Pictures), Straight Outta Compton, Dad’s Army, stand-up comedy Billy Connolly’s High Horse Tour Live, Minions, Jurassic World, Fifty Shades of Grey and pre-school title Paw Patrol Pups and the Pirate Treasure (Paramount), among others.

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment topped the Blu-ray Disc market, generating 20.8% market share and 21.2% in sales from titles such as Spectre, Golden Globes nominee Deadpool, Oscar nominee The Martian and Oscar winner The Revenant, among others.

Deadpool, starring Ryan Reynolds, also generated the most 4K UHD Blu-ray sales.

“When you have the right mix of great content, strong delivery channels, innovative retail partnerships and disruptive marketing campaigns, it’s easy to see why the home entertainment industry continues to captivate attention and deliver robust sales for U.K. businesses,” said Robert Price, BASE chairman, and managing director 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment UK.

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment’s Game of Thrones: The Complete Fifth Season was the top-selling TV title, with more than 470,000-boxed sets sold and 1 million "Thrones" franchise unit sales for the year. It sold 891,000-boxed sets in 2015.

As previously reported, Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Disney/Lucasfilm) was the top-selling title with more than 2.3 million units.

“The performance … is not only a reflection of the overwhelming endurance of the ["Star Wars"] franchise, but also a reflection of consumer thirst to own and engage with quality content on a format that fits with their lifestyle. Looking at the format breakdown and mapping against demographics it’s easy to see that 'Star Wars' not only continues to retain core fans but also attract new fans to the franchise, and has overall made a solid contribution to boosting the consumer base of the video category overall,” said Dean Pappadakis, category and commercial director for Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s The Lady in the Van and StudioCanal's Kray-twins biopic Legend both ended the year among top-selling titles. Legend, starring Tom Hardy, is distributed by Universal Pictures in the United States.

Golden Globes winner The Night Manager (Sony Pictures) sold 130,000 discs in 40 weeks, while ITV's Victoria sold 54,000 copies in 12 weeks. PBS Distribution will release Masterpiece: Victoria on disc in the U.S. Jan. 31. ITV’s reboot “Poldark” (released by PBS in the U.S.) sold 40,000 units. BBC’s War & Peace: The Complete Miniseries sold 50,000 copies in 47 weeks. Anchor Bay Home Entertainment distributes the series domestically.

“In 2017, delivery will be critical to the success of our industry and how agile we can be with the exciting technological opportunities up ahead,” Price said.

 

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