'The Greatest Showman' boosts home entertainment market by 10% in 2018
Musical has sold more than 2.7 million copies
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Your support makes all the difference.Smash hit musical film The Greatest Showman helped the UK home entertainment market grow by 10 per cent in 2018, according to new figures.
The film, starring Hugh Jackman as circus impresario PT Barnum, was the best-selling title of the year, ahead of Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again and Star Wars: The Last Jedi in second and third place, according to the British Association for Screen Entertainment.
It has sold more than 2.7 million copies, with almost three quarters (72 per cent) of those sales coming from physical formats, helping bring the value of the home entertainment market to £2.3 billion.
Figures show that some 63 per cent of consumers now choose to rent or stream film and TV content, while 37 per cent buy content either on disc or download.
Marvel fans also boosted home entertainment sales in 2018, with Avengers: Infinity War, Thor: Ragnarok and Black Panther selling more than two-and-a-half million copies combined.
Avengers: Infinity War was the fourth best selling home entertainment release of the year across digital retail, blu-ray and DVD, followed by Paddington 2.
Liz Bales, chief executive of BASE said: “The third consecutive year of growth in the video category underlines the fact that audiences remain engaged with a broad variety of home entertainment content and format options.
“This serves as a testament to the innovation and energy that continue to drive the home entertainment category even as the high street retail environment presents clear challenges in some areas.
“Today’s customers enjoy a multitude of options when it comes to keeping themselves entertained and clearly continue to find a huge amount of relevance in the video category which, more flexibly than ever before, caters to every need; whether that is watching on the go, building a digital library or securing the absolute best viewing experience premium formats now guarantee.
“We face into the New Year with a clear desire to build on successes but also to ensure that the degree of choice available remains one of the category’s great strengths.”
Press Association
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