Entertainment

The Greatest Showman helps boost home entertainment market by 10% in 2018

It beat Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again and The Last Jedi in the film charts.
It beat Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again and The Last Jedi in the film charts. It beat Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again and The Last Jedi in the film charts.

Musical smash hit The Greatest Showman helped the UK home entertainment market grow by 10% in 2018, according to new figures.

The film, starring Hugh Jackman as circus impressario 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%) 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% of consumers now choose to rent or stream film and TV content, while 37% 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.”