A Wickedly Good 2025 for British Talent! Records Break as Top Entertainment Titles are Revealed

The total value of the UK Media and Entertainment Industry in 2025 broke records to hit an all-time high of £34bn, up 8% from £30bn in 2024 [1]
The value of the Home Entertainment market in the UK rose by a massive 10% year on year to an all-time high of £5.7bn[2], which includes streaming, buying and renting films and TV shows
It was more than a good year for WICKED: the first of the two Universal Pictures distributed WICKED film adaptations was the biggest Home Entertainment film of 2025 in the UK according to Official Charts Company data, with the most sales and rentals totalling £17.7mn[3], to add to its £61.2mn[4] Box Office outing in 2024, and the £45.9mn[5]Box office haul for WICKED: FOR GOOD in 2025
British talent soared in 2025, dominating the top five films of the year on the Official Video Chart: WICKED and sequel WICKED: FOR GOOD starring Brits Cynthia Erivo and Jonathan Bailey were filmed entirely in the UK: CONCLAVE, the top rental title of 2025 based on the novel by British author Robert Harris starred Brit Ralph Fiennes and was awarded Best British Film winner at the 2025 BAFTAS; BRIDGET JONES: MAD ABOUT THE BOY, the fourth biggest selling film on the chart was based on the best-selling book by British writer Helen Fielding, co-produced by British production company Working Title with a predominantly British cast, and was directed by Brit Michael Morris in London and the Lake District: second biggest selling title on the chart GLADIATOR II was directed by legendary British Director Ridley Scott, with key battle scenes filmed in the UK; and JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH, the fifth biggest selling title in the chart, also starring Brit leading-man of the moment Jonathan Bailey, was directed by Brit Gareth Edwards.
Watching films and TV shows at home remains the most popular pastime for UK entertainment lovers, with the largest share of consumer spend
Innovation at the heart of Home Entertainment continues to deliver for audiences. The popularity of renting and buying films digitally drove the value of both up: the combined digital sales market rose 4.5% to a value of £245mn[6]. Buying films at home grew by 7.4%[7] in value, and the rental market rose by 1.7% to a value of £137mn[8]
GLADIATOR II was the second most popular film with audiences, with a value of £7.1mn[9] sales and rentals, 25 years after the release of the first GLADIATOR film, which also achieved £195.2k[10]sales and rentals in 2025
Papal thriller CONCLAVE topped the Official Film Digital Rental Chart 2025, showing the ongoing popularity of original stories with audiences. The independently produced Black Bear Pictures thriller was the top rental title of 2025 for UK audiences with a value of nearly £4mn[11]
Universal Pictures’ JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH scored the fifth spot on the list of most sales and rentals, with a value of £6.1mn[12]to add to its box office haul of £36.1mn[13]following its UK Premiere in June 2025
A MINECRAFT MOVIE was a smash in cinemas and at home for families: it was the biggest title at the UK box office with £56.9mn[14],and the sixth biggest-selling title at home, with a value of £7.5mn[15]across its total sales and rentals
Audiences are still mad about BRIDGET JONES! The newest film in the franchise, BRIDGET JONES: MAD ABOUT THE BOY grabbed the 4^th biggest selling spot on the Official Video Chart 2025 based on sales and rentals for distributor Universal Pictures, earning £7.4mn[16]
Streaming remains the audience’s top choice for watching at home with 20.5mn[17]homes using at least one service, and 69.5%[18]of the population watching. Netflix is the most popular service for UK consumers with 17.6mn[19]subscribers in the autumn, bolstered by the success of titles like award winner ADOLESCENCE, and animated phenomenon K-POP DEMON HUNTERS. Amazon Prime Video was the second biggest channel, in 13.6mn homes[20], and popular with audiences with its mix of free titles for subscribers, as well as new and classic titles to buy and rent
More titles than ever were released fresh from cinemas and attracting a higher price, 79[21] in 2025 compared to 62 in 2024, in a year when the UK Box Office also rose by 1%[22]
Blu-Rays and DVDs are still the first choice for many customers. DOWNTON ABBEY: THE FINALE enjoyed huge DVD sales success at the end of the year with 56.5k[23]units sold on DVD in just two weeks to secure the third top-selling spot on the end-of-year Official DVD Chart. Blu-Ray fan-favourite Warner Bros. Pictures distributed SUPERMAN (2025) was the number one title on the Blu-Ray chart, and contributed to the value of the Blu-Ray market rising by 3.2%[24]in 2025
The final week of 2025 saw 2.2mn[25]unit sales and rentals, including 120.1k[26]sales for classic Christmas titles ELF and 77.5k[27]for THE POLAR EXPRESS, while AVATAR: Fire and Ash dominated in cinemas, and STRANGER THINGS: THE FINALE was released simultaneously on Netflix and in cinemas to the delight of UK fans

London, 13^th January 2026: Today, the first set of figures to be released in 2026 by the British Association for Screen Entertainment (BASE) in association with the Official Charts Company reveal that audiences love watching films and TV shows at home more than ever, pushing the value of the UK Home Entertainment sector to £5.7bn[28], the largest figure in recorded history. This number includes streaming, buying and renting films digitally or on DVD or Blu-Ray.

The total value of the UK media and entertainment industry rose to £34bn[29], also an industry record, where Visual Entertainment was the top choice for audiences, over gaming and music. This number includes transactional and Pay TV Home Entertainment, Cinema, Games, and Music, where the visual Home Entertainment consumer spend accounted for 17% of that number. The value of the sector grew to an all-time high without the disruptions to production and distribution that have challenged the industry in recent years.

Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande hit WICKED, filmed entirely in the UK and also starring UK leading-man Jonathan Bailey, soared to the top of the sales charts in 2025, selling and renting 1.4mn[30] units with a value of £17.7mn[31]across UK Home Entertainment. This figure includes all sales and rentals of the film across Digital and Disc (EST, VOD, Blu-ray and DVD). (Official Charts Company measures individual content purchases on disc and digital, to rent, buy or own in the UK, unlike multi-content SVoD services). WICKED scored £61.2mn[32] at the UK Box office in 2024, while WICKED: FOR GOOD has achieved £46.5mn[33] at the box office so far in 2025 and 2026, before its home entertainment release on January 2^nd 2026.

Liz Bales, Chief Executive, BASE said: “The UK entertainment industry is a globally admired powerhouse of talent and innovation that has excelled in 2025. Whether it is buying, renting, streaming or in cinemas: UK supported and created film and TV shows continue to deliver for audiences. The strength of the UK entertainment industry is bolstered by the diversity of channels and choices for consumers who, alongside the array of streaming services being embraced, are flocking to buy and rent options, in growing numbers. As we move to embrace exciting new partnerships across the industry, and welcome Government’s recognition and support for the economic contribution of the Creative Industries, 2026 is set to offer exciting change, further growth and a wealth of brilliant and beautiful new stories for audiences to embrace in all the ways they know and love”.

Ridley Scott directed GLADIATOR II, released 25 years after the Russell Crowe original, fought its way to the number two spot in the Official Video Chart 2025, reaping a value of £7.1mn[34]across individual sales and rentals. More titles than ever were released fresh from cinemas and attracting a higher price: 79 in 2025, compared to 62 in 2024, in a year when the UK box office also rose by 1%[35].

BAFTA Best British film of 2025, the Ralph Fiennes papal thriller CONCLAVE proved the popularity of independent films and original stories with audiences, with the most rentals across the year, achieving a value of £4mn[36]. The value of the UK rental market rose to £137mn[37] in 2025, driven by fantastic stories, the ease of digital rental, and the innovative premium rental market.

Warner Bros. Pictures SUPERMAN (2025) flew to number one on the Official Blu-Ray Chart 2025, where the value of the category is up 3.1%[38] year on year. The higher price of the three-film LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY achieved sales totalling 13.8k[39], with a value of £804.1k[40], showing the ongoing love for the films with fans, and the importance of older titles remaining available to audiences to own at home.

British powerhouse DOWNTON ABBEY: THE FINALE sold 56.5k[41] DVDS for a value of £568k[42] in just two weeks from its release on December 15^th 2025, proving the ongoing popularity of the format for audiences who still value a physical copy of a film or TV show.

British made national treasure Bridget Jones was the fourth biggest selling film of the year on the Official Video Chart, with 740.5k[43] sales and rentals for BRIDGET JONES: MAD ABOUT THE BOY, and a value of £7.4mn[44]. Another Universal Pictures title, British directed JURASSIC PARK: REBIRTH was the fifth biggest selling title, with 598k[45] sales and rentals, to contribute a value of £7.1mn[46].

The final week of 2025 saw 2.2mn[47]unit sales and rentals, including 120.1k[48]sales for classic Christmas titles ELF and 77.5k[49]for THE POLAR EXPRESS, while AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH dominated in cinemas, and STRANGER THINGS: THE FINALE was released simultaneously on Netflix and in cinemas to the delight of UK fans. Netflix remains the most popular service for UK consumers with 17.6mn[50] subscribers in the autumn, bolstered by the success of titles like award winner ADOLESENCE, and animated phenomenon K-POP DEMON HUNTERS. Amazon Prime Video was the second biggest channel, in 13.6mn homes[51], and popular with audiences with its mix of free titles for subscribers, as well as new and classic titles to buy and rent. Streaming remains the audience’s top choice for watching at home with 20.5[52] million homes using at least one service, and 69.5%[53] of the population watching. The now established ad-tiers for streaming channels contributed to the rise in value of the industry, when coupled with the consumer spend. Disney+ was in 7.5mn UK homes and Paramount+ was in 3.5mn homes. Smaller streaming channels also saw growth, as fans embraced variety of content across Discovery, which grew to 3.2mn homes, Apple TV which grew to 2.8mn homes, and NOW which grew to 2mn homes. Four of the five top selling TV Titles in 2025 first aired on streaming channels in the UK, where HBO’s HOUSE OF THE DRAGON dominated for the third year running, and fan favourite Doctor Who took the number two spot, with the classic DOCTOR WHO: THE SAVAGES, which first aired in 1966, demonstrating the continuing thirst of fans for classic TV to own at home.

NB: BASE will release full market data and analysis later in January 2026.

Official All-Video Chart 2025

(Top five charts for each video format and genre, not including box sets)

Official Video Chart 2024 (All Digital; Blu-ray and DVD, EST, TVOD)

1 WICKED

2 GLADIATOR II

3 CONCLAVE

4 BRIDGET JONES – MAD ABOUT THE BOY

5 JURASSIC WORLD – REBIRTH

Official Film Chart 2025 (All Digital Retail; Blu-ray and DVD, EST)

1 WICKED

2 A MINECRAFT MOVIE

3 GLADIATOR II

4 BRIDGET JONES – MAD ABOUT THE BOY

5 JURASSIC WORLD – REBIRTH

Official Film Download Chart 2025 (EST)

1 WICKED

2 A MINECRAFT MOVIE

3 BRIDGET JONES – MAD ABOUT THE BOY

4 GLADIATOR II

5 JURASSIC WORLD – REBIRTH

Official Film Digital Rental Chart 2025 (VOD):

1 CONCLAVE

2 GLADIATOR II

3 BRIDGET JONES – MAD ABOUT THE BOY

4 WICKED

5 JURASSIC WORLD – REBIRTH

Official Video Chart 2025 (All Blu-ray & DVD)

1 WICKED

2 GLADIATOR II

3 JURASSIC WORLD – REBIRTH

4 MISSION IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING

5 PADDINGTON IN PERU

Official Blu-ray Chart 2025

1 SUPERMAN (2025)

2 WICKED

3 GLADIATOR II

4 MISSION IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING

5 NOSFERATU (2024)

Official DVD Chart 2025

1 WICKED

2 GLADIATOR II

3 DOWNTON ABBEY – THE GRAND FINALE

4 PADDINGTON IN PERU

5 JURASSIC WORLD – REBIRTH

Official TV on Video Chart 2025

1 HOUSE OF THE DRAGON – SEASON 2

2 DOCTOR WHO – THE SAVAGES

3 THE PENGUIN

4 FALLOUT – SEASON 1

5 THE LAST OF US – SEASON 2

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[50] BARB Establishment Survey Q3 2025

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[52] BARB Establishment Survey Q3 2025

[53] BARB Establishment Survey Q3 2025