Best Year Ever: BARBIE is Crowned Number One as the UK's Biggest Titles of 2023 are Revealed

The value of the UK Home Entertainment Category in the UK rose to £4.9bn[1] in 2023, up 10.6% Year on Year (YoY)
The rise was driven by the ongoing surge in consumer uptake of subscription services, with over 56[2] million subscriptions in 2023, a 5.4% YoY rise
BARBIE[3] was the biggest selling standalone title of 2023 in the UK on digital and disc, inclusive of EST, VOD, Blu-ray and DVD, selling 700k[4] units
UK consumers spent a collective £200[5] per minute on the BARBIE movie in 2023, which made it the biggest visual entertainment title of the year across both Home Entertainment and in cinemas
JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4[6] fought to the last: it was the second biggest selling title of 2023 on EST, VOD, Blu-ray and DVD, with 694k[7] units sold across the year, and was the biggest rental title of the year with 306k[8] transactions
James Cameron’s AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER[9] was the highest performing EST and DISC title, with digital and physical ownership transactions at 560k[10] units across the year, following a £52m[11] performance at the UK Box Office before it’s transactional and Disney+ premier in June 2023
Chris Pratt’s family film SUPER MARIO. BROS MOVIE[12] was the third biggest release of the year, and the biggest title for kids, with 648k[13] transactions including EST, VOD, Blu-ray and DVD
Christopher Nolan’s critically acclaimed OPPENHEIMER[14] was the biggest release on Blu-ray in the UK in 2023, with a value of £1.1m[15] on Blu-ray alone
Roald Dahl’s MATILDA THE MUSICAL[16] was the fifth biggest selling title of the year, with overall transactions of 483k[17] in 2023
The total number of transactions on Visual Home Entertainment in the UK hit 70 million[18] in 2023
The final week of 2023 saw EST sales transactions of 906k[19] up 44% YoY, in spite of the growth in SVoD’s per household YoY to 2.7[20] services in the UK
TAYLOR SWIFT: THE ERAS TOUR[21] saw a week one value of £428k[22] on Premium Video on Demand (PVoD) following its release on December 13^th, building on the £12.2m[23] Box Office performance across 6 weeks in Autumn 2023, the biggest event cinema release ever in the UK[24]
GAME OF THRONES: HOUSE OF THE DRAGON[25] Season One ruled the TV DISC charts for the second year running, with 63.5k[26] sales, followed closely by three titles in the top five that premiered on SVoD channels, as audiences continue to invest in ownership of their favourite TV shows

Today, the first set of figures to be released in 2024 by the British Association for Screen Entertainment (BASE) and Official Charts Company (OCC) crown BARBIE the queen of 2023 home entertainment, with 700k sales across Disc and Digital EST and VOD. (Official Charts Company (OCC) measures individual content purchases on disc and digital, to rent, buy or own in the UK, unlike multi-content SVoD services.)

The value of the UK Home Entertainment Category rose to £4.9bn[27] in 2023 inclusive of all Streaming Video on Demand (SVoD), DIGITAL, DISC sales, and rental (Premium Electronic Sell Through (PEST), Electronic Sell Through (EST), Premium Video on Demand (PVoD), Video on Demand (VOD[28]), DVD, BLU-RAY, 4K UHD, BOXSET), up 10.6% Year on Year (YoY), following a 14.3% rise YoY in 2022. The rise was driven by the ongoing surge in consumer uptake of subscription services, with over 56[29] million subscriptions in 2023, a 5.4% YoY rise.

BARBIE was the UK’s biggest visual entertainment title across Theatrical and Home Entertainment, with a performance of £95.5m[30] at the UK Box Office, as well as a value of over £9.5m[31] across transactional Home Entertainment in 2023, through Premium EST (PEST) and Premium VOD (PVoD) releases in September 2023, and physical release in October 2023. This amounted to a collective consumer spend of just over £200 per minute on Greta Gerwig’s BARBIE across the year, across all visual formats, demonstrating the resonance of content across channels with savvy audiences as release windows continue to evolve.

KEANU REEVES and JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 topped the 2023 rental charts, with 306k[32] sales on VoD, to add to its 388k[33] sales across Disc and EST. The JOHN WICK lifetime franchise transactional sales (excluding VoD) are now 2.5m units in the UK, with a Home Entertainment value of £21m[34] (excluding VOD).

AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER was the highest performing EST and DISC title, with digital and physical ownership transactions at 560k[35] units across the year, following a £52m[36] performance at the UK Box Office, before it’s transactional and Disney+ premier in June 2023.

Christopher Nolan’s critically acclaimed OPPENHEIMER was the biggest title across both disc formats in the UK in 2023, with a value of £1.1m[37] on Blu-ray and £673k on DVD.

Roald Dahl’s MATILDA THE MUSICAL was the fifth highest selling title of 2023, following its successful cinema release over Christmas 2022.

The top five Home Entertainment titles of 2023 clearly demonstrate the breadth and variety available to consumers to rent and own in the UK, with 70m[38] total transactions across the year. The final week of 2023 saw EST sales of over 900k units, with a value at £5.9m[39], up 34% YoY. This included 5 Christmas films in the top ten: LOVE ACTUALLY[40], ELF[41], THE POLAR EXPRESS[42], VIOLENT NIGHT[43], NATIONAL LAMPOONS CHRISTMAS VACATION[44], demonstrating that audiences continue to want to own their favourite films, be that digitally or physically.

BLACK ADAM[45] was the biggest title on DVD, demonstrating the resonance and value of big family titles on the most affordable new release physical format, with 80k[46] units sold.

54 titles were released on Premium Video on Demand (PVOD) and/or Premium EST, one more than 2022, as audiences grow accustomed to the new shape of release windows. TAYLOR SWIFT: THE ERAS TOUR scored the second biggest PVoD week one sales of 2023 (following BARBIE) with £428k[47] on Premium Video on Demand (PVoD) only, following its release on December 13^th, building on the £12.2m[48] Box Office performance across six weeks in 2023.

Universal Pictures Chris Pratt starrer SUPER MARIO BROS. was the biggest kids title on Home Entertainment in the UK in 2023, with 648k transactional sales across Home Entertainment, and was the third biggest selling title of the year. The success of the SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE alongside BARBIE, and most recently WONKA[49], that has amassed £45m[50] at the UK Box Office to date over Christmas 2023, further demonstrates the love of known characters for audiences, when told in new and exciting ways.

GAME OF THRONES: HOUSE OF THE DRAGON Season One ruled the TV charts for the second year running, snatching the number one spot despite its release at the end of 2022, and prior to the release of season two on Sky/Now in the UK in summer 2024. The strong appetite for audiences for ownership of SVoD premier shows is clear, as the rest of the top five TV titles include THE LAST OF US[51] Season One at number 2, STAR TREK – STRANGE NEW WORLDS[52] Season One at number 3, and THE WALKING DEAD, COMPLETE 11^th Season at Number 5[53], with DOCTOR WHO – 60^th ANNIVERSARY SPECIALS[54] at number four.

Liz Bales, Chief Executive, BASE said: “It’s genuinely wonderful to see the volume of units purchased and the range of titles in 2023’s top five UK buy, rent and own Home Entertainment chart, as it perfectly demonstrates the convenience and breadth of this part of the Home Entertainment offering, and how much consumers value that. Audiences can control when and where they watch the films, TV shows and special interest programming they love, in a completely complimentary way to the SVoD services they invest in, which is shown in those fantastic final week figures of 2023: Home Entertainment titles were bought, downloaded and rented nearly one million times across digital and physical in that week alone, in addition to the multiple SVoD and linear TV options. When we look back at 2023, and the resurgence of HMV in particular, which opened 24 new stores in the UK, and with 138 stores in total, we can see that servicing the fans, and the appetite for physical releases on the UK high street, as well as an incredibly healthy EST and rental market, is incredibly important.”

The British Association for Screen Entertainment has represented the UK Visual Home Entertainment category for over 40 years. The primary objective of BASE is to champion the growth of screen entertainment across disc and digital, while maintaining a business environment with the fewest regulatory burdens. Our members are represented within the £4.9 billion Home Entertainment market alongside Affiliate and Associate members from a host of critical industry stakeholders.

Official Video Charts 2023

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

Official Video Chart 2023 (All Digital; Blu-ray and DVD, EST, TVOD Jan-Sept)

1 BARBIE

2 JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4

3 THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE

4 AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER

5 ROALD DAHL’S MATILDA THE MUSICAL

Official Video Chart 2023 (All Digital Retail; Blu-ray and DVD, EST)

1 AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER

2 THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE

3 BARBIE

4 JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4

5 INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY

Official Video Chart 2023 (All Blu-ray & DVD)

1 OPPENHEIMER

2 JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4

3 BLACK ADAM

4 AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER

5 TOP GUN: MAVERICK

Official DVD Chart 2023

1 BLACK ADAM

2 JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4

3 ELVIS

4 OPPENHEIMER

5 TOP GUN: MAVERICK

Official Blu-ray Chart 2023

1 OPPENHEIMER

2 AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER

3 JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4

4 BLACK ADAM

5 MISSON: IMPOSSIBLE: DEAD RECKONING PT 1

Official Film Download Chart: EST 2023

1 AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER

2 THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE

3 BARBIE

4 INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY

5 JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4

Official Film Download Chart: DIGITAL RENTAL 2023 (51 weeks, not including WK. 52)

1 JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4

2 BARBIE

3 BLACK ADAM

4 NO HARD FEELINGS

5 PLANE

Official Film on Video Chart 2023

1 AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER

2 BARBIE

3 JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4

4 INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY

5 OPPENHEIMER

Official Children’s Video Chart 2023

1 THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE

2 PUSS IN BOOTS – THE LAST WISH

3 THE POLAR EXPRESS

4 SING 2

5 ELEMENTAL

Official TV on Video Chart 2023

1 HOUSE OF THE DRAGON – SEASON 1

2 THE LAST OF US – SEASON 1

3 STAR TREK – STRANGE NEW WORLDS – SEASON 1

4 DOCTOR WHO – 60^TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIALS

5 THE WALKING DEAD – THE COMPLETE 11^TH SEASON

Official Music on Video Chart 2023

1 MOONAGE DAYDREAM

2 GET BACK

3 DANCE CRAZE – BEST OF BRITISH SKA

4 THE BLUE SAPPHIRE TOUR

5 THIS IS US

Official Sports and Fitness Video Chart 2023

1 WWE – ROYAL RUMBLE 2023

2 WWE – WRESTLEMANIA 39

3 WWE – SUMMERSLAM 2023

4 WWE – MONEY IN THE BANK 2023

5 WWE – SURVIVOR SERIES WARGAMES 2022

Official Special Interest Video Chart 2023

1 KEVIN BRIDGES – THE OVERDUE CATCH-UP

2 MICKY FLANAGAN – AN’ ANOTHER FING LIVE

3 SARAH MILLICAN – BOBBY DAZZLER

4 LEE EVANS – ROADRUNNER – LIVE AT THE 02

5 RHOD GILBERT – THE BOOK OF JOHN

Official Catalogue Video Chart 2023 on DISC

1 ELVIS

2 TOP GUN: MAVERICK

3 JURASSIC WORLD – DOMINION

4 HOUSE OF THE DRAGON – SEASON 1

5 FANTASTIC BEASTS – SECRETS OF DUMBLEDORE

High Value Boxsets 2023– disc and digital EST (ASP greater than £30)

1 DOCTOR WHO – THE COLLECTION – SEASON 9

2 DOCTOR WHO – THE COLLECTION – SEASON 20

3 ONLY FOOLS & HORSES – COMPLETE SERIES

4 GAME OF THRONES – COMPLETE SERIES

5 HAPPY VALLEY – THE COMPLETE SERIES 1-3

[1] FutureSource Consulting, & British Association for Secreen Entertainment

[2] FutureSource Consulting

[3] Warner Bros. Discovery

[4] The Official Charts Company (OCC)

[5] British Association for Screen Entertainment (BASE)

[6] Lionsgate, Elevation Sales

[7] The Official Charts Company (OCC)

[8] The Official Charts Company (OCC)

[9] The Walt Disney Company

[10] The Official Charts Company (OCC)

[11] BFI Weekend Box Office Figures

[12] Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures

[13] The Official Chart Company (OCC)

[14] Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures

[15] The Official Charts Company (OCC)

[16] Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

[17] The Official Charts Company (OCC)

[18] FutureSource Consulting, The Official Charts Company (OCC)

[19] The Official Charts Company (OCC)

[20] 2024 Media Trends & Predictions, Kantar Media

[21] Universal Pictures

[22] The Official Charts Company (OCC)

[23] BFI Weekend Box Office Figures

[24] The Event Cinema Association

[25] Warner Bros. Discovery/HBO

[26] The Official Charts Company (OCC)

[27] FutureSource Consulting, & British Association for Secreen Entertainment

[28] Data for first 51 weeks of 2023, The Official Charts Company (OCC)

[29] FutureSource Consulting

[30] BFI Weekend Box Office Figures

[31] The Official Charts Company (OCC)

[32] The Official Charts Company (OCC)

[33] The Official Charts Company (OCC)

[34] The Official Charts Company (OCC)

[35] The Official Charts Company (OCC)

[36] BFI Weekend Box Office Figures

[37] The Official Chart Company (OCC)

[38] The Official Chart Company, FutureSource Consulting

[39] The Official Chart Company (OCC)

[40] Universal Pictures

[41] Warner Bros. Discovery

[42] Warner Bros. Entertainment UK. Ltd

[43] Universal Pictures

[44] Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

[45] Warner Bros. Discovery

[46] The Official Chart Company (OCC)

[47] The Official Chart Company (OCC)

[48] BFI Weekend Box Office Figures

[49] Warner Bros. Discovery

[50] BFI Weekend Box Office Figures

[51] Warner Bros. Discovery

[52] Paramount Pictures, Elevation Sales

[53] eOne Entertainment

[54] BBC

Best Year Ever: BARBIE is Crowned Number One as the UK’s Biggest Titles of 2023 are Revealed

The value of the UK Home Entertainment Category in the UK rose to £4.9bn[1] in 2023, up 10.6% Year on Year (YoY)

The rise was driven by the ongoing surge in consumer uptake of subscription services, with over 56[2] million subscriptions in 2023, a 5.4% YoY rise

BARBIE[3] was the biggest selling standalone title of 2023 in the UK on digital and disc, inclusive of EST, VOD, Blu-ray and DVD, selling 700k[4] units

UK consumers spent a collective £200[5] per minute on the BARBIE movie in 2023, which made it the biggest visual entertainment title of the year across both Home Entertainment and in cinemas

JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4[6] fought to the last: it was the second biggest selling title of 2023 on EST, VOD, Blu-ray and DVD, with 694k[7] units sold across the year, and was the biggest rental title of the year with 306k[8] transactions

James Cameron’s AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER[9] was the highest performing EST and DISC title, with digital and physical ownership transactions at 560k[10] units across the year, following a £52m[11] performance at the UK Box Office before it’s transactional and Disney+ premier in June 2023

Chris Pratt’s family film SUPER MARIO. BROS MOVIE[12] was the third biggest release of the year, and the biggest title for kids, with 648k[13] transactions including EST, VOD, Blu-ray and DVD

Christopher Nolan’s critically acclaimed OPPENHEIMER[14] was the biggest release on Blu-ray in the UK in 2023, with a value of £1.1m[15] on Blu-ray alone

Roald Dahl’s MATILDA THE MUSICAL[16] was the fifth biggest selling title of the year, with overall transactions of 483k[17] in 2023

The total number of transactions on Visual Home Entertainment in the UK hit 70 million[18] in 2023

The final week of 2023 saw EST sales transactions of 906k[19] up 44% YoY, in spite of the growth in SVoD’s per household YoY to 2.7[20] services in the UK

TAYLOR SWIFT: THE ERAS TOUR[21] saw a week one value of £428k[22] on Premium Video on Demand (PVoD) following its release on December 13th, building on the £12.2m[23] Box Office performance across 6 weeks in Autumn 2023, the biggest event cinema release ever in the UK[24]

GAME OF THRONES: HOUSE OF THE DRAGON[25] Season One ruled the TV DISC charts for the second year running, with 63.5k[26] sales, followed closely by three titles in the top five that premiered on SVoD channels, as audiences continue to invest in ownership of their favourite TV shows

TAYLOR SWIFT: THE ERAS TOUR[21] saw a week one value of £428k[22] on Premium Video on Demand (PVoD) following its release on December 13^th, building on the £12.2m[23] Box Office performance across 6 weeks in Autumn 2023, the biggest event cinema release ever in the UK[24]