Barbie becomes biggest home entertainment movie of 2023 in UK

Barbie has become the the biggest selling home entertainment movie of 2023 in the UK, according to the British Association For Screen Entertainment (Base).

The Greta Gerwig directed film, starring Margot Robbie as the Mattel doll and Ryan Gosling as her boyfriend Ken, sold more than 700,000 units across disc and digital, as calculated by The Official Charts Company.

The film became a box office hit following its release in July and according to Warner Bros, the studio that made it, the movie generated more than £95 million at the UK box office.

Second to Barbie was Keanu Reeves fronted film John Wick: Chapter 4 which was the biggest rental title of the year with 306,000 sales from video on demand (VoD) and 388,000 sales across disc and electronic sell-through.

The third biggest title with 648,000 sales across home entertainment was The Super Mario Bros. Movie which topped the official children’s video chart of 2023.

Following this with 560,000 digital and physical ownership transactions was Avatar: The Way Of Water, which premiered in 2022, 13 years on from the first Avatar, released in 2009.

Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical, released in 2022 and starring Dame Emma Thompson as Miss Trunchbull, came fifth.

Elsewhere, Game Of Thrones prequel House Of The Dragon season one ruled the roost for the second year running in the television charts, taking the the top spot from The Last Of Us season one.

Liz Bales, chief executive of 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 38 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.”

Published: 08/01/2024 by Radio NewsHub