BVA and FindAnyFilm reveal that British Talent Leads the Way for the Video Market in 2015

2015 was the first year that the UK video industry went truly multichannel as uptake of digital video services reached a tipping point, delivering a greater than predicted 30% (30.3%)¹ year-on-year uplift in sales according to annual figures from global information services provider, IHS, released today from the British Video Association (BVA).

With cinema also enjoying a very strong year, the total value of the audio visual industry reached nearly £11bn (£10.9bn¹), an increase of almost 5% (4.8%¹) year-on-year, which underlines the strength of the entertainment produced by the film and TV industry.

British talent, while not having it all its own way, continued to play a leading part in the 2015 end of year Official Video Charts across various categories with everyone’s favourite marmalade loving bear, Paddington (StudioCanal), becoming the biggest selling video in 2015 with sales of nearly 1.2m copies on discs² alone according to data from the Official Charts Company. The Brits lost out on second spot, however, as despite having only released in October, the monster dinosaur reboot Jurassic World (Universal Pictures) roared into second place, selling more than 1.05m physical copies in only 10 weeks².

The Hobbit – Battle of the Five Armies (Warner Bros) came in third place in the official video chart but topped the 2015 Official Blu-ray Chart with Sir Ian McKellen leading a British cast to a total of just over 1m copies on DVD and Blu-ray combined². Including sales of The Hobbit Trilogy, a box set of all three films, Battle of the Five Armies overtook Paddington with sales of near 1.3m².

In fourth place was the film adaptation of British author E L James’ provocative romance novel, Fifty Shades of Grey (Universal Pictures), replicating its book and cinema sales success in the video market selling more than 909,000 copies². It was also the fastest selling week one title of the year, selling 521k in its first seven days of release².

British talent also led the way across other popular genres with biographical documentary Amy (Universal Music) selling 123k² copies taking the number one spot in the music video category, Geordie Shore star Charlotte Crosby topping the sport and fitness video category with Charlotte’s 3 Minute Belly Blitz (Universal Pictures) selling 378k copies and becoming the fastest selling fitness DVD ever². Aardman’s Shaun The Sheep – The Movie (Studio Canal) flew the flag for British creativity in the Kids video category, selling 305k copies in 2015².

The 2015 bestselling comedy chart was dominated by British comedians, with Michael McIntyre’s Happy and Glorious (Universal Pictures) selling 297k copies² to reach the number one spot, beating Kevin Bridges- A Whole Different Story (Universal Pictures) (number two, 259k copies²) and Mrs Brown’s Boys – Live – How Now Mrs. Brown Cow (Universal Pictures) (number three, 241k copies²). 

2015 physical video milestones:
• Paddington was the biggest selling film of the year with near to 1.2million copies² sold
• Disney’s Frozen overtook Toy Story 3 as the most gifted DVD ever4 selling 4.4m copies to date²
• Thirty four titles released in 2015 sold more than 100k² copies on disc in their first week of sale
• 54 titles released in 2015 sold more than 100k copies in their first month²
• Twenty four titles sold more than 100k on Blu-ray during 2015 including three that sold more than 300k²