Barbie has been crowned as the queen of 2023 home entertainment titles in the UK, according to figures released by the British Association for Screen Entertainment (BASE) and Official Charts Company (OCC).
Barbie achieved 700,000 sales across Blu-ray, DVD, digital electronic sell through (EST) and video-on-demand (VOD).
The value of the UK Home Entertainment Category rose to £4.9bn in 2023, up 10.6% year on year, following a 14.3% rise in 2022. The rise was driven by the ongoing surge in consumer uptake of subscription services, with over 56 million subscriptions in 2023, a 5.4% year on year rise.
Barbie was the UK’s biggest visual entertainment title across theatrical and home entertainment, with a performance of £95.5m at the UK box office, as well as a value of over £9.5m 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 film across the year.
John Wick: Chapter 4 topped the 2023 rental charts, with 306,000 sales on VoD, to add to its 388,000 sales across Disc and EST.
Avatar: The Way Of Water was the highest performing EST and Disc title, with digital and physical ownership transactions at 560,000 units across the year, following a £52m performance at the UK box office, before its transactional and Disney+ premier in June 2023.
Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer was the biggest title across both disc formats in the UK in 2023, with a value of £1.1m on Blu-ray and £673,000 on DVD.
Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical was the fifth highest selling title of 2023, following its successful cinema release over Christmas 2022.
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.”
You are not signed in
Only registered users can comment on this article.
Jonathan Newman becomes UKTV’s Chief Commercial Officer
UKTV has formally appointed Jonathan Newman as Chief Commercial Officer, and David Swetman as Director of Content Partnerships and Sales for the UK and Ireland at UKTV and BBC Studios.
Netflix raises prices as content spending increases
Netflix has raised its prices for customers in the United States, with all subscription tiers rising by at least $1.
DAZN to bring live sports to the skies and seas
Sports streamer DAZN is set to launch DAZN Inflight, a service designed to give fans access to live sports on the go, whether travelling by plane or boat.
YouTube expected to approach 3 billion global users by 2027 – report
YouTube is expected to approach three billion users worldwide by 2027, while Netflix is forecast to reach over one billion monthly active users globally, according to data from research outfit Omdia.
Canal+ wins key piracy case in French courts
Pay-TV broadcaster Canal+ has won a landmark piracy case in the French courts.



