"Chick Flick" Solace For World Cup Widows!

11/06/2010

*Hooligan dramas lead all-time football DVD lists*Club and fun highlights leave national pride behind*

World Cup widows are being offered a perfect DVD antidote to the football fever which is set to hang over the country during the coming weeks.
 
The Official Charts Company has compiled a list of the biggest selling female-friendly DVDs of all time, with Mamma Mia!, Dirty Dancing and Love Actually and among the winners.
 
Many such releases are likely to receive a boost in sales over the coming weeks, as women look for alternative entertainment to the wall-to-wall football which will descend on households across the nation as South Africa 2010 kicks off.
 
The Official Charts Company has also provided some alternatives for football fans for whom wall-to-wall World Cup action is not enough. Two more new all-time charts indicate that football-loving DVD fans tend to go for fun compilations, club-led packages and hooligan-focussed dramas, rather than releases focused on their national teams.
 
A new list of the all-time biggest selling football movie DVDs is led by the likes of Green Street, Football Factory and Mean Machine. In turn, club packages and humourous collections lead sales of highlights sets, rather than the greatest moments in the history of the UK’s national teams.
 
The highest ranking national football highlights set is the recording of England’s 5-1 victory over Germany in 2001. But even that pales in comparison to the two biggest selling sports highlights packages - cricket fans bought seven times as many DVDs of the 2005 Ashes victory, while rugby fans bought four times as many copies of the England 2003 World Cup triumph, according to the Official Charts Company analysis. The releases are the two biggest sports highlights packages DVDs of all time in the UK, selling well over 700,000 units between them.
 
Such sales are nothing compared to dramas Green Street and Football Factory, which have both sold over 1m copies on DVD and Blu-ray.
 
Official Charts Company managing director Martin Talbot says, “There is no doubt that women who are not fans of football will be actively looking for alternative entertainment over the coming weeks – and DVDs such as Mamma Mia! are sure to be at the top of their shopping list. The big question is, will they be able to get close enough to the TV to watch them?!
 
“On the other hand it is quite clear that, when it comes to DVDs, football fans’ allegiances lie clearly with their favourite club sides and with fun compilations of footballing gaffs. Given the several decades of hurt which fans of the home nations have had to endure, perhaps that should not come as too great a surprise.”
 
 
Top 10 “Chick flick” DVDs
1 Mamma Mia – The Movie
2 Dirty Dancing
3 Grease
4 Love Actually
5 Sex & The City
6 The Devil Wears Prada
7 Bridget Jones’s Diary
8 Titanic
9 Pretty Woman
10 Bridget Jones – The Edge Of Reason
Source: Official Charts Company.
 
Top 10 Football Movie DVDs
1 Green St
2 Football Factory
3 Bend It Like Beckham
4 Mean Machine
5 Rise Of the Footsoldier
6 She’s The Man
7 The Damned United
8 Goal
9 ID
10 Green Street 2
Source: Official Charts Company.

 Top 10 Football Highlights DVDs
1 Liverpool FC – The Road To Istanbul
4 Ian Wright – It shouldn’t Happen To A Footballer
3 Soccer AM 2 – The 10 Greatest Players
4 Liverpool Champions Of Europe 2005
5 Soccer AM
6 Soccer AM 3 – The Greatest Matches
7 Manchester United Season Review 2007/8
8 100 Premiership Goals Vol 1
9 Germany 1 England 5
10 David Seaman - Goalkeeping Nightmares
Source: Official Charts Company.

All three charts reflect all-time sales on DVD.

Notes to Editors:

1.   Chart information quoted from this release must be credited to The Official Charts Company

2.  The Official Charts Company (OCC) is a joint venture between record labels’ body the BPI and ERA, the Entertainment Retailers Association.   The OCC is responsible for the commissioning, marketing, distribution and management of the UK’s industry standard music and video charts and is endorsed by the BVA (British Video Association).

3. The Official Charts Company compiles its charts from sales information gathered across all key distribution (or entertainment) channels including all major high street retail chains, independent stores, supermarkets, mail order internet retailers and digital music service providers. This market research sample equates to 99% of the total UK Singles market; 98% of the total UK Albums market and 90% of the total UK DVD market.

For further information contact:
Amy Howard, Official Charts Company.
T: 01480 860 530  M. 07768 891 264
E: amy@theofficialcharts.com
W:  www.theofficialcharts.com
The Official Chart Update with Greg James, 3.30pm-4pm, BBC Radio 1
The Chart Show with Reggie Yates, Sunday 4pm-7pm, BBC Radio 1.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/chart/

ENDS.

Back to press articles