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SPIRIT GETS PHYSICAL WITH UNIVERSAL RELEASES
SPOTTED OUT AND ABOUTWILD ROBOT SUCCESS KICKS OFF DEAL…
…AS SPIRIT CELEBRATES ITS 20TH ANNIVERSARY IN STYLE
ALL CHANGE AT BASE AND DEGI
NEW CO-CHAIRS AT BASE…
MARSH OVER TO DEGI…
BASE UNVEILS MORE YEAR-END FIGURES…
1,605 NEW RELEASES ON VISUAL HOME ENT IN 2024
PREMIUM RELEASES RISE BY 15 PER CENT
4K UHD GROWS BY 21 PER CENT
QUIET PLACE MAKES ALL THE HORROR NOISE
“RESILIENCE OF PHYSICAL MARKET EXTRAORDINARY”
CLOUD FORECAST AS NEW LABEL OPENS DOOR
SMALL THINGS MAKES A BIG RACKET
HMV EYES WHSMITH HIGH STREET STORES
LYNCH DEATH ADDS TO CATALOGUE SALES
TRAILERS OF THE WEEK
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It was a good week for… …Spirit kicks off the new year and new deal with Universal by seeing The Wild Robot off to a flyer
It was a bad week for… Did David Lynch's death show the limitations of streaming culture…
We’ve been watching… A whole raft of titles for our forthcoming physical media reviews in Film Stories magazine, taking in everything from historical drama in Lion In Winter through to Russ Meyer classics. New issue due soon…
The first of January saw Universal Pictures join the Spirit Entertainment family of partners, with Spirit handling all physical media releases for the studio across new release and catalogue. The first new release title, to be released under the deal was the January 10 debut for The Wild Robot, it will be followed by other biggies such as Wicked, and Nosferatu, with Spirit doing its own bespoke marketing for physical media releases, while maintaining a consistency of style and design running across the Universal formats. The deal comes as Spirit celebrates its 20th anniversary year, having been launched by Callow with former VCI colleague Sarah Stanley, its first release was a rugby title that saw the company starting from scratch and delivering a big hit (Wales Grand Slam 2005 sold more than 100,000 units). Soon after another ex VCI colleague Frank Cirillo, joined the company and it signed its first sales representation deals with CH4 and ITV.
Spirit’s Rob Callow told The Raygun: “I can’t believe it’s Spirit’s 20th anniversary year, which is extraordinary. Twenty years later, we’re delighted and excited to welcome Universal Pictures to the Spirit family. Our anniversary year has started with a lot of excitement, not least of which thanks to a tremendous level of engagement and support from our retail partners, The Wild Robot landed in the number one spot in its first week. We also have a great forthcoming slate including, the finale of Gavin and Stacey, Nosferatu, a fully restored The Sweeney, much more from the evergreen Doctor Who franchise and the theatrical phenomenon of 2024, Wicked. We are the largest independent distributor of home entertainment in the UK, representing physical and digital rights for our valued content partners. Physical will always sit at the heart of Spirit, the amazing Spirit team remain passionate about representing all its partners physical activities to keep the category vibrant and commercially viable for many years to come for our valued content partners, retailers and suppliers all of whom we are very grateful to for their unwavering support over the years.”
The Universal deal sees a trio of former Universal staffers from the company’s award-winning team joining Spirit, with John Partridge, known as JP, taking on the role of Business Development Manager, Teresa Lewis joining as Sales Operations Data Analyst and Admin Support Executive and Monica Mardarescu as Production and Supply Chain Manager. Sarah Stanley commented “We are thrilled to welcome our new colleagues to the Spirit team and look forward to working with them to deliver continued success throughout 2025 and beyond.”
Lots of BASE-related activity this week, as the trade organisation announced a raft of changes to its board, while its sister DEGI organisation made a similar announcement, and there was more in the shape of the promised further breakdown of 2024 figures. Starting with changes at board level for BASE, and, as it begins its 45th anniversary year, it’s been announced that Marie-Claire Benson, EVP and head of the motion picture group at Lionsgate UK, and Ruth Sharp, VP and head of digital distribution UK at Warner Bros. Discovery have been appointed as co-chairs of the trade organisation. Marie-Claire Benson said: “Having worked with BASE for many years, I deeply value their contribution to the UK home entertainment industry. It’s a great honour to be co-chair, and I look forward to championing the diverse and important initiatives in store for 2025 onwards, from providing members with valuable insight and analysis and leveraging opportunities to drive revenue within the category, to keeping the category front of mind with consumers and retailers and nurturing younger talent to become the new leaders of tomorrow.” Ruth Sharp said: “I’m excited to be appointed as co-chair of BASE and to work with the BASE team and board as we continue to look for innovative and collaborative ways to drive consumer engagement and growth opportunities across UK Home Entertainment in 2025 and beyond.” Elsewhere at BASE, there are further changes, with BBC Studios’ global director for home entertainment Lesley Johnson, continuing in her role of co-vice chair, being joined by Ana Iglesias, VP for digital distribution (EMEA) at NBCUniversal as co-vice chair. Iglesias is a current member of the Digital Entertainment Group Nordics (DEGN) board and boasts 25 years’ experience in the UK home entertainment industry. Johnson, who also has many years’ experience in the industry, said: “I’m delighted to remain co-vice chair of BASE, representing the British TV sector and I’m looking forward to working closely with Ruth, Marie-Claire and Ana in the years ahead.”
BASE has also expressed its “deepest gratitude” to departing chair Robert Marsh. Sony Pictures Entertainment’s VP international account management and sales and UK home entertainment, for his four-year stint at the organisation, praising his vision and leadership in helping see the industry through lockdowns, Hollywood strikes and developing strategic vision and growing BASE too. Marsh himself said: “It has been a true privilege to serve as chair of BASE for the last four years. This period has seen such a huge change from the pandemic to our recovery and stabilisation. We’ve seen significant changes to our landscape, at retail and with consumers, but the board has always maintained a singular focus on how we can best position the home entertainment sector for growth through delivering for our stakeholders, with consumers being paramount in this. I’d like to thank Liz Bales and the BASE team for making BASE a world-leading organisation, raising the bar every year, and my fellow board members for being brilliant contributors and colleagues.” There was further praise for outgoing BASE vice chair Kevin Dersley, MD at Elevation Sales, who is also stepping down, although he will remain on the BASE council. BASE said his “passion and deep knowledge”, especially in the physical media arena, was invaluable. Dersley said: “It’s been both a pleasure and a privilege to support Liz and my fellow officers and I am extremely proud of the immense contribution BASE has made to the home entertainment sector in that time. I look forward to supporting our new leadership team as they continue to ensure BASE drives engagement and growth in the sector.”
Commenting on the changes at BASE, chief executive Liz Bales said: “We kick off 2025 with an assured and invigorated leadership team within a bold and inclusive BASE Council. I’m excited to be working alongside Marie Claire, Ruth, Ana and Lesley as our distinguished officers. Their combined experience, leadership, and deep industry insight will be instrumental in the evolution and delivery of value to our members.
I want to sincerely thank both Rob and Kevin for their incredible contributions to BASE. Having worked side by side for so many years, I’ve seen firsthand the passion and dedication they’ve brought to every aspect of their work with the organisation and the wider home entertainment community. Their contribution to BASE has framed the momentum and inspiration behind our vision and many of our achievements over the years, and much of what we have accomplished would not have been possible without their guidance.”
Meanwhile, at sister organisation DEGI, Digital Entertainment Group International, it’s all change too. For Ruth Sharp has moved to BASE as co-chair, as noted above, and outgoing BASE chair Robert Marsh is switching to DEGI as co-chair – to use the football transfer vernacular, this is a straight swap – alongside current co-chair Johnnie Thompson, with the Disney VP for transactional distribution for EMEA remaining in his role as co-chair. Marsh said: “I am excited to take on this appointment and thank the board for the opportunity. The DEGI is a forward-thinking, dynamic and international organisation which continues to support members to understand international markets and realise new opportunities. It is an exciting time to be joining Johnnie as co-chair, someone whose thoughtfulness, energy and enthusiasm for the category has and will play a key role in driving the organisation forward.” Still at DEGI and co-chair Johnnie Thompson paid tribute to Ruth Sharp and her work at the organisation, saying; “Ruth’s contributions and support during her tenure as co-chair of the DEGI have been instrumental in our progress, and she will continue to make significant contributions as co-chair of BASE. At the same time, it’s a pleasure to welcome Rob as the new co-chair of the DEGI. His wealth of experience, expertise, and energy will be crucial as we enter this exciting new chapter of home entertainment.” BASE and DEGI chief executive Liz Bales added: “DEGI continues to build its reach and network with a thriving community that feels more vital each year. I want to thank Ruth for bringing her expertise and knowledge to DEGI for three years, and now bringing this across to BASE. As co-chairs of DEGI, Rob and Johnnie will provide exemplary expertise and lead the discourse and decisions of an expansive and dynamic board as we refine our focus and empower members to realise the multiple opportunities for home entertainment across international territories.”
When BASE released its first tranche of figures looking back at the past 12 months in home entertainment at the start of the year, it promised further figures and stats assessing the industry’s performance in 2024, and this week it came good on its pledge with more about the £5.1 billion visual home entertainment figures for the past year. And there are some nuggets of information to be gleaned from the comprehensive figures joining the first snapshot of the state of the business. We’ve pulled out the newer facts and figures, along with supporting comment offered up by the trade body. One of the more intriguing facts showed there were 1,605 new releases across disc, EST and VOD in 2024, a figure contrasting with the 1,114 released at cinemas throughout the year. As noted previously, premium releases, both PVOD and PEST, showed growth in the past year, with BASE now revealing those releases grew by 15 per cent, with 62 watching films at home not long after they’d been released at cinemas – the average PVOD or PEST title landed some 40 days after theatrical. The BASE announcement continued: "The Premium Video on Demand window delivered £12.8 million in the UK in 2024 across 807k transactions with an average price of £15.80 while the Premium Electronic Sell Through window delivered 1.5 million transactions, at a value of £28.5 million] with an average unit price of £19.60.” The digital transactional market was worth £381 million in 2024 and, according to FutureSource Consulting, it’s set to rise by 2.4 per cent in 2025.
More from BASE”s second announcement of last year’s figures, and despite the decline in physical media over the past 12 months – physical retail was down 7.9 per cent according to ERA figures released in January – but it was as good year for 4K UHD. The ultra-high definition Blu-ray format actually saw its sales grow by 21 per cent year-on-year, with some 1.3 million units sold and a total market value of £30.5 million (a rise of 17.5 per cent on the previous year). This effectively accounts for about a fifth of the overall physical market. Streaming services continue to dominate – some 18.6 million households accessed a subscription video on demand service in 2024, with the average home subscribing to 2.9 services, a small rise on the previous year. Netflix was the most popular, accounting for 59 per cent of homes (17.3 million in all), second was Amazon Prime Video, which is in 46 per cent of households (13.4 million homes) and Disney+, in 26 per cent of homes, 7.5 million in all. The report continued: “The introduction of advertising-supported tiers across all SVoD added £400 million to the consumer value of the UK Home Entertainment Market in 2024, while the addition of advertising contributed to a 36 per cent YoY growth for UK premium advertising-supported online video revenue (including hybrid SVOD advertising, Premium AVoD and FAST) which rose to £1.7 billion.” It also added: “There are more than 750 FAST channels in the UK, across the most popular eight FAST-enabled services.”
On to specific titles and Wonka and Dune: Part Two were among the biggest of the year, again, as covered here in January, but there was further assessment and in interesting look at a resurgent horror market, as well as independent, non-studio fare. The BASE report said: “The leading horror title of the year was Paramount Pictures A Quiet Place: Day One, selling 232k units across all formats. The horror genre continued to prove a hugely popular choice with audiences in the UK, where Universal Pictures dominated the rest of the horror top five, with Five Nights at Freddy’s, Abigail, and The Exorcist: Believer taking the second, fourth and fifth spots respectively in the top unit sales in the horror chart. The number three spot was taken by independent distributor Black Bear, with Longlegs, with 141k units sold across all formats. Longlegs also took the number seven spot on the chart of the top 10 Independently distributed titles of the year, where Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes claimed the top spot, with 347k sales across all formats, at a value of £3.5 million. This was followed by the Studiocanal Amy Winehouse biopic Back To Black, which sold 267k units across all formats.”
Comment on the new BASE figures came from chief executive Liz Bales, who said: “Visual entertainment is the most popular entertainment pastime in the UK and audiences make savvy choices across the spectrum of home entertainment formats available to them, spending in excess of £5 billion. Premium digital formats have already set records in 2025, just a few weeks into the year: Wicked was released on PVOD and PEST on January 3 and became the most popular premium title since records began in the UK. Ad revenue has added £1.7 billion across the range of online video services in the UK, and £400 million to consumer spend on SVOD, while simultaneously there were 73 more FAST channels launched across all FAST services in the UK since the beginning of the year, where the total number is now well over 700, enabled by the likes of Samsung, LG, Roku and others to bring the digital high-street directly to consumers living rooms. While audiences love film and TV shows the industry will continue to grow and evolve, to offer more and better.” Further comment came from Robert Marsh, VP, international account management and sales and UK home entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and co-chair DEGI: Digital Entertainment Group International said: “2024 was a good year for digital transactional with more Premium window titles availing than ever, a plethora of strong new releases at home and diverse genres hitting the UK’s top selling titles. A great example is Anyone But You a romantic comedy which took cinemas and audiences at home by storm, becoming a viral phenomenon and delighting consumers. The title went on to become a top five rental title of the year. This was followed later by It Ends With Us the film based on the Colleen Hoover best-selling book. This title ended up maintaining its number one VOD chart position for eight weeks at the end of the year, including through the busy Christmas period, as consumers were captivated by the story of Lily Bloom. These two titles show that the digital market is for everyone, from Deadpool & Wolverine and Dune: Part Two to Anyone But You and It Ends With Us, there is so much choice available.”
And there’s more comment too from the indie sector, with Spirit Entertainment MD Rob Callow noting: “The continued resilience of the physical market has been extraordinary, catalogue performance has been particularly noteworthy with high value classic TV box sets and a multitude of wonderful back catalogue film special editions being bought to life. With a highly engaged physical retailer base, very strong new release slate and many more innovative catalogue opportunities being planned, 2025 is looking incredibly positive.” And BASE co-chair and EVP/head of motion picture group Marie-Claire Benson added: “Following a buoyant 2024 marked by increased cinema admissions, exceptional results from premium windows, and continued resilience in the physical market, UK entertainment momentum shows no signs of slowing. We saw 22% of the 2024 box office generated in the final seven weeks of 2024, and this success is already translating to digital platforms. The Wicked premium home entertainment success has been outstanding, and Lionsgate's own Small Things Like These is outperforming comparable titles, demonstrating the continued growth potential of premium digital formats. The 2025 calendar is robust and diverse: Lionsgate’s upcoming slate includes Mark Wahlberg’s action film Flight Risk, the Oscar- and BAFTA-nominated Iranian drama The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, and the future British classic and April 2025 release The Penguin Lessons, starring Steve Coogan. With something for everyone available across all formats and options, entertainment will continue to deliver this year, and beyond.”
Outside of BASE, there’s a new label in town, with news that a boutique imprint is joining this still vibrant sector, with the impending launch of The Cloud Door. It plans to be both a home video label as well as a film licensing service, with a focus on South Asian cinema. Taking its name from one of Indian director Mani Kaul’s short films, it aims to be, the company’s founders said, “a total to the rich and diverse world of South Asian cinema”, and will cover areas previously untouched by its contemporaries, plugging a gap in the market and also, through its licensing arm, giving greater access to films from the region to cinema audiences. Founders Omar Ahmed and Ranjit S Ruprai, film scholars, programmers and curators, say releases will offer titles in high definition audio and video, and will be accompanied extras “detailing the cultural and historical context”, new artwork and writing on the film featured in booklets. Ahmed told The Raygun it would be looking at three to four releases a year, with releases taking in classics, cult favourites and contemporary films, with releases also covering South Asian filmmakers “who are part of the broader diaspora including the UK, US and Canada”. The first release, Kamal Swaroop’s Om Dar-B-Dar, “one of Indian cinema’s most influential cult films of the modern era”, will arrive later this year after a crowdfunding campaign. In a joint statement, Ahmed and Ruprai said: “A boutique Blu-ray label and film licensing service dedicated to South Asian cinema is long overdue. Film fans around the world will finally get a chance to own many of these films in high definition and loaded with extras. We are taking great care to deliver the high levels of curation and love for cinema that we see in the very best boutique home video labels out there.”
Monday releases and arriving in stores on February 3 is one of our favourites of the past few months, Small Things Like These, the Cillian Murphy-starring adaptation of the bestseller of the same name by Claire Keegan about the brutal Magdalene laundries in Ireland. After a strong performance theatrically, where it drew more than £4 million at UK cinemas alongside critical acclaim, including strong notices for Murphy’s performance, it landed on physical media today and Lionsgate’s Ember Lamas, who said: “February 3 saw the packaged release of Small Things Like These. Academy Award Winner Cillian Murphy's poignant and highly-praised performance is now available to bring home on DVD and Blu-ray. We’re supporting the release with a multi-channel media push that will set up the title perfectly for its winter release.”
When The Raygun’s Tim Murray interviewed hmv’s Canadian supremo Doug Putman at the end of 2023, we spoke to him about the growing love affair with the mercurial hmv owner and the British press. Throughout its years as a publicly-owned company and through its financial issues in the 2000s and 2010s, hmv had been a bete noire for the British press, as documented here on the Raygun – many newspapers seemed to be both obsessed with its financial ups and downs and crowed as it fell into administration. But after rescuing hmv and turning it around, the UK media seems to have warmed to him and slotted him into a role as an unlikely saviour of the high street. During our interview, he revealed how much he enjoyed having a British-based business (“I love owning hmv. I love the business, I love the people, I love our head office. Everything about the business I love. I love being in the UK – not just because this is a UK interview,” he said) and, still smarting for losing out in his rescue bid to save Wilko stores under his aegis, he added: “I think my speciality is turning round business that are struggling. We’ll keep our ear to the ground and if someone is interested in working with us, we’ll look at it and try and find a way to make it work. A year down the line since that interview was published and Putman’s name is in the frame again, as the hmv owner, who also includes Sunrise and Toys R Us in Canada in his portfolio, is now said to be one of those in the hunt to acquire WHSmith’s 500 high street stores. The retailer, once a big player in the entertainment business (industry veterans will still go misty-eyed at talk of visiting the retailer’s Swindon HQ and negotiating its myriad roundabouts) is looking to divest its high street business to focus on its more profitable airport and transport outlets. In a statement, WHSmith said: “WHSmith confirms that it is exploring potential strategic options for this profitable and cash generative part of the Group, including a possible sale. Over the past decade, WHSmith has become a focused global travel retailer. The Group’s Travel business has over 1,200 stores across 32 countries, and three-quarters of the Group’s revenue and 85 per cent of its trading profit comes from the Travel business. There can be no certainty that any agreement will be reached, and further updates will be provided as and when appropriate.”
The tragic death of legendary, iconic filmmaker David Lynch was devastating for many, but those wanting to watch any of his films via streaming and subscription video on demand services were left feeling somewhat short-changed if they wanted to view any of his outing as a tribute. For his passing brought into focus for many some of the limitations of streaming via SVOD services – in the immediate wake of his death there was just one Lynch-directed short on Netflix, nothing on Amazon, with the best pickings of the master surrealist and artist’s works available to US fans only via the Criterion Channel, which features five. The best UK offering comes from Studiocanal’s eponymous Studiocanal Presents SVOD offering, which features a trio of titles, Mulholland Drive, The Elephant Man and Inland Empire (the latter was also available, believe it or not, free through ITVX. More have subsequently surfaced – Blue Velvet is now on Prime, for example, but, fIlm fans, cineastes and – by the looks of it – physical media fans were rushing to stores such as hmv and online to buy up works from the director. The Official Charts Blu-ray listing in the week after his death saw a number of his outings re-entering the top sellers – Mulholland Drive at number 13, Twin Peaks The Entire Mystery at number 19, Lost Highway at number 21, The Elephant Man at 30, Blue Velvet at 35, Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me at 47, Twin Peaks Seasons 1-3 at 62, Inland Empire at 77, Eraserhead at 78, Twin Peaks A Limited Event Series at number 81 and Lynch’s original film version of Dune at 87. The TV chart featured three of the Twin Peaks SKUs in the top 20. Over on JustWatch, which features its own streaming charts, the power of SVOD was highlighted by the fact that the top three most watched Lynch films were all from Studiocanal Presents, with Mulholland Drive number one in its overall streaming charts for the UK, The Elephant Man was at 11, Inland Empire at 18 and the only non Studiocanal Presents title in the top 100 was Dune at 31. In its TV listing, Twin Peaks was number one. Interesting to note that Mulholland Drive appears to be a favourite, and that possibly, just possibly, the public will watch as part of streaming services, but may be more inclined to buy physical copies in memoriam rather than buy or rent digitally.
SPOTTED OUT AND ABOUT
The Captain America: Brave New World team were out and about in London's Trafalgar Square as part of the press junket for the latest Marvel theatrical outing, garnering plenty of column inches for the release, due at cinemas on February 14…
 
TRAILERS OF THE WEEK A Signature production, this looks ace…
Due on Netflix…
Ditto…
This one lands from MUBI…
THE OBLIGATORY GDPR BIT
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