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Movies dominate in entertainment retail chart of the year so far

By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 15 July 2016

Yeah Adele, thinking you’re the bee’s knees, rubbing your legs on every flower you can find in a bid to stop other lesser warblers from getting any pollen. But you forgot about ‘Star Wars’ didn’t you? Luke Skywalker, he’s the real bee’s knees. You should see how much pollen he managed to gather, and he was only screen for like, what, seventeen seconds?

So yes, for all the chatter about the ridiculously high sales of Adele’s most recent album ’25’, when put up against other home entertainment products Ms Adkins doesn’t look anywhere near so impressive, coming in at number seven in the Entertainment Retailers Association’s big chart of UK music, DVD and gaming releases for the first six months of the year.

Though, of course, ’25’ did come out last November, while best-selling entertainment product ‘Star Wars – The Force Awakens’ had its DVD release in April, putting its big marketing push in the midst of this chart period. And ’25’ is the only artist album in the top ten, the other top ten music product being the latest ‘Now’ compilation which somehow shifted over 780,000 units between its March release and the end of June. So, OK Adele, you can keep your knees. But I want some pollen.

Other artists whose albums manage to appear in the Top 40 despite competition from movies and games include James Bay, Little Mix, Drake, Beyonce, Jess Glynn, Coldplay, Justin Bieber and David Bowie, twice. The other movie releases that filled out the top five alongside all that ‘Star Wars’ nonsense and the latest ‘Now’ release were ‘Spectre’, ‘Legend’ and ‘Deadpool’. ‘Tom Clancy’s The Division’ was the highest selling game of the period.

But look at me, telling you all this long-hand, when I could just leave you with the full Top 40 and go eat some honey. So here it is, The ERA Entertainment Chart, which – fans of small print may wish to know – is “based on actual sales of physical and digital albums (including streams) from the Official Charts Company, sales of video on DVD and Blu-ray from the Official Charts Company and sales of console and PC games courtesy of GfK”.

1. Star Wars – The Force Awakens (Walt Disney Studios) – Video
2. Spectre (20th Century Fox) – Video
3. Various – Now That’s What I Call Music 93 (Sony Music/Universal Music) – Music
4. Legend (Elevation Sales) – Video
5. Deadpool (20th Century Fox) – Video
6. Tom Clancy’s The Division (Ubisoft) – Game
7. Adele – 25 (Beggars/XL) – Music
8. The Hunger Games – Mockingjay Pt 2 (Elevation Sales) -Video
9. The Lady In The Van (Sony Pictures) -Video
10. The Martian (20th Century Fox) -Video
11. Call Of Duty: Black Ops III (Activision Blizzard) – Game
12. David Bowie – Blackstar (Sony Music) – Music
13. Justin Bieber – Purpose (Universal Music) – Music
14. The Revenant (20th Century Fox He) -Video
15. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (Sony Computer Entertainment) – Game
16. Hotel Transylvania 2 (Sony Pictures) – Video
17. Game Of Thrones – Complete Fifth Season (Warner Home Video) -Video
18. The Good Dinosaur (Walt Disney Studios) -Video
19. David Bowie – Best Of Bowie (Warner Music) – Music
20. Coldplay – A Head Full Of Dreams (Warner Music) – Music
21. Everest (Universal Pictures) -Video
22. Fifa 16 (Electronic Arts) – Game
23. Dad’s Army (Universal Pictures) -Video
24. Jess Glynne – I Cry When I Laugh (Warner Music) – Music
25. Beyonce – Lemonade (Sony Music) – Music
26. The Hateful Eight (EIV) – Video
27. Far Cry Primal (Ubisoft) – Game
28. Grand Theft Auto V (Take 2) – Game
29. Bridge Of Spies (20th Century Fox He) – Video
30. Lego Marvel Avengers (Warner Bros Interactive) – Game
31. Various – Sing Your Heart Out 2016 (Universal Music) – Music
32. Straight Outta Compton (Universal Pictures) – Video
33. Drake – Views (Universal Music) – Music
34. Doom (Bethesda Softworks) – Game
35. The Last Witch Hunter (20th Century Fox) – Video
36. Inside Out (Walt Disney Studios) – Video
37. Little Mix – Get Weird (Sony Music) – Music
38. James Bay – Chaos And The Calm (Universal Music) – Music
39. Sicario (Elevation Sales) – Video
40. Star Wars Battlefront (Electronic Arts) – Game