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The best selling DVDs of 2011 revealed

British audiences shun Hollywood blockbusters in favour of home-grown efforts

Despite news that DVD sales dropped significantly in 2011, there was some good news for the British film industry last year.

[See more:Most profitable films of 2011]

The British Video Association’s (BVA) top 10 list of best selling titles in the UK was dominated by British films, with UK audiences mostly shunning expensive Hollywood blockbusters.

Unsurprisingly, the concluding ‘Harry Potter’ films – which were made in Britain and starred mostly home-grown talent - topped the list.


Coming in at number three was low-budget comedy smash ‘The Inbetweeners Movie', which cost just £3.5 million but made more than £50 million at the box office.

Next up was ‘The King’s Speech’ - another UK-based independent production that went on to win a slew of Oscars, including Best Picture and a gong for star Colin Firth.

Another surprise was 'Paul'. The Simon Pegg/Nick Frost comedy was met with lukewarm reviews and modest cinema earnings, but was the seventh bestselling title of the year on DVD and Blu-ray.

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Hollywood blockbusters ‘Pirates of the Caribbean – On Stranger Tides’ and ‘Transformers: Dark of the Moon’ did make the cut, but there was disappointment for some of the year’s other big studio movies.

The likes of ‘Thor’, ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’, ‘Fast Five’, ‘Kung Fu Panda 2’, ‘X-Men: First Class’, ‘Rio’ and ‘Cars 2’ all failed to make the top ten, despite making vast sums in cinemas.

Disappointingly for Pixar’s ‘Cars’ sequel, it was even beaten in the kids film chart by straight-to-DVD effort ‘Scared Shrekless’.

It seems British audiences prefer home-grown efforts when they are done right, and are perhaps reluctant to re-live Hollywood blockbusters after seeing them in cinemas.

The BVA’s figures showed that physical sales of movies dropped by a depressingly high 7.2 per cent last year. However digital rental transactions went up by 12 per cent.

Top Ten Best Selling Titles Of 2011

1 - 'Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows – Part 2'
2 - 'Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows – Part 1'
3 - 'The Inbetweeners Movie'
4 - 'The King's Speech'
5 - 'Pirates Of The Caribbean - On Stranger Tides'
6 - 'Despicable Me'
7 - 'Paul'
8 - 'Tangled'
9 - 'Peter Kay - Live - The Tour That Didn't Tour'
10 - 'Transformers - Dark Of The Moon'