20/10/2006

It’s official - Brits are a nation of film addicts. Research out today reveals that they have collectively spent £13.4bn building their DVD collections since their launch in the late 1990’s.

The research, commissioned by home insurer Churchill, reveals that each household boasts a 76-strong DVD collection worth £547, packed with an assortment of genres including comedies, thrillers and chick flicks.

The research shows that Brits watch on average four films per week. Additionally, each person has eight films that they will watch repeatedly. In fact, most have seen their favourite movies at least three times in the last year and around 22 times in total. This means they have spent around 12 days of their lives watching their favourite films back to back.

One in five says their DVD collection is more important than their music collection, their shoes and even their clothing. Sixty-eight percent of Brits prefer to wait for films to come out on DVD as opposed to going to the cinema and six out of ten (62%) consider watching DVDs as one of their hobbies.

Martin Scott, Head of Churchill Home Insurance, says:
“Although film downloading looks set to grow in the future*, DVD collections remain an important part of family entertainment in the home. Our research shows that Brits enjoy their favourite films on DVD and consider them a real investment for the family.”

The research shows that the nation’s favourite film type is comedy (25%). This is followed by romantic comedies (14%), thrillers (12%), sci-fi (9%) and horror (7%). Unsurprisingly, men prefer sci-fi (18% vs 6%) whilst women prefer romantic-comedies (18% vs 4%).

The research also reveals the top films that any man or woman should have in their collection:

Top films for men
1. Shawshank Redemption
2. Star Wars
3. Lord of the Rings
4. Goodfellas
5. The Great Escape

Top films for women
1. Dirty Dancing
2. Pretty Woman
3. Grease
4. Bridget Jones’ Diary
5. Shawshank Redemption

Notes to Editors:
Research commissioned by Churchill Home Insurance with 3,063 UK adults, March 2006.

*According to “Broadband Digital Movies: European Market Assessment and Forecasts” by Screen Digest. The report predicts that recognisable growth in the movie download market will appear in 2006 – 2007 timeframe, with total consumer spending on European movie downloading and streaming services accelerating to €690m by end of 2010, from less than €10m in 2005.

For more information please contact:

Abi Clark
Churchill Insurance
020 8313 5830
020 8313 5965
pressoffice@churchill.com