With the huge popularity of hit DVD Video titles such as “A Bug’s Life” (Buena Vista Home Entertainment), “Antz” (DreamWorks Home Entertainment) and “Mighty Joe Young” (Buena Vista Home Entertainment), non-action titles encompass
more than 25 percent of this year’s Top 100 DVD Video sales to date, up from 13 percent in 1998, according to recent data compiled by the DVD Video Group and VideoScan.

The sales charts demonstrate this emerging trend toward the family market, with 11 of the 25 top selling titles this year falling in the categories of family, romance or comedy. Both relatively new in release, “A Bugs Life” (Buena Vista Home Entertainment), released a month ago, and “You’ve Got Mail” (Warner Home Video), released two weeks ago, have already made their way up the chart at #6 and #11 respectively in sales this year.

The trend toward family oriented and non-action titles underscores the growth of the DVD Video installed base. In fact, in the most recent weekly sales charts (for week ending May 16, 1999), 18 of the top 50 DVD Video titles are non-action titles, including family classics such as “Gone with the Wind” (MGM Home Entertainment), “The King & I” (Twentieth
Century Fox Home Entertainment) and “The Ten Commandments” (Paramount Home Video), as well as new family favorites “Babe: Pig in the City” (Universal Studios Home Video), “Ever After” (Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment) and “Rugrats” (Paramount Home Video).

“Clearly, DVD Video is reaching beyond the early adopter to more mainstream consumers,” said Paul Culberg, executive vice president, Columbia TriStar Home Video and president, DVD Video Group. “We’re encouraged that DVD Video is popular with the entire household and I think you’ll see studios releasing more family titles to satiate the consumer’s appetite for these titles.”