Tesco is gunning for its biggest ever Halloween with expected sales to top £55m.

Tesco said its Halloween sales have almost trebled since 2005, and overtaken Valentine’s Day to become the third biggest event of the year after Christmas and Easter. It’s even on a par with Tesco’s combined sales of Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day.

This week Tesco has started selling an exclusive DVD through its partnership with DreamWorks, called Monsters vs Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space. At £5, it is a sequel to the DreamWorks 2009 original and a similar idea to its Merry Madagascar film, which sold more than one million copies.

Tesco UK marketing director Carolyn Bradley said: “As with Christmas and Easter, many customers are buying for Halloween weeks ahead of the actual event. This year, with Halloween falling on a Sunday, customers will be looking to celebrate at the weekend. Research from last year revealed that the size of Halloween parties is growing for people in their late teens and twenties, with parties of 60 people now becoming the norm.”

Tesco has increased the range of its adult costumers, and has today launched 20% off the whole range, from kids to adults. It expects to sell 1.5 million fancy dress costumes this eyar.

In food, Tesco expects to sell 1.4 million pumpkins, all of which are 100% British grown in Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire.

It also expects to sell close to 2 million toffee apples, and has launched a range of novel nibbles such as spooky bat cakes, spider swirly cupcakes, freaky fairy cakes, classic pumpkin cakes and chocolate skeletons.