08/01/2016 - 15.26% increase fuelled by blockbuster releases Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Spectre

Spectre by Sam Mendes

2015 was a bumper year at the UK and Ireland box office with collections soaring to £1.31 billion, a 15.26% increase from the 1.13 billion recorded in 2014, according to statistics released by Rentrak. As many as five films passed the 2014 highest grosser The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies’ total of £41.3 million. British hero James Bond film Spectre [+see also:
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film profile] led the way with £94 million with Star Wars: The Force Awakens close behind with £87.1 million. Both films are still on release and the Jedi saga is expected to overtake Bond in a few days.

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Lucy Jones, executive director at Rentrak, said, “In our previous review of the disappointing 2014 box office, we stated that cinema is a product-driven market. The audience will turn out for the films that grab their attention but they need a compelling reason to go, given competition from home entertainment services like Netflix and Amazon, and the cost-of-living squeeze on household finances. This was emphatically proven by the record-breaking results seen in 2015, which delivered not only the biggest box office total of all time, but also Star Wars: The Force Awakens, now poised to take the crown for the biggest film of all time.”

The UK and Ireland top 10 films for 2015 are: Spectre (£94 million), Star Wars: The Force Awakens (£87.1 million), Jurassic World (£64.5 million), The Avengers: Age Of Ultron (£48.3 million), Minions (£47.8 million), Inside Out (£39.2 million), Fast & Furious 7 (£38.6 million), Fifty Shades Of Grey (£35.1 million), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2 (£28.1 million), and Home (£25.4 million).