11/03/2005

More people went to the cinema to see UK films and UK co-productions in 2004 compared to 2003 –with a peak in cinema-going during the summer months– and the increasing popularity of UK films was mirrored in their TV ratings according to a preview of general film statistics published next week by the UK Film Council*.

General cinema attendances were indeed up by 2.4% in 2004 compared to 2003 with 171.3M admissions against 167.3M the previous year. With 18.4M visits in July and 17.4M in August, the summer months were the most popular for cinema-going while September (10.2M visits) and March (10.7M) were the least popular.

The three top grossing films at the UK box office were all sequels: Shrek 2 ((£48.1M), Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban (£46.08M) and Bridget Jones, The Edge Of Reason [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (£36M). The two latter -UK/US co-productions- were among the top 20 UK films (or with UK investment) that took £176.18M between them at the local B.O., 45% more than in 2003. UK audiences obviously enjoyed last year’s variety of films and went to see mainstream films like Bridget Jones 2 Wimbledon, Phantom Of The Opera as much as smaller budget films like the spoof horror film Shaun of the Dead, the period film Girl with a Pearl Earring [+see also:
trailer
film profile] or the directorial debuts of actor Charles Dance Ladies in Lavender [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and of producer Matthew Vaughn with his gangster thriller Layer Cake [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. The number of UK films taking more than £3m was thus twice as high as in 2003 (16 against 8).

On the small screen, six of the 10 most popular films were UK certified (although all backed by US majors) such as Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone, Die Another Day and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.

These positive results were registered in spite of lower number of UK films made in 2004 (132 against 173 in 2003) and lower levels of investments in UK films (£808M in 2004 against £1.157 billion in 2003).
The most popular locations for shooting of (non studio related) UK co-productions were the UK (17 films), France (8), Spain (8), Canada (6), Luxembourg (6), Germany and Romania (5 each).

*These figures are taken from the March Research and Statistic Bulletin available from March 16 on www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/statistics