22/10/2002 - Over 10 million went to UK cinemas in September & year-end forecast is 174 million

The UK is on the verge of outperforming all other European territories in terms of cinema admission growth rates, according to the Cinema Advertising Association (CAA) which tracks film attendance in all UK cinemas accepting advertising.
The latest figures for September show that over 10,6 million people went to UK cinemas last month, an average of 2.48 million a week. This stable level of admissions compared to 2001, brings the January to September 2002 total to 129 million, 14% up year-on-year.
If films continue to perform strongly at the UK box office over the next few months (which should be the case with upcoming blockbuster franchises such the new Harry Potter and James Bond scheduled for release in November and Lord of the Rings in December), the CAA predicts 2002 will be a record-breaking year for the UK cinema industry with an annual total that will hopefully exceed 174 million admissions. This would be the UK’s biggest-ever admissions total since 1971, and would place the UK ahead of Germany for the first time since the 1970s, and second only to France in Europe.
According to Nielson/EDI figures, the strongest performers at the UK box office in September were Signs (£11,2m – Euros 17 million), The Bourne Identity (£6,7m – Euros 10 million) and My Big Fat Greek Wedding (£4,1m – Euros 6 million).
Two UK-produced films released by US majors took the fifth and sixth positions in the Top 10: Working Title’s comedy The Guru (£2,9m –Euros 4.4 million) and the Oscar Wilde screen adaptation of The Importance of Being Earnest produced by Fragile Films (£2,6m – Euros 4 million).

(The article continues below - Commercial information)