Who said cinema-going was dead? Cinema First, the UK cinema industry body has confirmed that cinema admissions for last year exceeded 176 million in the UK, worth over £1.25 billion at the box office.
Those admissions figures put the year on a par with 2018, when – at 177 million attendances – cinema-going reached its highest level for 50 years.
The box office boom was led by Avengers: Endgame, The Lion King, Toy Story 4, Joker and Jumanji: The Next Level, in addition to British films successes including Downton Abbey, Rocketman, Last Christmas, A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon and Yesterday. Complementing these blockbusters were break-out successes such as Judy, Knives Out, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Stan and Ollie, Fishermen’s Friends, Blue Story and Pain & Glory alongside a burgeoning trend for successful big-screen reissues of restored classic films, including Apocalypse Now, Alien and The Matrix.
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For the third consecutive year, the UK box office has exceeded £1.25 billion, with 2019 proving to be another exceptional year, confirming the British public’s appetite for watching films on the big screen and the extraordinary health of the UK cinema sector.
The landscape of cinema has changed dramatically over the last decade with technological innovation, a golden era of storytelling and a wide choice of high-quality cinemas all contributing to the 27% increase in the UK box office from £988 million in 2010 to £1,251,836,436 in 2019. In the final six weeks of 2019, 23% more box office revenue was seen compared to that of the same period in 2018.
Only two weeks into 2020 and it’s off to an incredibly healthy start with holiday titles Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and Little Women continuing their strong runs at the box office; whilst Sam Mendes’ homegrown World War 1 epic 1917 has ridden a wave of acclaim to top the latest box office charts, delivering a £7.3m opening weekend, all contributing to a 25% increase in box office over the same period in 2019.
VIVA LA CINEMA!!!
