22/07/2008

British films took $3.3bn globally – equal to 700 million admissions – in 2007, up 50% from 2006, according to the UK Film Council’s (UKFC) Statistical Yearbook. However, the take is lower than 2005’s record breaking $3.6bn.

British films accounted for 29% of the total UK box office out of 516 films released, up from 19% in 2006 with seven of the top 20 films at the UK box office in 2007 being British or UK/US co-productions. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix [+see also:
trailer
film profile] was the top earner with over £49m and the other top British films were The Golden Compass (£26m), The Bourne Ultimatum (£23m), Mr. Bean's Holiday [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (£22m) and Hot Fuzz [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (£20m).

Admissions rose 4% to 162 million, up 4% on 2006 and box office receipts were £821m, up 8% from 2006’s £762m. The size of the film audience was estimated to be 4.3 billion.

UK films had a 16% share of the main European markets and a 12% share of the US market.

The number of UK cinema screens rose by 76 to 3,514 in 727 cinemas with digital screens numbering 296 – the highest in Europe and 34% of the European total. On a cautionary note, the Yearbook said that the loss through film theft in 2007 was £404m with £88m of this in lost box office thanks to illegal Internet downloads and piracy.

UKFC CEO John Woodward said, “Film really does seem to win through in tougher times and there is a great crop of releases due out. Of course, the future is not without challenges; winning film investment is going to be tough with the fall out from the US writers’ strike and the looming actors’ strike while the threat of film piracy looms larger as broadband download speeds become faster.”