UK Film Council review shows record year for box office

The UK Film Council published its annual Statistical Yearbook today, with news that 2009 had been a record year at the box office. £944 million was taken across British cinemas, with 174 million visits overall, the highest number since 2002. As the review states, 2009 was the year cinema bucked the recession.

The rise of 3D and, in particular, Avatar were widely responsible for the unparalleled level of income generated, with James Cameron’s film generating more in 3D takings alone than the total gross of any other 2009 film. Closer to home, three UK films in particular enjoyed success last year, with David Yates’ Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire and Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes coming second, fifth and eighth respectively in a list of the highest-grossing films in the UK and Ireland.

Regarding film production, the UK spend of inward investment films reached £753 million, the highest on record, while the total UK spend of £957 million was, after 2003, the second best year on record. However, the median budget of UK domestic films fell slightly, from £1.7 million to £1.5 million, whilst the number of domestic features released reduced from 77 in 2008 to 71.

"Low budget independent production is a tough business - it always has been," said UK Film Council Chief Executive John Woodward. But he also conceded that getting smaller, independent films off the ground here in the UK was becoming increasingly difficult, due both to the global economic problems and the "the increasingly tough transition from the analogue to the digital age".

After tax relief, the biggest public contributions to the British film industry came from Lottery funding and grant-in-aid from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. With public spending very much in the spotlight at present and a spending review expected in October, the film industry will hope these sources continue to invest at a similar level.

To read the UK Film Council Statistical Yearbook, click here.