06/10/2006

With 88.7m admissions during the first seven months of the year against 90.9 million for the same period last year, film attendance was down 2.4% and the UK share of the theatrical market was only 13%.

Unlike the whole year of 2005, which registered a 33% UK share of the market and as many as eight UK films (mainstream UK/US collaborations) in the top 20, only two such major productions made it among the top 20 films between January and August 2006. This year’s second most popular movie, The Da Vinci Code, provided Sony with a £30.4m gross and the UK/German/US co-production Stormbreaker, released by Entertainment, grossed 6.62m.

According to new figures published by the UK Film Council, this downward trend was closely linked to the lower volume of UK/US mainstream productions over the last 18 months due to uncertainties over the UK film tax system. However, this is no longer the case and figures are up again.

The top 20 foreign language films were predominantly Indian productions (13 out of 20), but five European co-productions also made it in the top 20. Pathé scored with Pedro Almodóvar’s Volver [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Agustín Almodóvar
interview: Carmen Maura
interview: Pedro Almodóvar
interview: Pénélope Cruz
film profile], the second most popular foreign language film so far (1.74m gross and still climbing). Artificial Eye had two films in the top 20: Hidden [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Margaret Menegoz
interview: Michael Haneke
film profile] (£1.45m), which stayed over six months on UK screens, and Lemming [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (£0.22m). Warner Bros released the German animated film The Little Polar Bear 2 (£0.53m) and Momentum the French action film District 13, produced by Luc Besson (£0.27m).

A total of 344 films were released in the UK during this period, earning £526m, but one film alone (The Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest) accounted for almost 10% of the total gross. As a whole, cinema attendance fluctuated quite significantly from one month to the other. Monthly admissions for January, February, April and May were above the 12m mark but June slipped back drastically again (-17.1%), with World Cup fever and hot weather keeping audiences out in the open air or in front of TV screens.