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London, 27 February 2007
UK film distributors’ P&A spend topped £300m in 2006
FDA to launch a ‘new season’ platform for distributors in 2007

London, 27 February 2007: Film Distributors’ Association (FDA) announces UK distributors’ P&A expenditure in 2006 and the introduction of a new platform event for distributors in 2007.

£300m+ P&A commitment

UK theatrical film distributors invested more than £300m in prints & advertising (P&A) to support their releases in 2006. This comprised an estimated £135m on prints and trailers, and £171.3m on media advertising (+3.3% over 2005).

Additional sums were spent on campaign production, publicity and premieres. There were 68 premieres in 2006 of which 41 were held in London’s Leicester Square.

The principal forms of media advertising used to launch and sustain films were TV (£73m), outdoor panels (£60m) and national/regional press (£29m). Source: Nielsen Media Research.

Every month of 2006, 10,000 print movements took place to, from and between UK cinemas.

This P&A expenditure generated gross box-office receipts of £767m (£840m including the Republic of Ireland; level with 2005). Source: Nielsen EDI. The UK retains its position as the world’s third most valuable theatrical market after the US/Canada and Japan.

In addition to the theatrical box-office, almost 1 in 5 DVD purchases and rentals may be attributed directly to a previous cinema visit to see the same film, accounting for a £554m slice of the UK home entertainment market (source: TNS). This confirms the pivotal role of cinema as a launch pad for films throughout their lifecycle.

Vibrant market

505 new films received a UK theatrical release in 2006, an average of almost ten a week, up from 467 in 2005.

1 in 8 cinema tickets purchased were for the top two runaway hits of the year. Both Casino Royale and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, which had many British actors among their international casts, crossed the £50m box-office threshold to claim places in the UK’s all-time top ten. This list is still headed by Titanic (£69m UK box-office in 1998).

1 in 6 cinema tickets purchased were for animated films, which had a strong year. Three animated features – Ice Age 2, Cars and Happy Feet – were placed in the year’s top ten.

Diverse market

Films from at least 33 countries were released by UK distributors. Top foreign language release of the year was Almodóvar’s Volver (£2.8m).

The rise of Bollywood in the UK continued apace in 2006. Out of 53 releases, four grossed more than £1m and the segment accounted for almost 2% of the entire UK market.

More than 100 films, including the entire top 20, were released in accessible versions with digital subtitles and audio description. Also, more films than ever before had accessible versions of their trailers posted online.

Nevertheless, the average spend on cinema tickets per UK household in 2006 was just £30. This compares with an average household spend on communications (telecoms, television, internet) of £1,052. Source: Ofcom. FDA believes there is still room for growth in cinemagoing.

Announcing a new FDA generic initiative

In order to promote public consideration of a wider range of forthcoming releases, FDA is arranging a new platform for UK distributors. Borrowed from the television industry, the platform is a generic new season launch, showcasing for an invited audience of journalists and editors the diverse line-up of releases, right across the board, for the following three months.

The first launch event, covering the spring season, will take place on 7 March 2007; a separate press release will be issued then.

Further information

Mark Batey, Chief Executive, FDA Ltd.
Email: mbatey@fda.uk.net
Tel: 020 7437 4383
22 Golden Square, London W1F 9JW

Notes to editors

• Film Distributors’ Association (FDA), established in 1915, is the trade body representing the generic interests of the UK’s theatrical film distributors. FDA carries out a range of services and activities on behalf of its members and the distribution sector. FDA members’ releases account for 96% of UK cinemagoing. Main FDA website: www.launchingfilms.com
• The FDA Yearbook 2007, the fifth annual edition from which many of the above data are extracted, is published on 7 March 2007.