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London, Wednesday 29 July 2009

UK CINEMAGOING SURGES 14.5% AHEAD IN THE FIRST HALF OF 2009

As distributors spend £153.6 million to release 238 new films

UK cinemas clocked up 83.4 million admissions in the first six months of 2009, 14.5% ahead of January-June 2008, as cinemagoers spent more than half a billion pounds (£503.4 million) on cinema tickets during the period. Cinema visits in May 2009 alone (15.7 million) equate to a quarter of the entire population.

Cinemagoing has remained buoyant across the UK despite the wider economic recession. Film Distributors' Association (FDA) attributes the success to four factors:

• A strong awards season (January-March) for the UK, culminating in high-profile BAFTA and Academy Awards for Slumdog Millionaire and Kate Winslet. Slumdog Millionaire alone attracted six million cinema admissions in the UK.



• An extended season of summer blockbusters, blasting off with X-Men Origins: Wolverine (released on 29 April), Hannah Montana: The Movie (1 May), Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (1 May), Star Trek (8 May), Coraline (8 May) and Angels & Demons (14 May), and continuing through to August.



• The on-going rise of digital 3D cinema, including Monsters Vs Aliens and Bolt, with many more 3D releases to come.



• A heavy investment by UK distributors in releasing 238 new films during January-June, replenishing audiences' choices week by week. The estimated total distribution spend of £153.6 million for the period includes £89.6m on media advertising (10.7% more than in January-June 2008) plus £64m on film prints and making trailers. In addition, FDA itself released a generic compilation trailer to promote the summer's line-up and circulated a 20-page seasonal preview magazine to one million households in cinema catchment areas.

The top ten films in UK cinemas from 1 January - 30 June 2009 are shown in the chart below; six of the ten (numbers 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 and 10) are early summer blockbusters:

Since the end of June, Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince have opened; both would appear in the top ten chart for the full year to date.

The top ten weeks for cinemagoing in the first six months of 2009 are listed below. The power of cinema as a favourite attraction for families and friends during school holiday periods emerges clearly:

FDA President, Lord Puttnam CBE, said: "2009 is building into a banner year for cinema in the UK. It's incredibly heartening to see the public's love affair with the cinema, the most immersive form of storytelling ever created, continue to flourish. As Deputy Chairman of Channel Four I'm obviously delighted that Slumdog is the top-performing film for the first six months, but there's a tremendously varied line-up to come in the second half and I think big screen audiences will have plenty to excite and entertain them."

Further information
Carrie Thatcher
Film Distributors' Association, 22 Golden Square, London W1F 9JW
Tel: 020 7437 4383 Email: cthatcher@fda.uk.net
Website: www.launchingfilms.com

Notes to editors

• Film Distributors' Association, the trade body for UK theatrical film distributors, has 22 member companies whose releases account for circa 96% of UK cinema admissions.



• FDA's generic promotion of the summer's film line-up includes a one-minute compilation trailer, showing online and in cinemas, and the circulation of a seasonal preview magazine called Focus to one million households in cinema catchment areas in England (outside London) and Wales. More at www.summerofcinema.com



• Film distributors' media advertising spend of £89.6 million in January-June 2009 breaks down as follows: Advertising on TV accounted for £41.0m, Outdoor £29.2m, Press £11.5m, Radio £5.3m and Online £2.6m. The equivalent spend in January-June 2008 was £80.9m, while in July-December 2008 it was £89.3m.



• UK box-office data is sourced from Nielsen EDI, while advertising expenditure is sourced from Nielsen Media Research.



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