Statistical Yearbook 2010

2009 in review

2009 was the year cinema bucked the recession. UK cinema visits of 174 million made 2009 the second highest year for admissions since 1971, while the UK box office grew to a record £944 million. The arrival of 3D made a vital contribution. In its new consumer friendly form, 3D established itself as the viewing experience of choice for action, adventure, animation and fantasy films.

Avatar was the run-away box office success of 2009, generating more in 3D takings alone than the total gross of any other 2009 film. Still on release in April 2010, with UK box office takings of over £91 million, it displaced Titanic at the top of our inflation-adjusted all-time top 20 UK box office chart. It was the only film of 2009 to break into this chart.

Three UK films had a particular impact at the UK and international box office in 2009: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince continued the dominance of the schoolboy wizard franchise, while Slumdog Millionaire hit the jackpot as the most successful-ever UK independent film. The third most popular UK film of the year, Sherlock Holmes, confirmed the enduring appeal of characters from classic British fiction. Other UK independent films to win significant audiences in 2009 included St Trinian’s 2: The Legend of Fritton’s Gold, Nativity, Harry Brown, Dorian Gray and In the Loop.

UK producers have sometimes been criticised for producing too many ‘dramas’ rather than films in more popular genres, however our analysis of UK independent films in 2009 (Section 4) shows a genre range not too dissimilar from all films with only 24% being in the drama category. However, the proportion of the box office taken by different genres is strongly affected by the performance of particular titles. Amongst UK independent films in 2009, drama took 45% of the box office, due primarily to the success of Slumdog Millionaire.

The UK appetite for specialised films seems to be rising. As the total number of releases has risen over the last 10 years, the proportion of specialised films has increased from 58% to 69%, taking 15% of the box office in 2009. This suggests a steady broadening of cinematic tastes. Documentaries, for example, have risen from negligible numbers and takings in 2000–2002 to 56 feature documentary releases in 2009, earning £12 million at the box office, led by Michael Jackson’s This Is It.

2009 was an excellent year overall for film production in the UK, with studios busy with inward investment films such as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Robin Hood, Gulliver’s Travels and Clash of the Titans. 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, within this positive scene, domestic UK films had a tougher time, finding it harder to raise money and lowering their budgets as a result. Co-productions have been most affected by changes in the regulatory and economic environment. Only 22 were made in 2009, with a combined UK spend of £35 million.

Public funding for the UK film sector fell slightly in 2008/09, to £256 million, from £261 million the previous year. Within this total, tax relief for UK film production again made the single biggest contribution, at £110 million.

Amongst the film activities supported by public investment is film education. This year, for the first time, we present data that show the wide reach of film education in the UK – from 2009’s 6,674 A Level film studies candidates to the 392,000 children who attended screenings as part of National Schools Film Week. By the end of 2009 there were almost 3,000 school film clubs across the UK (involving 92,000 pupils) and 355 providers of moving image education outside the school or university classroom. The rapid expansion of film education and its extensive reach shows the value of film as a tool to engage learners and its relevance in equipping students (both children and adults) to participate fully in the growing digital economy.

Film and moving image education begins a process that leads to audience appreciation for UK films and Oscars^® and BAFTAs for British talent. Brits continued their winning ways in 2009 with Slumdog Millionaire taking six Oscars^® including Best Picture and Best Achievement in Directing (Danny Boyle), while Kate Winslet won Best Actress for her role in The Reader, Michael O’Connor took Best Achievement in Costume Design for The Duchess and James Marsh and Simon Chin won Best Documentary Feature for Man on Wire, the gripping story of Philippe Petit’s tightrope walk between the twin towers of the New York World Trade Centre in 1974. In total, British talent accounted for 17% of the awards at the leading ceremonies and festivals we monitor – the Oscars^®, the BAFTAs, Berlin, Sundance, Cannes, Venice and Toronto.

While admissions and box office were up in 2009, revenue for the film market as a whole was static compared with 2008, showing the challenges of both the recession and the transition to digital. The physical video markets (rental and retail) shrank in 2009 while video on demand (VoD) grew. However, the potential of digital VoD has yet to be fully realised and the growth in VoD was not enough to offset the decline in physical video.

In television, though film audiences on the main broadcast channels continued to fall, strong growth was recorded in both subscription film channels and free–to–air digital multi–channel. The latter now accounts for a third of all film watching on television. While cinema is key for new releases, it remains the case that most film watching in the UK takes place on television. In 2009, we estimate that television accounted for 75% of total film viewing occasions in the UK.

Regular readers of the Statistical Yearbook will notice some additions this year:

Details of the production and/or performance of UK independent films (various chapters). This reflects requests from readers in our user survey in August 2009 for more information about UK independent films;
A 10-year time series of the performance of specialised films at the UK box office (Chapter 5);
The box office performance of UK films in Japan and Korea (Chapter 6);
A chart of UK admissions going back 75 years (1935–2009 inclusive) for historical comparative purposes (Chapter 1);

A new chapter on film education, gathering for the first time the available statistics on film education at school, university and in the community. It is intended that this will serve as the basis for wider coverage of the cultural aspects of film in the future.

We welcome feedback on the Yearbook and we thank those who gave us their ideas in 2009/10. All of the information is available to view online at www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk.

David Steele
Head of Research and Statistics Unit

Sean Perkins
Senior Research Executive

Nick Maine
Research Executive