Although total UK-Ireland box office revenue increased by 4% in 2023 compared to 2022, revenue for UK-qualifying independent films fell by 49% in the same period, according to statistics from the British Film Institute (BFI) released today (February 1).
The total box office revenue for UK qualifying independent films in 2023 was £37.8m, down from the £74.7m total revenue in 2022. The box office market share of UK-qualifying independent films was 3.8%. This is less than half of the share achieved for the same period in 2022 and is the second-lowest share of the past 20 years.
The Great Escaper was the highest-grossing UK independent release with a total box office of £5.3m. It was the only UK indie film to exceed £5m.
In 2022, four UK independent releases grossed more than £5m: Belfast (£15.6m), The Banshees Of Inisherin (£9.3m), Operation Mincemeat (£5.3m) and The Duke (£5.3m).
The BFI defines an independent film as produced without creative or financial input from the major US studio companies of Fox Entertainment Group, NBC Universal, Paramount Motion Pictures Group, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group and Warner Bros Entertainment. The BFI has confirmed there is flexibility with productions that come from studio subsidaries, taking into account the film’s budget level, the filmmaker and the independent production companies who have propelled the projects, such as The Banshees Of Inisherin (supported and distributed by Disney’s Searchlight) and Belfast (distributed by Universal’s Focus Features).
Ben Roberts, BFI chief executive, said: ”Audiences showed up in record numbers for must-see movies including Barbie, Oppenheimer and Wonka all of which exemplify the talent and artistry of so many UK creatives.”
But admitted: “ Despite notable recent successes such as The Great Escaper, Rye Lane, Scrapper, The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry and Polite Society, we cannot ignore that the statistics also highlight concerns for lower budget UK films, increasingly challenged in securing finance and visibility. Our work and commitment in this area continues.”
Slight rise overall
UK-Ireland box office revenue (some of which may have been earned up to January 21 2024 and excluding event cinema) increased by 4% year on year to £985.8m in 2023. This is 24% lower than in pre-pandemc 2019.
Barbie grossed £95.6m and was the highest-grossing film released in 2023 and the fifth highest- grossing film of all time at the UK-Ireland box office. It accounted for 9.7% of the year’s total.
As Barbie qualifies as a UK film by BFI criteria that takes into consideration the high percentage of UK cast and crew employed, UK locations and facilities used and the film’s UK producer in Heyday Films, among other elements, it helped to drive the market share of non-independent UK qualifying films to 37.1%, the highest share on record. The total UK film market share was 40.8%, 11.5% up on UK market share in 2022.
Further high-grossing UK-qualifying films include Wonka, Mission: Impossible- Dead Reckoning, and Indiana Jones And The Dial of Destiny.
England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
Total cinema admissions in the UK only (excluding Ireland) for all film titles on release in 2023, including event cinema titles, was 123.6 million. This is 5.5% more than 2022, but 30% lower than 2019’s pre-pandemic total of 176 million.
The total value of ticket sales for the UK only (excluding Ireland, January 1 to 31 December 2023, including titles released at end of December 2022) was £980m in 2023, up 8% increase on the £904 million recorded in 2022. It is 22% lower than 2019’s total box office of £1.25bn.
The average ticket price in 2023 was £7.92, an increase of 3% on the 2022 average ticket price of £7.70. It is 11% higher than 2019’s average ticket price of £7.12.
By UK nations, the total box office revenue for England in 2023 was 8% higher than in 2022 and 23% lower than in 2019. The box office trends for Scotland and Wales are similar to that of England’s box office. However Northern Ireland was the one nation to report a different dynamic, with the total box office for 2023 only 3% below the total box office earned in 2019.
Barbenheimer, Wonka give boost amid record lows
In the first quarter (Q1) of 2023 there were 25.1 million cinema admissions for all films, including event cinema, 6% less than for Q1 2022 and 30% less than Q1 2019. Excluding the pandemic-impacted periods, this is the lowest Q1 total admissions on record.
The total UK cinema admissions for all films in Q2 was 29.9 million, down 12% against Q2 2022 and 36% lower that Q2 2019’s total. This is the lowest Q2 admissions on record, excluding the pandemic-impacted quarters.
The total admissions for Q3 was 39.6 million, bolstered by the impact of the Barbenheimer cinema trend – this is 36.5% higher than Q3 2022 but still 12.3 % lower than Q3 2019. The average Q3 total admissions for the years 2012 to 2023 (excluding the pandemic years) was 41.4 million. Q3 2023 was therefore only marginally lower than the ten-year average.
Q4 recorded 28.3 million admissions, 6% higher than the previous year and 40% below Q4 2019. Admissions for October and November were lower than the same months in 2022, down by 2% and November by 8% respectively. December’s performance reversed this year-on-year dynamic, with a total of 11.8 million admissions, which was 27% more than December 2022. Nevertheless, it was still 36% lower than the total admissions for December 2019. The highest-earning film release of the month was Wonka accounting for 33% of December’s total box office and still on release.
Films released in 2023 in UK-Ireland grossed £985.8m from 822 releases. This is 4% more than in 2022 when 834 film releases earned £945m. It is 24% less than the 2019 box office of £1.3bn from 764 releases. The 2023 total of 822 theatrical releases does not include 22 Netflix-produced films which had a theatrical release. These features were released at a limited number of cinemas, had short release windows and their box office revenues were not reported to Comscore.
This figure also does not include event cinema, which had a strong year, with Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour and Renaissance: A Film By Beyonce performing well in Q4. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour earned £12.3m making it the most successful event release ever at the UK-Ireland box office. If it were to be included in the top-grossing releases rankings it would land at number 21. Renaissance: A Film By Beyonce was the second highest-earning event release of the year with £1.7m.
Disney and Universal each released five of the top 20 films of the year, with Warner Bros a close second with four releases.
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