UK distributors spent more than $523m (£300m) on prints and advertising last year, according to figures released by the UK-based Film Distributors’ Association (FDA).

The FDA Yearbook, using research from Nielsen Media Research, shows film prints and trailers in2005 cost UK distributors $221.5m, up 2% from 2004, while media advertising spend rose 4.6% to 290.7m. Other promotional activity pushed the cumulative cost past $523m (£300m).

With total theatrical revenue of $1.44bn (£840.35m) in the UK in 2005, that means distributors’ P&A spend consumed more than 35% of revenues.

UIP led the 2005 UK market share with 29.1%, followed by Warner Bros. with 18.2%, Fox with 14.3%,Buena Vista International with 13.1%, Entertainment with 9.4%, Sony with 6.8%, Pathe with 3.5%, Momentum with 1.9%, and Optimum with 0.6%.All other distributors had less than 0.5% market share each.

Of the FDA’s 460+ UK theatrical releases that it tracked, 189 of those were of US origin, followed by 70 Indian films, 47 UK films, 27 French films, and 11 German films.

Taking all of the year’s 467releases into account the FDA figures show the average release cost per film was $1.1m (£0.65m) while the average revenue was $3.1m (£1.8m). Of the 467films released in UK cinemas in 2005, only 30 (7%) had a run of longer than seven weeks.

The Yearbook also points out London’s importance. The capital city accounts for 13% of the UK population but, despite higher ticket prices than most of the country, 27% of the UK’s ticket sales. London’s West End alone accounted for over 10 million admissions in 2005.

The average per capita UK cinema going frequency was 2.8 visits during 2005.