UK box office receipts for 2010 are set to cross £1bn ($1.57bn) in record time, according to figures released by the Film Distributors’ Association.

The UK & Ireland box-office for January-October reached £933.5m, 6% ahead of the same period of 2009.

With the £18m taken by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One (including previews) and major releases still to come, including Unstoppable, Megamind, Chronicles Of Narnia : Voyage Of The Dawn Treader, The Tourist and Tron: Legacy, the 2010 box office should exceed the £1.06bn taken in 2009 to become the highest-grossing year on record.

UK admissions have also improved, with January-October visits reaching 143.6 million, 1% ahead of the same period of 2009, and a higher number than 2000’s total admissions. With more than a million people a day going to see Deathly Hallows between Friday Nov 19 and Sunday Nov 21 alone, 2009’s total admissions of 173.46m should also be surmounted.

Four titles released in 2010 claimed places in the UK’s all-time top 50 chart – Toy Story 3 (£73m), Alice In Wonderland (£42m),Inception (£35m)and Shrek Forever After (£31m)– with a fifth, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One, set to follow suit. Avatar, while not released in 2010, contributed a year-high of £75m to the UK box office.

2009 was the first year the UK box office crossed the £1bn mark.

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