It started well and so it finished. The UK/Ireland market defied box office slumps across the mature markets of Europe and North America to see a 1% rise over 2004.
Final box office results for the year, compiled by Nielsen EDI, showed 2005 finished slightly ahead of 2004 with a gross $1.44bn (£840.35m), which qualified as yet another record year for UK box office.
Admissions figures for the territory, released by the Cinema Advertisers Association, showed ticket sales actually marginally down on 2004. The territory sold 165 million tickets in 2005, 3.8% down year-on-year. The difference accountable by both higher ticket prices and the fact that the strength of older-appeal titles such as the 12A-rated Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge Of The Sith, amongst others, provided sales on more higher priced tickets than 2004’s child friendly U-rated Shrek 2 and PG Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban.
These figures include the Republic Of Ireland. Final figures for Ireland are unavailable but Screen International figures show the country finished approximately 11%-14% down year-on-year, more in line with the rest of Europe. This suggests that without Ireland’s box office the UK would actually have seen a more definite significant rise and may have seen a plateau on admissions.
The territory has been the golden boy of the international market throughout 2005. Most territories were reporting significant drops by the close of the first quarter but the UK finished the first three months 13% up year-on-year. Results in the territory for UIP’s Meet The Fockers and Sony’s Closer (both opening in January) were double those of other international territories while the UK enjoyed Ocean’s Twelve ($21.4m) in February whereas most major territories had opened the all-star sequel in December of the previous year.
Results for the first three months were up each month compared to 2004 with January recording a 3% rise, February 19% and March 18%.
April brought the first dip (-21%) and while May rallied (+18%) with The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy and the first weeks of Revenge Of The Sith, June’s 28% drop saw the second quarter falling more in line with the rest of the world. This was followed by a third quarter which failed to see a single month make gains on 2004 equivalents.
However, a rousing final quarter fuelled by British favourites Wallace And Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit and Nanny McPhee in October (+16%), Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire in November (0%), and a stunning December (+30%) saw any lost ground regained.
Every week in December saw improvements on 2004 with the final week (December 30 to January 5, 2006) delivering $39.8m (£23.2m) – 53% up on the same week of the previous year. With Harry Potter still running and the massive success of end of year blockbusters King Kong and especially The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe (which finished fourth for the year after only 24 days on release) December was a phenomenon, cracking the £100m mark. This is the first time this had been seen since July 2004.
With five films in the top nine of the year UIP was the clear market share leader with 29.3% of the territory’s grosses accounted for by the major in its penultimate year of business in the UK. Fuelled by the territory’s top earner, Goblet Of Fire, Warner Bros came second with 18.1%.
Top ten films in UK in 2005: (Monday Jan 3 2005 – Sunday Jan 1 2006)
1
Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire
£46,097,874*
(Warner Bros)
2
Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge Of The Sith
£39,322,053
(20th Century Fox)
3
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory
£37,357,715
(Warner Bros)
4
Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe
£34,286,830*
(BVI)
5
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit
£31,956,705*
(UIP)
6
War Of The Worlds
£30,535,083
(UIP)
7
Meet The Fockers
£28,661,816
(UIP)
8
Madagascar
£22,654,878
(UIP)
9
King Kong
£21,051,056*
(UIP)
10
Hitch
£17,393,848
(Sony Pictures Releasing International)
* Still on release at end of year. Source: Screen International
UK distributor market share 2005: (Friday Jan 7 2005 – Thursday Jan 5 2006)
1
UIP
£246.96m
(29.3%)
2
Warner Bros
£153.04m
(18.1%)
3
20th Century Fox
£121.8m
(14.4%)
4
BVI
£109.8m
(13%)
5
Entertainment
£77.8m
(9.2%)
6
Sony
£57.6m
(6.8%)
7
Pathe
£28.5m
(3.4%)
8
Momentum
£16.2m
(1.9%)
Others
£31.8m
(3.9%)
Source: Nielsen EDI
Compiled by Robert Mitchell, Chief Analyst, Screen International / ScreenDaily.com
