August Cinema Admissions Down Despite X-Men’s Heroic First Weekend

A dearth of major summer blockbusters saw UK cinema admissions for August fall year on year to an average of 3.06m per week, or 13.5m total, down 13% on last year (see Cinema Admissions Fall During September).

Last year’s box office success stories, Austin Powers 2 and Star Wars: Episode One – The Phantom Menace took almost £40m between them during August 1999. This year box office totals were more modest, with the highest grosser, X-Men, taking £4.7m in its first weekend, and managing £10.9m for the month. This was enough to give the film version of the popular US comic book the second-highest UK opening weekend this year, behind Toy Story 2 (see Second Helpings Push UK Cinema Takings).

Children’s films Stuart Little and Chicken Run came next in the league for box office takings, with £8.6m and £7.1m respectively. The latter title is the latest film to involve Oscar-winning British animator Nick Park. Other British talent looks set to make its mark on admission figures for the next few months, as Snatch, directed by Britain’s Guy Ritchie, managed the highest ever opening weekend for an 18 certificate film during September, taking £3.2m at the box office. Meanwhile, Billy Elliot opened this weekend and is reported to have taken around £1.4m, a first weekend impact for a British film which is comparable to 1999’s Shakespeare in Love (see Cinema Admissions Hit Record Levels In February).

Despite the disappointing month, September’s admission figures are expected to show a year on year increase of around 10%, while for the year so far (January to August) admissions total 99m, up 6% on the same period last year. Year end admissions are expected to exceed 1999’s with films including The Grinch, directed by Ron Howard and based on the popular Dr Seuss children’s book, and a revival of cult 70’s TV series Charlie’s Angels due for UK release before the year end.

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