Biggest Cinema Admission Total Since 1969

The continuing success of Oscar-nominated Lord of the Rings and the opening of the heavily plugged animation Monsters Inc brought UK cinema admissions in February to their highest level since 1969. The eventual total was 19 million, up 38% year on year.

Monsters Inc took £6.49m on its opening weekend, excluding previews, making it the fifth highest box office opening ever. The remake of Rat Pack movie Ocean’s Eleven starring, among others, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt and George Clooney, also had a good opening weekend, taking £4.3m.

Lord of the Rings’ popularity was enough to make the third biggest film of the month and its total takings by the end of February, three months after release, was £60m.

Christine Costello, vice-president of the CAA, said that the organisation was encouraged by the strong start to the year, adding, “We are confident that we will continue to deliver excellent value to our advertisers, with many films still to be released over the coming months, including About A Boy, Spiderman, Star Wars: Episode II and Men in Black.”

CAA: 020 7534 6363

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