Cinema Admissions In July Strongest In 2005

The UK cinema industry enjoyed a total of 16 million admissions in July, making it the strongest month so far this year, despite a slight year on year loss due to two of the most popular films of 2004, Shrek 2 and Spiderman 2 both released in July 2004.

According to figures released by the Cinema Advertising Association (CAA), July’s success was largely due to the release of the War of the Worlds grossing an impressive £26.5 million and Madagascar taking second spot at £16.4 million.

Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughan’s Wedding Crashers came in third position at £8.5 million, while Tim Burton’s adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate factory took £8 million.

In terms of cinema adspend, Motors led the way reaching £2.33 million, while the Telecommunications industry hit £2.25 million for the month. The Food category took the third spot with £2.1 million of adspend.

The CAA revealed the top three advertisers in terms of spend were Unilever with £1.7 million, Vauxhall Motors at £1.4 million and Orange at £1.2 million.

UK Cinema experienced the highest advertising revenue growth for the first half of 2005 out of all traditional display media, enjoying a 7.9% increase year on year.

According to figures from Nielsen Media Research, cinema adspend totalled £66 million in terms of revenue for the January to June period, with growth pushed predominantly by the Motor sector (see UK Cinema Adspend Beats Other Media).

July’s strong performance carries on from June, which saw several Hollywood blockbusters dominating the nation’s cinemas, as Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith secured a second month as the most popular film choice, despite pressure from Batman Begins, the fifth Batman film featuring a fourth new face behind the mask (see June Sees Blockbusters Dominate Cinema).

CAA: 020 7534 6363