Cinema Sees Dip But Still On Course For Record 2004
The latest figures from the Cinema Advertising Association indicate that admissions in September dipped by 5.1% year on year, due to a lack of major releases during the month, but maintain that 2004 will be a record year in terms of attendance with several high-profile blockbusters looming on the horizon.
Admissions during September totalled 10.2 million, with an average of 2.37 million Britons visiting a cinema every week. While the monthly total was down on the same period in 2003, year to date admissions now exceed 127.6 million, 8.6% up on the same period last year.
The CAA predicts a record breaking 180 million admissions by the year’s end, with childrens’ films such as The Incredibles, Lemony Snicket and The Polar Express expected to prove popular amongst families with kids around the Christmas period. Elsewhere, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason and Phantom of the Opera both look set to draw adult audiences in their millions to the silver screen.
The high-profile film releases will spell good news for cinema advertisers. The top three advertisers, in terms of spend, for September were Orange with their Gold Spot Credit, laying out £1.1 million on the campaign, Renault, which spent £954,000 and Hewlett Packard with a total spend of £824,000.
| Top Ten Films At The UK Box Office During September | ||
| 1 | Dodgeball:The Movie | £5.89m |
| 2 | Terminal | £5.72m |
| 3 | Collateral | £5.51m |
| 4 | Open Water | £4.65m |
| 5 | Hellboy | £2.93m |
| 6 | Wimbledon | £2.66m |
| 7 | The Village | £2.59m |
| 8 | The Bourne Supremacy | £2.52m |
| 9 | The Motorcycle Diaries | £1.53m |
| 10 | Hero | £1.46m |
| Source: CAA |
Despite the lack of Hollywood heavyweights during September, box office takings remained respectable. Comedy sports-flick, Dodgeball, topped the table, managing to take £5.8 million, followed closely by Steven Spielberg’s The Terminal starring Tom Hanks which took £5.7 million. In third place was Tom Cruise as a hit man in Michael Mann’s Collateral, taking £5.5 million.
Some surprise hits in the UK top ten included the low budget shark thriller Open Water in fourth place, and the art house biopic of revolutionary Ernest Ché Guevara’s early years Motorcycle Diaries in ninth. Although only showing on 49 screens, it managed to take an impressive £1.5 million at the box office.
CAA: 020 7534 6363
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