Feature: Cinema’s Success Fades During Football Season

Last month’s Euro 2000 competition was certainly good for network television – ITV’s ad revenue for June grew by 20% annually to £168.7 million – but for cinema the footy meant a sharp fall in admissions year on year. UK cinema admissions fell by 30% during June as the film distributors held back the release of key films until after the football competition was over. This meant that bums were doubly likely to stay on sofas rather than head out for the silver screen.

The annual drop is also made more severe by the particular success of films including Notting Hill and The Matrix in June last year. In June 1999, admission figures were, at 11 million, the highest recorded for the month in more than 25 years; this year figures reached just 7.7 million. The highest grossing film last month was Gladiator, which pulled in £9m according to ACNielsen EDI, placing it well ahead of the second place Final Destination, which only managed £3.8m.

The disappointment of last month has not prevented the first half of this year from producing the highest admission figures for a first half in 26 years. Between January and June 71 million cinema visits were made by the British public, an increase of 13% on the same period last year. In February admissions were the highest since 1971, at 17.6 million, thanks to the success of Toy Story 2. During the second quarter, high box office earners Gladiator, which took £25.2 million and Pokemon: The First Movie, which took £10.8 million, helped raise the admission figures. However, July is also expected to show a fall compared to last year, when Star Wars: Episode 1- The Phantom Menace broke all previous opening weekend box office records for the UK.

Cinema ad revenue is set to rise by around 10% this year, according to CIA MediaLab, to approximately £660 million. At the same time audiences are predicted to grow by 3% and the number of screens to rise by 7%, continuing at the same rate as last year. The overall trend is that cinema is a growing medium, with annual admissions 57% higher last year than in 1990 and revenue up 215% over the same period. Cinema now takes a 1.2% share of total display advertising and draws a high concentration of the key 15-34 year old market.