Lord Of The Rings Rules January Cinema

The ongoing success of Oscar nominated Lord of the Rings helped UK cinemas attract the highest number of January visitors since 1972, when The Godfather was the big box office draw. A total of 15 million people visited the cinema during last month, up 29% year on year.

Lord of the Rings topped the box office by some margin, taking just under £27 million, followed by Harry Potter, still going strong enough to make £7 million. These two films are now the third and second highest grossing films, respectively, in UK Box Office history.

Debbie Chalet, president of the CAA commented on the coming year: “We are predicting that 2002 will deliver 164 million cinema admissions, the highest figure since 1971. We are confident we will achieve this figure for a variety of reasons, primarily due to the strength and breadth of the films due for release this year.”

While this year has already seen the launch of the heavily marketed animation Monsters Inc, the year promises to continue strongly with the second of the Star Wars prequels, and ending with the second in both the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings series and the 20th Bond film.

Recent figures released by the CAA showed that cinema bucked the trend of decreasing ad revenues during 2001, enjoying a 28% year on year increase (see UK Cinema Sees Record Revenue During 2001).

CAA: 020 7534 6363

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