NewsLine End Of Year Round-Up: Cinema
The year began with good news for the industry with figures from the Cinema Advertising Association revealing that cinema admissions for January reached 16.3 million, which equates to an average of 3.67 million visits a week. Admissions were up by 8% year on year, making January 2003’s total the largest recorded for that month since 1971 (see Cinema Gets Off To A Good Start In 2003).
However, Valentine’s Day failed to deliver and cinema admissions for February dropped by 21% year on year to 15.03 million, which equates to an average of 3.76 million cinema visits a week. The CAA claimed that the dramatic year on year decline in overall admissions was due to February 2002 being the highest month on record since 1969, with the release of films such as Monsters Inc. and Ocean’s Eleven proving particularly successful (see Cinema Admissions Slip In February).
Despite this, February saw the highest weekly average of cinema visits for over twelve months due to the release of Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can, which was February’s top grossing film, taking just over £11 million at the box office. There was good news elsewhere, as Carlton Screen Advertising, the UK’s leading cinema advertising contractor, announced plans to introduce digital equipment to many of its screens (see Digital Technology Opens Up New Era For Cinema).
However, there was more bad news for the industry in March as cinema admissions reached 10.4 million, a 27% year on year decrease on the same period in 2002. The figures brought admissions for the first quarter of 2003 to 42 million, a 14% drop on the same period last year(see Cinema Admissions Weaken In March).
The outlook was more positive elsewhere as research revealed that digital cinema is beginning to attracting audiences, with a poll showing that more than 80% of moviegoers appreciate the rapidly developing format (see Cinema Audiences Give Thumbs Up To Digital).
Cinema admissions continued to fall in April, dropping by 6.2% year on year to just below 12.5 million. The highest grossing film of the month was the spy spoof Johnny English, which topped the monthly box office, taking over £14 million and perhaps explaining why the month was less than impressive for the industry (see Cinema Admissions Dip During April).
UK cinema admissions remained virtually static year on year during May at 13.8 million, averaging 3.12 million a week during the month, reflecting a plateau in the recent growth enjoyed by the medium. May’s admissions were dominated by sequels and the long-awaited Matrix Reloaded starring Keanu Reeves, took £20.7 million in just three weeks to become the second biggest film of the year so far. It is expected that the third Matrix instalment will also make the top ten films of 2003 (see Matrix Fails To Reload Cinema Admissions In May).
Despite a number of high profile sequels June’s cinema admissions dropped to 9.4 million, down from 12.2 million in the same period the previous year as consumers turned their backs on the summer blockbusters and attempted to make the most out of the British sunshine. Big budget Hollywood sequels dominated the chart in June and the Matrix Reloaded continued to cast its shadow over the box office, taking £10.5 million during the month. High octane sequel 2 Fast 2 Furious also performed strongly, taking £5.2 million to put it in fourth place (see Seasonal Dip Hits June’s Cinema Admissions).
The heatwave continued to put pressure on the market in July and UK cinema admissions dipped to 12.4 million, down from 15 million in the same period the previous year. Despite the highly anticipated release of Charlie’s Angels 2: Full Throttle cinema admissions averaged just 2.8 million a week during July, down from an average of 3.38 million visits in July 2002 (see Cinema Admissions Feel The Heat During July).
There was good news for the industry in August as UK cinema admissions increased by 8% year on year to more than 17 million as a string of high profile sequels drew in the crowds, despite the unseasonably hot British summertime the number one film for August was action adventure Pirates Of The Caribbean, which benefited from the pulling power of its main stars, Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom. The film became the ninth highest opening movie of the year taking £3.2 million in its first weekend and £18.6 million across the month as a whole (see Sequels Continue ToTop Box Office During August). There was further good news as analysts from Dodona Research UK revealed that the UK had the largest cinema market in Europe in 2002, accounting for over 20% of the continent’s box office takings (see Cinema Goes From Strength To Strength).
Elsewhere, The Daily Telegraph launch its first ever foray into cinema advertising, with a range of executions designed to build on its ‘read a bestseller everyday’ campaign (see Daily Telegraph Makes First Foray Into Cinema Advertising).
The success of Disney’s aquatic animation Finding Nemo brought further good news to the industry in October as cinema admissions reached 17.3 million. October cinema admissions averaged 4 million a week, which represents a 29% year on year increase on the same period last year. Finding Nemo was the most successful film of the month, taking £28.7 million. The film is now the one of the biggest films of 2003 (see Nemo Is Box Office Catch Of The Day In October).
The Christmas season was yet another busy month for the industry and Carlton Screen Advertising secured Swedish furniture group IKEA to launch its first ever cinema advertising campaign as part of a wider push to build brand awareness amongst potential customers (see Carlton Secures IKEA For Cinema Campaign). The group also secured Sminoff as the first brand to use its recently launched IMAX cinema advertising package (see Carlton Secures Smirnoff For New IMAX Cinema Package).
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