October Cinema Adspend Up By 7.3%

Cinema admissions enjoyed a 7.3% year on year increase in October, with admissions for the month totalling 15.6 million, fuelled by strong offerings from UK productions and family films released during the half term break.

Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit was the nation’s clear favourite, grossing £26.2 million in October, with the five year production receiving waves of popularity as it opened around the world.

Nanny McPhee, staring Emma Thompson took second place in October, earning £10.2 million, while the big screen adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice grossed £5.6 million at the box office.

David Cronenberg;s A History of Violence took £3.4 million in the UK, while Tim Burton enjoyed success with his animation, the Corpse Bride earning £3.4 million.

Advertising in October was led by the Motors, Drink and Telecoms categories, reaching £11.3 million for the month, with the top three advertisers in terms of spend were Orange, at £1.2m with their out of reel sponsorship, followed by BSkyB at £1m and finally DFS at £700k.

The final quarter of 2005 looks set to do well, with huge cinema drawcards still to be released, with The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and King Kong expected to do well in the holiday season.

According to figures released earlier this year from Nielsen Media Research, 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 (see UK Cinema Adspend Beats Other Media).

Nielsen Media Research revealed that cinema adspend totalled £66 million in terms of revenue for the January to June period, with growth pushed predominantly by the Motor sector.

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