Entertainment

Britain shows Hollywood how it’s done at the box office as annual figures roll in

Britain shows Hollywood how it’s done at the box office as annual figures roll in
Britain shows Hollywood how it’s done at the box office as annual figures roll in

The British film industry has continued to cement its place in the global market as the three most successful movies released in 2016 were made in the UK using domestic crews and facilities, bringing in more than a quarter of the total UK box office share.

In a business largely dominated by Hollywood, it was British-made films Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them and Bridget Jones’s Baby that brought in the most money at the UK box office last year.

Star Wars offshoot Rogue One topped the bill with £64.3 million, while Harry Potter prequel Fantastic Beasts and the Bridget Jones sequel took £54.3 million and £48.2 million respectively.

Renee Zellweger starred in Bridget Jones’s Baby (Ian West/PA)

Figures published by the BFI show that these three big-budget, chart-topping films generated 27.5% of the overall market share in the UK box office, with a combined total gross of £166.8 million.

In total, £1.227 billion was spent at the box office, making 2016 the second most profitable year on record for UK cinemas, according to the BFI.

It was also a good year for British-made independent films, with Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie, Eddie The Eagle and Dad’s Army ensuring that UK independent films achieved a 7.4% share of the box office.

Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them’s Eddie Redmayne and author JK Rowling (Ian West/PA)

Comedy Absolutely Fabulous enjoyed a successful leap from the small screen to cinemas as it was named the top-grossing UK independent film of 2016 with box office earnings of £16 million.

The spend on film production in the UK in 2016 reached £1.6 billion, the highest amount ever recorded, and inward investment to the UK from film and TV reached £1.35 billion, an 18% increase from 2015.

Inward investment films created in the UK in 2016 include forthcoming blockbusters Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi and Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant.

The television industry saw a growth in 2016 with 36 productions seeing a UK spend of £477.8 million, an 11% increase from 2014′s spend of £430.3 million.

Amanda Nevill, chief executive of the BFI, said: “With film production reaching £1.6 billion for the first time, today’s statistics show that UK film is open for business and our position as a global leader for film and TV production is stronger than ever.”