Admissions figures for UK cinema released today reveal that the level of January 2013 cinema attendances was the highest for that month in over 40 years.
Industry partners EDI Rentrak recorded 17,081,700 admissions to UK cinemas in January 2013, up an incredible 26 per cent on the same month last year. Following on from a strong final quarter in 2012, which saw annual admissions reach 172.5 million, this suggests that the cinema sector continues to perform strongly during times of continuing economic difficulty.
The month saw an unusually strong and varied slate of BAFTA and Oscar-nominated films – including Les Miserables, Life of Pi, The Impossible, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and Django Unchained – pull in audiences of all different ageas and tastes.
Commenting on the figures, CEA Chief Executive Phil Clapp said:
“There’s a huge buzz around the industry at the moment. The BAFTAs are becoming more and more important as a showcase for the best films and with the industry rapidly approaching the endgame of digitisation, the ability to show a wider and wider range of films to our audiences is now a reality.’