Cinema attendance in August held firm in the face of a period of prolonged warm weather, keeping admissions for 2013 just ahead of the same point last year.
August saw 17,639,654 cinema admissions, up 2.5 per cent on the same month in 2012, albeit one which saw the competing attractions of the London Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Top performer during August was The Smurfs 2, which – along with The Conjuring – topped £10 million at the box office during the month. Despicable Me 2 and Monsters University also picked up significant numbers, despite being later in their theatrical run.
The month’s figures meant that at the start of September, annual admissions were just a little ahead of the same point in 2012. But with a number of major releases planned for the final quarter, including The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Thor: the Dark World and The Hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug hopes remain high for the remainder of the year.