With admissions of over 16.5 million, last month was most successful cinema-going May for 50 years, and it is hoped just the start of a record-breaking Summer for the UK cinema sector.
Driven by an exceptional audience response not just to the blockbuster Avengers: Endgame, but also to Aladdin, Rocketman and The Secret Life of Pets 2, that performance saw the sector recover further after a slow start to the year.
And with both a strong line-up of films scheduled for the rest of the Summer – including Spiderman: Far from Home, The Lion King, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Fast and the Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw – and an extraordinarily impressive close to the year – including IT Chapter 2, Terminator: Dark Fate, Frozen 2, Jumanji 2, Star Wars: the Rise of Skywalker and Cats – there is every hope that by year-end 2019 could match or even surpass the record set by 2018, which saw the biggest UK cinema admissions since 1970.