Blockbusters boost cinema takings

CINEMA successes such as The King’s Speech and The Inbetweeners ave helped UK box office takings to exceed £1bn for the first time.

New figures from the British Film Institute show cinema receipts have risen by 61 per cent in the past decade.

The BFI’s annual statistical yearbook shows that spending on film production in the UK has also reached a new high, topping £1.27bn in 2011.

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The total at the box office last year was £1.04bn, 5 per cent more than the previous year. However, it also marked a massive increase on the £645m spent on cinema-going in 2001.

The top three highest grossing films at UK cinemas were all home grown, with the final instalment of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 – topping the list by taking £73m and more than £1.3bn worldwide.

Oscar-winner The King’s Speech was second while The Inbetweeners Movie took third place.

Movie production within the UK has taken a hefty tumble with 274 feature films made in 2011, down from 343 the previous years, although total spending was up £20m.