UK Box Office sees biggest one week admissions this century

Figures just released reveal that the week commencing 26 October 2012 saw the highest admissions to cinema in the UK this century, at over 7.5m. Furthermore, the month of October has seen industry admissions, which totalled 16.8m, up 24% from the same period in 2011 and the biggest October in terms of admissions for nearly a decade.

The release of the 23rd James Bond movie, Skyfall, has made this October huge. Bond’s return has easily beaten the one week box office record, previously held by Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows (£18.1m) with £33.1m.

Advertisers buying into the success of Skyfall include Heineken, Ikea and Toyota. Lisa Fielden, Manager, Brand and Digital Marketing at Toyota, said; “The Toyota GT86 sports car is positioned towards upmarket male consumers that can be hard to reach due to their time spent out of the home. Cinema advertising in Skyfall was a perfect opportunity to add incremental reach to this audience.”

Besides Skyfall, the month’s admissions were bolstered by Taken 2, with the latest cumulative box office standing at £23.3m, £21.4m of which was earned in October.

Tom Linay, Film Specialist at Digital Cinema Media, said; “October 2012 has been a massive month for the UK cinema sector in terms of admissions, powered by strong releases such as Skyfall, Taken 2, Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted and Looper, making this October the strongest in nearly a decade and a fantastic start to a big Q4.”

“Going into 2013, January looks like it will continue the strong performance with marquee titles such as Quartet, Les Misérables and Django Unchained all in the first few weeks of the month”