An uninspiring selection of blockbusters and a hiatus of some of the biggest-hitting franchises has been blamed for the largest fall in UK box office takings for almost a quarter of a century.
Figures for 2014, released by industry analyst Rentrak, show that cinemas across the UK and Ireland experienced a 2.9% decline in takings to £1.13bn – the most significant fall since records began in 1991.
It was also the first time since 1998 that no film broke the £40m mark at the box office – exceeded by Despicable Me 2, the second film in the Hobbit franchise, Frozen and Les Misérables in 2013.
In a year that was otherwise dominated by sequels, the top grossing film of 2014 was The Lego Movie, which pulled in £34.3m. It was closely followed by The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies which has made £33.5m so far and The Inbetweeners 2 which made £33.3m. The Wolf of Wall Street also broke the record for the highest ever grossing 18-rated film, making £22.7m.
Rentrak UK executive director Lucy Jones said that while it was easy to pass the blame onto online film watching services, such as Netflix, the increasing obsession with TV boxsets or even the rising price of cinema tickets, the issue boiled down to the quality of films in 2014.
“Our view remains that it’s a product-driven market,” she said. “The audience will turn out for the films that grab their attention, but they need a compelling reason to go - whether that’s a must-see sequel, big-budget effects or 5-star reviews. It’s a crowded marketplace, with over 830 releases last year including live events. To get over the 50 million level, you have to motivate irregular cinema-goers to book that ticket … 2014 was a year off for many of the major franchises like Bond and Avengers.”
The US experienced a drop of 5.2% in box office takings on 2013.
In October, the Film Distributors’ Association (FDA) released a showreel of 47 of the biggest Christmas film releases, in a last-minute attempt to entice audiences back into cinemas at the end of the year and offset the 8% decline in box office takings on the year before. This was attributed to everything from the warm weather, the World Cup and the Commonwealth Games keeping people out of the cinema, to an uninspiring roster of films not doing enough to draw in the audiences.
While blockbusters such as The Hobbit and Paddington provided a last minute boost for the box office it was not enough to make up for the summer lull.
Mark Batey, chief executive of the FDA, said the fact that the drop in takings was just 3% actually showed the UK cinema sector remained buoyant. With new Bond, Avengers and Star Wars films out in 2015, he predicted a huge surge in cinema ticket sales this year.
“I think the figures are actually pretty good,” he said. “Given where we were in the middle of the year, where we undoubtedlysaw quite a dip in takings in the summer, the overall takings are pretty encouraging. In money terms, the difference is £34m which is the equivalent of just one big movie. Paddington has done more than that on its own and The Hobbit has done more than that on its own just in the last few weeks. So if you look at it in those terms, the difference is very small.”
Batey added: “We are on the cusp of what we hope will be quite a significant upturn with a fantastic line-up, not just in 2015 but in 2016 as well, there really is an attractive, strong and diverse lineup of films coming. The appetite for film in this country is as strong as ever.”
