UK Box Office Looks Set to Break Records in 2012

2012 has already been a record-breaking year for British film, and the year ain’t over yet. UK box office receipts crossed the £1bn mark this week, and are currently running 1% ahead of the same point in 2011.

Much of this phenomenal success is due to the exceptional popularity of Skyfall, Daniel Craig’s third outing as James Bond, which fast became the most successful film of the year in the UK, and the biggest selling Bond film of all time, taking in about £57m in its first two weeks (the film has so far taken about £83m).

Other massive draws were the third instalment of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy The Dark Knight, and Joss Whedon’s slice of high-octane action movie pie, Avengers Assemble.

Although there is only just over a month of the year left to go, it looks as though 2012 will probably be the best financial year the UK box office has ever seen. Figures from the final instalment of the Twilight franchise Breaking Dawn – Part 2, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Life of Pi and many more films scheduled for release this Christmas are still to come in.

There is no reason to think that the ever increasing momentum of the UK box office will not carry over into 2013. With releases such as a star-studded adaptation of Les Miserables, Quentin Tarantino’s new offering Django Unchained, Monsters Inc. 3D, A Good Day to Die Hard and far too many more to mention coming our way next year, it looks like UK film revenue has nowhere to go but up.

What does this recession-defying triumph mean for British, and indeed international film? Well, what goes around comes around; if films are making more money, then money can (and hopefully will) make more films (and better ones). Here on the Farm, that’s very good news.