British Film Popularity On The Increase | Make Up A Quarter Of UK Box Office

It seems the popularity of British films is on the increase, at least in the UK itself. The latest figures to be released show that over a quarter of the UK’s 2007 box office takings has come from home-grown movies.

The UK Film Council figures show that for the first nine months of 2007, British films account for 27% of all UK takings, up from just 19% for the same period last year.

The biggest reason for this phenomenal boost for the British film industry is Harry Potter as ‘The Order of the Phoenix’ grossed £49.2 million ($100 million). Simon Pegg and Nick Frost saw their ‘Hot Fuzz’ police comedy make £21 million ($42 million).

John Woodward, chief executive of the UK Film Council, said:

“It’s been a strong half year of consolidation for film production in the UK. Currently, domestic films are steady and we’ve had strong inward investment from the US again this year.”

“When you couple that with the incredibly strong box office for British films, you can see that the underlying trends are healthy.”

The full top ten UK films in the UK and Ireland were:

1. Harry Potter & The Order Of The Phoenix (UK/US co-production) – £49.2m
2. The Bourne Ultimatum (UK-US) – £22.4m
3. Mr Bean’s Holiday (UK) – £22.1m
4. Hot Fuzz (UK) – £21m
5. Miss Potter (UK/US) – £6.9m
6. Atonement (UK) – £6.7m
7. Run, Fat Boy, Run (UK/US) – £6.35m
8. Notes On A Scandal (UK) – £5.9m
9. The Last King Of Scotland (UK/Germany) – £5.7m
10. 28 Weeks Later (UK) – £5.3m

Although a lot of the big films were joint productions between the UK and other countries, there’s no doubt that British films and the British film industry are seeing a resurgence. With two more Harry Potter films still to come that shows no signs of stopping any time soon.