The Surprising Renaissance Of Britain’s Cinemas:
“Film is at the heart of the UK’s cultural sector, soft power and
identity”. So declared the Guardian in its editorial on 10th May appraising the “potentially disastrous impact” of President Trump’s threat to impose 100% tariffs on all movies “produced in foreign lands”. The industry, the newspaper asserted, is already in a “precarious state” due to the repercussions from a range of adverse factors, especially Covid, the screenwriters’ and actors 2023 strike in the US, streaming platforms such as Netflix and increasing production costs.
The Statista website contributor, Laura Carollo, likewise acknowledged on May 5th that the UK is a particularly vulnerable target for the White House because it has become a favoured location for many foreign studios, “who are delighted to take advantage of the financial benefits offered by local tax reliefs”. Despite such concerns, she also detected an upturn in cinema ticket sales across the UK whereby in 2026 the country will be behind only the USA and China in terms of filmed entertainment revenue.
Carollo’s apparent optimism contrasts sharply with some of the gloomier news 
emanating from Britain’s media. On 7th May, the Sun journalist Naval Abdisamad reported that the Odeon Cinema group would be closing its branch in Bracknell, Berkshire, following “a string of other shutdowns around the country”, among them their London cinemas in Surrey Quays and Covent Garden. The Cineworld chain has taken similar action in West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, Middlesborough, Poole and Weymouth (both in Dorset).
Phil Clapp, the CEO of the UK Cinema Association, although acknowledging to the BBC News correspondent Pete Cooper on 2nd January that since the
pandemic some cinemas have become uneconomic to run, also insisted that new ones are opening up whose operators are offering something more than people get at home and that “there is still an audience out there for the big-screen experience”. Cooper’s colleague, Bethan Nimmo, on 17th March indeed agreed with Clapp that there are signs of the industry recovering and that there is a significant improvement in ticket sales.The 
Substack website considers this is because, unlike the streaming platforms, cinemas provide the “unparalleled magic of seeing a film on a mass screen, surrounded by an audience sharing every laugh, gasp and tear”.
On 17th January, the UK Cinema Association issued figures showing that admissions for 2024 had been 126,514,784, 2.3% up on 2023, outperforming not just the 
USA but also its counterparts in Europe. December was the biggest cinema-going month in 2024, with 15,679,232 admissions, almost 36% more than in 2023. Ian Jacob, CEO of Cinema First, hailed this as demonstrating conclusively that “cinema retains a 
unique position in the heart of the public”.
A Barclays Insight analysis of “How the UK cinemas got their mojo back”,issued on 28 March, has highlighted the fact that 2025 has started strongly with cinema spending up 15.1% in January and 9% in February, outpacing digital content and subscriptions. Furthermore, between February 7 and March 6th, UK cinemas earned £100.7m, 20% more than the £83.8m for the equivalent period in 2024. Barclays 
attributes much of this success to “Gladiator II”, “Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy” and “Captain America: Brave New World” and anticipates this could be exceeded this year by the new Superman film, the latest instalment of “Jurassic World”, the sequels to Wicked and Avatar and the screen debut of megagame “Minecraft”.
The Barclays survey does, however, also reveal that 55% of those
questioned and 69% of the over-55’s admitted that they are going to the cinema less than 10 years ago, except for residents in London who say their frequency is just the same as it was then. The cinemas, observes Barclays, are confronting this challenge and the fiercer than ever battle for consumer leisure time by making an outing to see a film more enjoyable, such as by installing sofas and 
inclining
seats, providing in-seat service and improving the standard and variety of available food and drinks. The primary threat to the cinema industry, in the opinion of Mintel.com is the view of prospective customers that cinema ticket prices have become too expensive and because the competition from streaming services has reshaped the perception of what constitutes value for money.
According to an assessment published by the Brussels-based International Union
of Cinemas (UNIC) on 12th February, it wasn’t only the UK that managed to maintain strong box office revenue last year. The UNIC data has confirmed that in 2024, cinema admissions also surpassed 2023 in eleven other European nations, among them France, Ireland, Greece, Poland and Turkey. Spain’s national market share rose to 19%, two points higher than in 2023 and France recorded 
181.3 million admissions, an increase of almost one million, partly due to the
fact that 44.4% of the films shown were French-made. Summer 2024 was the best in Italy’s box office history and during Christmas attendance was up by 28%, with 48% of tickets purchased during that period being for Italian films. As UNIC has emphasised, local productions have clearly played a pivotal role in the resurgence of cinema-going across Europe.