01 Box office statistics

The main resource for UK box office statistics is the BFI. Its Industry Data and Insights provide data and market intelligence on the UK’s film industry and film culture, including the publication of the annual BFI Statistical Yearbook and weekend box office figures.

• BFI Statistical Yearbook – presents the most comprehensive picture of film in the UK and the performance of British films abroad.
• Weekend box office figures – the weekly box office figures for the top 15 films, all other UK releases and newly opened films.

In addition, Charles Gant’s weekly report in The Telegraph, released every Tuesday, offers helpful analysis of the previous weekend’s UK box office figures.

The tool that most theatrical venues (about 90% of the market) use for their own box office reporting is Comscore’s (formerly Rentrak) international box office service, which uses real-time reporting technology to process data sent directly from cinemas. Most theatrical distributors use this system to access weekend box office results, historical box office data and perform film analysis. You need an account with ComScore to use their services.

Gower Street Analytics, who partner with Comscore, perform in-house analysis on global theatrical market data and produce various forecasts and reports for the distribution and exhibition sectors.

Independent film researcher and analyst Stephen Follows regularly publishes film data reports and studies of wider industry trends on his website.