Cinema and the Box Office are Back

Cinema is officially back and despite the current Omicron challenge, 2021 is ending on a true high with record-breaking box office from Spider-Man: No Way Home and The Matrix Resurrections due to hit our screens in the last week run-up to Christmas.

Over the opening weekend of Spider-Man: No Way Home on 17th December, the blockbuster has recorded £31.3m total opening in the UK and Ireland – the fourth-highest ever in the territory. Specifically, the opening day of the new super-hero release secured £7.6m, which is 57% higher than No Time to Die’s opening day).  The latest outing for Peter Parker and co. earned a huge $253 million in the States and a whopping $587 million around the world. 

That marks the best Stateside box office opening by a film during the pandemic by a wide margin and means No Way Home is already close to the top of the charts, second only to a movie called Avengers: Endgame and, internationally, third behind that and Avengers: Infinity War.

Speaking at the Westminster Media Forum policy conference on November 29th, Phil Clapp, chief executive of the UK Cinema Association (UKCA), revealed that UK cinemas enjoyed a record-breaking October this year too. 

After posting strong box office scores in August and September, October turned out to be “the strongest October in terms of cinema-going in the last decade”.

With releases over the past few months including No Time to Die, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Halloween Kills, Dune, The Last Duel, Last Night in Soho and The French Dispatch to name but a few, audiences have flocked back to the cinema to relish the big screen experience once again. 

Clapp spoke of the “strong and stable film slate” currently available to bookers after last year’s continually delaying and changing release dates.

Focusing upon the array of theatrical releases over the past few months, No Time to Die recently became the third highest-grossing film at the UK box office, accumulating £96m and only £7m short of Skyfall in second place. As of 29th November, No Time to Die became the second biggest 007 movie ever. Overall, its international box office standing is just above $612M, with Universal’s slice crossing $500M on Monday 29th. The global total for the release is nearing $773M.  

Gower Street Analytics, a data analytics company servicing the sector, has raised its 2021 global box office forecast to nearly $22 billion following better-than-expected results through the month of October. The firm is now expecting the global box office to hit $21.6 billion in 2021, up from its previous forecast of $20.2 billion, with the potential to hit $22 billion by the end of the year. No Time To Die, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Dune and other titles have been luring back audiences back in significant numbers. Nonetheless, total financial losses incurred by UK cinemas as a result of the pandemic are estimated at an astronomical £2bn.

All in all, it really does look like cinema is well and truly back and we can’t wait to see what 2022 brings.