UK and Ireland cinema admissions totalled 138.2m in 2024 (vs. 135.1m in 2023), a rise of 2.3% year-on-year.
After weathering significant fallout from prior year’s film sector industrial strike action, the rise in admissions represented a fourth consecutive year of annual cinemagoing growth for the UK and Ireland, bucking the general global trend of decline versus last year. Thanks to a particularly strong run of pictures on offer in the final weeks of the year, December saw 2024’s highest levels of cinema footfall and was the best December result in five years.
Big screen highlights across 2024 included no.1 film Inside Out; family features Paddington in Peru and Wicked; animations Despicable Me 4 and Moana 2; action pictures Bad Boys: Ride or Die, Deadpool and Wolverine and Twisters; dramas All of Us Strangers, Conclave and It Ends With Us; cinematic spectacles Dune II and Gladiator II; horror films Alien: Romulus, A Quiet Place: Day One and Longlegs; and comedies Poor Things and Wicked Little Letters.
With admissions up, box office level (1.060bn vs. £1.063bn in 2023) and the number of releases increasing (1,115 vs. 1,015 in 2023), the UK and Ireland theatrical sector looks to be in rude health and firmly focused on the future as it travels into 2025. The theatrical release slate for the coming year is packed full of promise with a diverse array of marquee titles and something for every audience.
Information on the upcoming 2025 slociation.com/wp-content/uploads/2024-UK-Cinema-Admissions-Press-Release-Cinema-First.pdf” title=”2024 UK Cinema Admissions – Press Release (Cinema First)”].ate can be found on the FDA release schedule, and further detail on the 2024 UK market is available from Cinema First.