Film Box Office Up in 2009

The BBC reports that box office takings in the UK and Ireland are on a course to overtake last year's figures substantially. The box office is already £100 million up on this time last year.

Admissions between January and May 2009 were up 16% on the same period in 2008.

Film production is also up: £535.1m was spent in the UK in the first half of 2009, which makes this the best half-year since 2004.

Yet, a change in UK film tax relief rules has resulted in a drop in co-productions with the UK this year.

At the end of June 2008, the overall box office gross in the UK and Ireland has just passed the £400m mark.

Thanks to hits like Star Trek and Angels and Demons, however, takings for the first half of 2009 exceeded £500m.

Disney's Bolt was one of several 3D films released in the first half of 2009

According to Film Council researcher David Steele, there has been a "big push" to bring digital 3D capability into UK cinemas.

Films like Disney's Bolt and Monsters vs Aliens, he continued, had made this move "extremely rational economically".