This week’s British Film Association (UKCA) conference saw the hope and optimism attended by exhibitors who were attended by BUYITORED, which was a strong start to this year. Bridget Jones: I’m angry about the boy.
But after a challenging five years, I agreed that I didn’t have time to be satisfied.
“We all need to do more than ever,” said UKCA CEO Phil Clapp during the two-day “innovation”-themed two-day event at Picturehouse Central in London.
The exhibitors packed events that represent venues of all shapes and sizes, from the Odeon and Cineworld multiplex giants to representatives of the Ritz cinema in North Yorkshire, one of the oldest cinemas in the UK.
screen We will report on important story points from the event.
Those under 25 are appearing
As of March 6th, UK-Ireland box office revenues rose 15% year-on-year, making it the strongest start since 2020. Until March 18th, this had fallen slightly, but was expected, but according to executive director of Easter Holidays Lucy Jones. snow white The only big March release.
Excellent performance of Bridget Jones: I’m angry about the boy For Universal, they brought in £42.9 million as of March 17th, setting 2025 on what Jones confirmed as a “strong start.”
Importantly, 44% of cases are based on ComScore’s exit polls. I was angry about the boy The audience is under the age of 25, many of which were not born in 2001 when the first Bridget Jones film appeared. Young people are more likely to raise the ratings of the film and recommend it, with 24% of the audience not even seeing previous films.
And it’s not just I was angry about the boy That’s the cause of celebration. Horror Nosfer It was an unexpected hit, the highest-grossing film of January, snatching Universal £12.7 million. According to Comsore’s exit poll, it works particularly well with the younger demographic, with 47% of weekend viewers under the age of 25.
It has encouraged diversity among the 10 titles that each contributed £5 million to the box office in 2025. I was angry about the boy and Nosferatu, There’s Disney Mufasa: The Lion KingUniversal Dog man, Paramount Sonic the Hedgehog 3, DisneyMoana 2, Universal evilstudy group We live in timeDisney Captain America: A brave new world And Disney The complete unknown.
“I’ll bundle it up”
“Bunching” was a reused phrase. The term relates to the period when a large number of major films are released quickly and consecutively, leaving a gap for the rest of the year when exhibitors are scrambling to fill in slots. This is the case in 2024, with five of the top 10 best performers at the box office being released in November and December. evil, Moana 2, Paddington, Peru, Mustafa: The Lion King andGladiator II.
“In 2024, 1114 new titles were released to cinemas, of which 200 were saturated releases, meaning they played in over 250 cinemas. “This isn’t a pipeline issue, there’s supply and there. Especially if you’re running a cinema on a screen of 1, 2, 3, you can’t play it all physically if you want to run five releases of the 6-week maximum of 10 releases.”
A similar trend is expected in 2025, with major releases occurring later that year. There will be Lions Gate in the fourth quarter MichaelUniversal Evil: For good, Disney Avatar: Fire and Ashes And Disney Zootopia 2.
However, executive Round Table participants urged distributors to show more courage when dating movies on the release calendar, and not to give them to tent pole films such as the wider verse. They pointed to the big issue with Warner Bros. Joker: There are two in Madness The disappointing UK-Ireland not being at the box office (£10.4 million, 82% down Joker“Total of £508.3 million), but the factual rival distributor ran out scared of the release date, giving cinemas no viable alternatives for weeks.
The Round Table included Tonic Rush, Senior Vice President of Walt Disney Distribution. Matt Smith, director of theater at Lionsgate UK. Director of Everyman’s film Serena Gill. Showcase Cinemas UK Manging Director Crispin Lilly; Tony Mundin, owner and managing director of Manero Cinemas. (Executive Round Tables can only be reported by screen without directly attribution of quotation marks to participants).
Reducing theatre windows had a negative impact
The shorter theatre window is the only biggest factor behind the post-Covid reduction in film hospitalizations. One participant from the executive brown table argued.
UK-Ireland’s box office revenue in 2024 showed a recovery from the pandemic, but hospitalizations have fallen by around 25% on average before the pandemic. Windows has been shrinking to flexible windows since the pandemic 16 weeks ago, usually for 45 days with a large studio release.
Exhibitors are relaxed by quickly moving to the home when the film is not working theatrically, but on the contrary, they hope that home releases will be delayed when the film continues to attract audiences to the cinemas. evil It was cited as a film that moved on to premium video on demand when it was still working well theatrically.
Show -Time requirements are too restrictive
Participants repeatedly discussed more flexibility regarding showtime requirements. Large distributors were forced to be forced to book movies for all shows in the first week or two of their release.
“To get a movie when distributors want every show – Parkway Burnsley has three screens, but it doesn’t work,” said Rob Young, owner of Parkway Burnsley, during a discussion about enhancing the big screen experience. “We had to take off films that make good money (to make room for incoming releases).”
“It hurts us,” said one attendee at the executive brown table. “Over the past few years, the key focus of the industry as a whole is “how to grow your audience when there is a shortage of slate.” Which one is holding the exhibition? And for us, we have managed to diversify, run more films, get more events, more alternative content.
“But that means it’s much more difficult to bring movies to every show, especially if the goal is to keep the audience growing and promote the frequency of attendance. If you’re only showing two or three movies, you need to show 8 to 10 and deal with everyone.
Some exhibitors suggest that all showtime requirements will be limited to opening weekends only to increase the flexibility needed for small cinemas.
Will AI take on our job?
It was a question raised by the final panel of the meeting.
“What you need to worry about is whether the AI is doing the job right now, right away, or (you need to need it), getting any help from the AI, or are you fine. “And to give you a clue, you’re not okay.”
Rob Lea, head of screen content and pricing at Vue Entertainment, explained that it was the release of a particular film in 2011 that encouraged Multiplex exhibitors to explore machine learning when they schedule films.
“Moneyball “It was a huge inspiration for us,” he said. “How can I improve my decision-making using analytics?
“The important thing I’m highlighting is that it’s an AI system and it has a very impact on us. It’s very, very kind and the classic phrase “putting out garbage, trash.” It really depends on human intervention.
“We have a team of experts (traditionally film bookers) who watch movies to predict film performance and choose the title of the comp. All of that gets into the system and helps optimize where the right film shows the film at the right time.”
The pouring of love from cinemas in the news that London’s iconic repertoire Prince Charles Cinema (PCC) is facing an uncertain future, facing the spirit of the community where the UK’s independent exhibition sector is emerging, and helped to maintain that ai cannot be replicated during the pandemic disaster, rising costs and rising issues in film pipelines.
PCC landlords argued that break clauses would be added to the film deal in central London. This means that Cinema can dispose of the lawn with just six months of notice. As of March 20th, the Online Petition Support PCC had reached 162,243 signatures.
The youth panel at the East London-based Student Conference, curated by the charity, agreed that their favorite film was PCC and used their platform to program repeated titles to request more cinemas.
Speaking on a panel discussing innovation and box office performances, PCC Marketing Manager Jonathan Foster said of the film’s current position:
The importance of personal interaction with customers was an important message from panelists representing small circuit cinemas outside of metropolitan areas.
“Interactions, dialogues, dialogues, dialogues” was Parkway Burnsley’s young recommendation.
Slipen, founder-director of Lewis’ Depot, still offers “congregation experience” cinemas, offering them at affordable prices compared to theatres and festivals. “The movie won’t be over,” she glowed.
(TagStoTranslate) Distribution (T) Exhibition (T) UK/Ireland
