1917
Directed by
Starring
Released: 10th January 2020
Released: 10th January 2020
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United Kingdom
United States
India
Highest chart position: 1
Weeks on box office: 13
10th Jan 2020
17th Jan 2020
24th Jan 2020
31st Jan 2020
7th Feb 2020
14th Feb 2020
21st Feb 2020
28th Feb 2020
6th Mar 2020
13th Mar 2020
Cinema attendance in the UK dropped by 75% to 44 million tickets sold in 2020 due to the pandemic closures and limited openings later in the year.
Things started off really well in the first 3 months of the year, with over 80% of the total happening between January and March.
The COVID-19 pandemic took hold in late March and as you expect things just collapsed after that with less than 10 Million tickets sold between March and December.
The industry suffered 3 closures during that time and unlike in countries like America there is no drive-in culture which in part has kept the industry ticking.
Just under £250 Million in tickets were sold in 2020, compared to £1.25 Billion in 2019 which amounted to 176 Million tickets.
The highest grossing movie of the year was the Sam Mandes directed 1917 which was released in January 2020 and took over £40 Million at the box office.
2021 has not got off to a good start and cinemas have been closed but with vaccines being administered fast and a drop in cases it is hoped UK cinemas will open soon and the country will slowly get back to normal.
With no big releases due until at least the second quarter of the year UK cinema goers are in for a busy end of year with film like No Time To Die and Ghostbusters: Afterlife set to be big hits.
With the pandemic ending the UK box office for the second time take a look back at what films were making the headlines over the years.
A year ago (2020)
No. 1 and highest debut:
1917 starring Dean-Charles Chapman and George MacKay and directed by Sam Mendes
Longest run:
Frozen II which had been on the box office for 8 weeks.
Top total grossing:
Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker which had taken £54.9 Million after 4 weeks of release.
Five years ago (2016)
No. 1 movie:
Star Wars: The Force Awakens which had been at the top for 4 weeks and with a total gross of £108.4 Million it was also the top total grossing film.
Highest Debut:
The Hateful Eight directed by Quentin Tarantino and starring Samuel L. Jackson and Kurt Russell which entered the box office at number 2.
Longest run:
Spectre which had been on the box office for 11 weeks.
Ten years ago (2011)
No. 1 and Highest debut:
The Kings Speech starring Colin Firth and Helena Bonham Carter and directed by Tom Hooper
Top total grossing and longest run:
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1 which had taken £50.6 Million over 8 weeks of release.
Fifteen years ago (2006)
No.1 movie:
King Kong which had been at the top for 2 weeks.
Highest debut:
Just Friends directed by Roger Kumble and starring Ryan Reynolds and Amy Smart which entered the box office at number 3.
Longest run:
The Constant Gardener which had been on the box office for 9 weeks.
Top total grossing:
Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire which had taken £47.6 Million after 8 weeks of release.
Twenty years ago (2001)
No.1 movie:
Unbreakable which had been at the top for 2 weeks.
Highest debut:
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon directed by Ang Lee and starring Yun-Fat Chow and Michelle Yeoh which entered the box office at number 4.
Top total grossing and longest run:
Billy Elliot which had taken £17 Million over 15 weeks of release.
Twenty five years ago (1996)
No. 1 and highest debut:
Seven starring Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt and directed by David Fincher
Top total grossing and longest run:
Goldeneye which had taken £17.2 Million over 7 weeks of release.
The UK box office figures are back on hold again as the UK experiences another lockdown and cinemas across England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales close.
Two cinemas remained open Broadway and Palace on the Isle Of man and The Mallard Cinema in the Channel Islands, both run under different rules.
These cinemas showed the latest hit movies including Wonder Woman 1984 as well as older hits like 1917.
The lockdown is due to end on 15th February but the UK government has said it could go on longer.
With a COVOD-19 vaccine rapidly starting to be administered across the country it is hoped that this could be the last lockdown and then perhaps the UK box office can start to return to normal.
With the 2020 box office collapsing in March due to the global pandemic the Chinese market was the first an quickest to recover and it dominated the global scene over the whole year.
The top grossing movie of the year was The Eight Hundred wich was released in August and did big business in China.
Chinese films accounted for 6 of the top 20 movies of the year and 7 of the movie were released in 2019 with a holdover in 2020.
Tenet which was the first big movie released during the pandemic made it into the top 5 movies of the year despite being considered a flop.
Many movies have had there releases moved to 2021 and cinemas did not have the massive tentpole pictures that would have pulled in over a Billion dollars in revenue, in fact its the first time in over a decade there has been no movie taking over $1 Billion.
Here are the top 5 movies by gross across the globe in 2020.
The Eight Hundred
A massive hit in China the action war epic is directed by Hu Guan and took $161 Million on its full opening weekend.
Over its full global release the movie took $441.8 Million making the top grossing global movie of the year.
Bad Boys For Life
After a lengthy gap Will Smith and Martin Lawrence re-teamed as the Miami cops and the movie was a global smash.
Released at the start of the year its release just missed the cinemas closures due to COVID-19 and took $418.2 Million.
1917
Sam Mendes released his Oscar nominated was movie in America in late 2019 but got its global release in early 2020 and its the 3rd top movie of 2020 with $375.4 Million.
My People, My Homeland
Directed by 7 of Chinas top directors this anthology movie took $101 Million durings its Chinese opening.
Globally the movie is the 4th highest grossing of the year with $371.1 Million.
Tenet
In America this movie was moved to an August release with studios hoping that cinemas would have re-opened after 4 months of closures, but the global pandemic had other ideas and although countries has started to re-opened cinemas had limited capacity.
The movie did relatively well in global cinemas but with mixed reviews it was not the film Warner Bros. had hoped, but a top five of the year is not bad with a gross of $362.6.
In a year which saw a worrying trend of movies not getting a theatrical release due to the global pandemic that hit the world in 2020 its unsure if the industry will recover as studios see big returns for movies on streaming services rather than box office returns.
The biggest grossing movie in the UK for the year is 1917 from director Sam Mandes which was released in January and has not been challenged all year as movies after March had no chance of making a substantial box office return.
The two movies which tried the most were Tenet released in August and did manage to become the 5th top movie of the year and Wonder Woman 1984 which although released in December, after many release changes, was hit by another UK lockdown which has massively impacted its box office potential.
Of the top 5 movies in the UK 2 of them were released in 2019 and 2 of them released in early 2020 with Tenet being the other.
Worth of a mention is that apart from Tenet which is the top movie in the pandemic era sleeper hit After We Collided which was released in early September is the 20th top movie of the year with a total gross of £4 Million, a great achievement in the current market.
Also worthy of a mention is the success the Disney/Pixar movie Onward had at the box office, it was the top movie of the week in March when cinemas closed, then the movie continued to top the box office when cinemas re-opened in July despite already being available on Disney+, the movie is the 12 top movie of 2020 with £7.5 Million.
With a vaccine not hitting the UK in late 2020 the first part of 2021 might be slow for cinemas as well, but providing they can survive once we hit spring it is hopeful doors will start to open again and capacity can return to normal and the box office can start properly once more.
Here is a break down of the top 5 movies in the UK for 2020.
1917
Released in January of 2020 the single shot Oscar nominated movie took £43.7 Million by mid March when cinemas shut down.
The film took a total gross of £43.9 Million by the end of 2020 and is the top movie of the year.
Sonic The Hedgehog
After a troubled first showing of Sonic when the lead character was redesign at the request of the fans, the movie was delayed to mid February 2020 where it took just nuder five million pound on its opening weekend.
After a five week run the Jim Carey starring movie had taken £19 Million and then after cinemas re-opened it's total UK gross rose to £19.2 Million.
Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker
Released at the very end of 2019 the JJ Abrams directed, last of the Skywalker sega, took £29.4 Million during its release year.
The movie continued to pull in audiences on 2020 and took another £18.8 Million until the end of January.
Little Women~2019
Released on the last weekend of 2019 where is took £3.5 Million the movie continued to do well into 2020 where it took an extra £17.5 Million until mid February.
Tenet
After getting its original release date moved to 28th August the movie was to be the saviour of cinema after 4 month of closures to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
Despite much criticism for Warner Bros. releasing the movie when not all cinemas had reopened and capacity was limited the movie spend 13 weeks on the chart taking £17.5 Million and scraped its way into the top 5 movies of 2020.
