UK feature film production spend reached £1bn in the first half of 2026, a 6% decrease on 2025.
While overall film spend was down, spend on local UK films and co-productions was up by 20% and 35%, respectively, according to statistics published today (August 11) by the BFI.
Seventy-three films started shooting between January and June 2026, which is seven more than the 66 first reported for the same period in 2025.
Twenty-six inward investment films accounted for £905m, or 88% of the total UK production spend on film from January to June 2026. Productions to shoot in this period included Warner Bros’ The Batman: Part II, A24’s The Elden Ring, Amazon MGM’s Hello & Paris and Amazon MGM’s Highlander.
This is a 9% decrease on the equivalent period in 2025, when inward investment accounted for £999m from 22 films.
Thirty-five local UK productions brought in £75m, or 7% of the total, compared with 27 films bringing in £62m, as first reported for the first half of 2025. UK films to shoot in the first half of 2026 included Element Pictures’ Séance On A Wet Afternoon and EMU’s The Man Who Stole Portugal.
A further 12 features were co-productions with a UK spend of £47m, or 5% of the total UK spend on film, including DJ Caruso’s UK-Italy-Belgium co-production A Visit To Grandpa’s and Antonia Campbell-Hughes’ UK-Ireland-Switzerland co-productionHigh End. The number of co-productions was down from 17 in the same 2025 timeframe; however, the spend increased from last year’s £35m.
The total spend across film and HETV production in the first half of 2026 was £2.7bn, down 15.6% from £3.2bn in the equivalent period for 2025.
Overall film spend was also down on the equivalent period in 2024, which hit £1.11bn.
High-end TV
The number of HETV programmes to start shooting in the first half of 2026 was 82, the same as the equivalent period in 2025. UK spend on HETV programmes starting principal photography during the first half of 2026 was £1.7bn, a 19% decrease on the £2.1bn spent in 2025.
Inward investment programmes accounted for 78% of the UK spend on HETV productions which started production in the first half of 2026, totalling £1.3bn, from 39 programmes, or 48% of programming.
These included Disney+ and Hulu’s Alien: Earth season two, Netflix’s Department Q season two, Disney+’s Only Murders In The Building season six and Netflix’s Peaky Blinders sequel series.
This was a 23.5% decrease from the £1.7bn inward TV production spend in the equivalent 2025 period.
There were 37 UK productions, accounting for 45% of programmes, with a UK production spend of £337m, or 20% of total spend. These included Sky’s Meantime and BBC’s Blue Lights series four, Old Town Murders,Reputation andSilent Witness series 30.
The total spend from the 37 productions was £337m, an increase from £332.3m of the equivalent 2025 period.
There were six co-productions with a UK spend of £38m, an increase from £27m in the 2025 period, such as BBC Northern Ireland and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)’s Committed.
UK spend on feature-length single productions – including inward investment and local UK projects financed by broadcasters and streaming platforms – may be captured in the statistics for HETV, as these productions may apply for certification to access the UK’s HETV tax relief, if they are unable to express theatrical intention.
The BFI presents the 2025 figures as ‘first reported’ to enable like-for-like comparisons; however, production data tends to be revised upwards throughout the year owing to lags in reporting from some productions, especially for domestic UK features with budgets of less than £500,000.
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