'Creed III'

Source: MGM / Warner Bros

‘Creed III’

The UK and Ireland box office has not “reached its full potential” so far in 2023 with the lack of wide releases dated for later in the year a concern, according to a report published today from ComScore.

The overall box office total in 2023 is currently 3% down on the same period in 2022.

The top-grossing titles for the year so far are Avatar: The Way Of Water; Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania; Puss In Boots: The Last Wish; and Creed III.

ComScore’s report, presented at the UKCA (UK Cinema Association) conference today (March 21), also shows that so far this year’s pipeline of dated titles is below 50% of capacity at present, with 418 titles dated, compared to 923 in 2022 and 938 in 2019.

Whilst Q2 is expected to see an 11% increase in saturation releases compared to 2022, with 31 new titles, Q3 and Q4 are tracking 40% and 60%, respectively, down on last year. 

Notable titles still to be released in 2023 include Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3, The Little Mermaid and Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny from Disney; Super Mario Bros and Oppenheimer from Universal; and The Flash, Barbie and Dune: Part II from Warner Bros.

Four post-pandemic titles are included in the 15 highest-grossing films of all time in the UK and Ireland - No Time To Die is at number three with £98m; Spider-Man; No Way Home at number four with £97.2m; Top Gun: Maverick at number 8 with £83.7m; and Avatar: The Way Of Water at number 11 with £77m.

Changing audiences

Audience trends have also changed noticeably since 2019, according to data from PostTrak.

Nearly two-thirds of cinema audiences are now made up of 18–34-year-olds, having increased from 56% in 2019 to 61% in 2023 Q1. Additionally, the older cohort (45+) has declined from 17% in 2019 to just 12% in 2023 so far.

The frequency of cinema trips for individuals has declined since the pandemic, with the percentage of people attending once a month dropping nearly 10% between 2019 (40%) and 2023 (31%).

“Infrequent cinemagoers” now make up 54% of audiences in 2023 as people who only go every other month (40%) or once a year (14%).