Comscore today announced £979m as the final box office total for UK and Irish cinemas in 2022.
The full year’s box office takings mark an excellent rise of 64% on 2021 (£597m), whilst managing to treble 2020’s territory low (£323m). Although figures remain down on the consistently high £1.3bn+ achieved in each of the pre-pandemic years 2015-19, these results stand as another strong marker of further theatrical sector recovery.
911 new titles were released in cinemas (vs. 503 in 2021) with Top Gun: Maverick (£84m) landing as the highest-grossing film of the year, giving both Paramount and Tom Cruise their biggest hits to date in the UK and Ireland. The sequel to the 1980s airborne action classic currently sits at no.8 in the territory’s all-time top-grossing films.
Walt Disney claimed the no.1 distributor title for 2022 with four of the top 10 films, 18 new releases and £222m box office (23% of the total market). With a strong Q4, Disney just pipped last year’s box office champion Universal at the last, who delivered 34 new releases and £219m box office (22% of the total market).
Global box office is estimated at $26bn for 2022 (+27%), with the UK and Ireland the 4th biggest box office territory worldwide. With a diverse theatrical release calendar in the offing for 2023, the current upward trajectory toward pre-pandemic cinemagoing highs, both at home and abroad, looks set to continue.
See a more detailed overview of 2022’s results here
