Average annual cinema spending per head population in the United Kingdom 2000-2021

In 2021, a person in the United Kingdom spent, on average, 8.16 British pounds on moviegoing, up from 4.37 pounds a year earlier – an annual increase of about 87 percent. Despite the growth, the 2021 figure amounted to less than 44 percent of the 18.72-pound average recorded in 2019, before the pandemic.

Box office gross and attendance decline

The slow recovery of average spending follows the pattern set by the segment's key indicators. The UK's box office revenue grew by almost 90 percent in 2021, yet the value (557 million pounds) amounted to less than 45 percent of the pre-pandemic figures, which surpassed 1.2 billion pounds since 2015. Similarly, cinema attendance in the UK increased by nearly 70 percent in 2021 but fell behind half of the more than 170 million movie tickets sold annually before the coronavirus outbreak.

Ticket prices and the number of screens rise

Meanwhile, the British cinema market continued to pursue expansion. The average cost of a movie ticket in the UK reached an all-time high in 2021: 7.52 pounds, roughly six percent above the 2019 figure. And, despite a slight annual decrease, the number of movie theaters operating in the UK in 2021 rose around 2.4 percent compared to 2019.