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Universal’s Wicked was the highest-grossing release of 2024 in the UK with a £59.6 million haul at the box office.
The figures were released this morning by the British Film Institute.
Wicked’s takings represent 6% of the year’s total box office. The emerald green musical was closely followed by Pixar’s Inside Out 2, which clocked £59.5 million at the UK box office.
Overall, total admissions for 2024 in the UK reached 126.5 million, a 2% increase on 2023. The BFI said the increase was the result of a surge at the box office in the last quarter of the year thanks to family-targeted franchise releases like Wicked and Moana 2. The figure still lags behind the 176 million admissions in 2019 by 28%. Box office takings totaled £979 million, less than 1% down on 2023’s £980 million, but 22% behind 2019’s pre-pandemic £1.3 billion.
On the indie side, Sam Taylor-Johnson’s Back to Black was the top-grossing release k with £12.3 million. Anthony Hopkins flick One Life follows close behind with £10 million and Wicked Little Letters took £9.6 million. Within the indie top 20, 16 films were collaborations with other countries and four were UK-only titles, according to the BFI. The total box office for the 2024 top 20 UK independent films was £63.9 million, almost double 2023’s top 20 total of £33.7 million. This accounts for 93% of the total box office for UK independent film releases over the year. Overall, independent UK films account for a 6.9% market share of the total UK box office, which is equal to £69 million.
Admissions were lower in the first half of the year owing to a lack of major US studio releases as a result of the Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strikes in 2023.
In 2023 Barbie was the highest-grossing film in the UK with £95.6 million, which was 10% of the year’s box office.
