More than £4bn invested in UK Film and TV production in 2023

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Spend on UK film and high-end TV production was £4.23bn in 2023, at approximately pre-COVID levels of 2019, though it was impacted by actors' and writers' strikes in the US. The figure was down 32 per cent on 2022 spend.

According to figures from the BFI, Of the £4.23bn total, £2.87bn was invested in 187 high-end television production (HETV) shows and £1.36bn was spend on producing 207 feature films.

Within the TV figures there were contrasting trends. Inward investment on TV shows was £2.07bn, down 43 per cent year on year. However, spend on domestic UK shows was up 21 per cent to £766m. There was also a 7 per cent rise in co-production spend to £38.9m.

On the film side, inward investment contributed £1.04bn or 77 per cent of total film spend (down 40 per cent from 2022) with domestic films accounting for £150.2m (a 13 per cent decrease) and co-production totalling £162.8m (more than two and a half times the same figure for 2022).

There were 123.6m cinema admissions in the UK during 2023, a 5.5 per cent rise from 2022. This figure is still approximately 30 per cent below 2019 levels.

Box office takings totalled £958m last year, a 4 per cent rise over 2022. The highest grossing movie in the UK was Barbie (£95.6m), followed by Oppenheimer (£58.9m).

The top 20 film releases of the year in the UK and Republic of Ireland included ten UK/USA feature films (including one UK/USA/China) made in the UK: Barbie, Wonka, The Little Mermaid, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Indiana Jones And The Dial of Destiny, Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania, Fast X, Napoleon, Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves and Meg 2.
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The top grossing UK independent film was The Great Escaper with £5.31 million followed by What’s Love Got To Do With It?, Empire Of Light, Allelujah and the Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.

More at the BFI website