The Film Distributors’ Association (FDA) represents the interests of film distributors in the UK and Ireland. Its membership ranges from Hollywood studios to independent operators and is responsible for 99% of all films released theatrically in the territory.
The bustling summer film sessions have long been a highlight of the cinemagoing calendar, with the theatrical landscape of early May through to the end of August often dominated by family and franchise pictures. Yet, it takes a broad church of titles to make a season at the cinema, and summer 2024 was no exception.
Cinema remains a seductive leisure draw for audiences in the UK and Ireland, even with the fortunately fine weather experienced throughout the warmer months. Enjoying strong footfall this summer, cinema admissions reached 14.5m in July and 15.1m in August, their highest levels in the territory since August of last year, and the latter just 2% shy of the same month in 2019. While attendance was still a little shy of last summer’s Barbenheimer-fuelled highs, a broad slate of must-see marquee titles succeeded in capturing cinemagoers’ imaginations across the summer of 2024.
Family films remain vital to a healthy theatrical landscape and animation in particular regularly delivers strong box office and high audience satisfaction. Inside Out 2 and Despicable Me 4 led cinema line-ups throughout the summer, and The Garfield Movie, Bluey at the Cinema: Family Trip Collection and Ozi: Voice of the Forest all performed well. Live action family fare saw good results too, thanks to IF and Harold and the Purple Crayon, with Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice also arriving as a welcome late summer hit in September.
Action pictures explored the extremes of style and genre, with sardonic comic book flick Deadpool & Wolverine coming out top. Audiences responded to the hard times and rough terrain of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and Borderlands. Pop cop follow up Bad Boys: Ride or Die brought high velocity fun; sensitive stunt caper The Fall Guy blended romance and thrills; and spectacle sequel Twisters reignited the passion for disaster movies almost three decades on from the original’s release.
Films positioning female actors front and centre achieved impressive business across the summer, as global best seller adaptation It Ends With Us drew in large cinema audiences alongside releases including Kinds of Kindness, Blink Twice and Fly Me to the Moon. Women kicking ass continued to propel the horror genre to new heights with Alien: Romulus and A Quiet Place: Day One generating strong numbers; occult shocker Longlegs outperforming expectations; and taught thriller Trap rounding out the summer.
Music also saw its share of big screen exposure with Belfast rappers Kneecap starring in their own anarchic biopic; André Rieu celebrating the Power of Love from Maastricht; and thoughtful documentary blur: To the End saw the return of the self-styled ageing art rockers. South Asian cinema too kept the song and dance numbers flowing amidst a range of titles including Hindi horror-comedy Stree 2 and Telugu maximalist sci-fi actioner Kalki 2898 AD, the latter launching an expansive new cinematic universe.
Seeing an increase in both number and variety, restored and reissued films afforded audiences the chance to relive a cinematic classic whilst also introducing new generations to their charms. Franchise favourites including the Star Wars saga and Spider-Man universe made welcome returns to the big screen, along with anniversary releases of The Conversation (50 years), The Terminator (40 years), Pulp Fiction (30 years), The Matrix (25 years) and a very well-received reissue of stop-motion favourite Coraline (15 years).
Total UK and Irish box office for 2024 will hopefully reach parity with 2023’s £1.06bn and as the summer sessions draw to a close, capped by a strong 1m admissions at National Cinema Day, attentions now turn toward the year’s final months. Upcoming cinema highlights include family films Paddington in Peru, Red One and Sonic the Hedgehog 3; musicals Mufasa: The Lion King and Wicked; action epic Gladiator II; anticipated animations Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim and Moana 2; and comic book flicks Joker: Folie à Deux, Kraven the Hunter and Venom: The Last Dance.
Details of releases for UK and Irish cinemas can be found on the FDA release schedule.