The latest official figures published today by the BFI’s Research and Statistics Unit show that film and high-end TV production spend in the UK was £5.6 billion in 2024, a 31% increase on 2023 as parts of the sector regained momentum, generating billions to the UK economy.
The lion’s share of the total £5.6 billion production spend was contributed by HETV shows with £3.4 billion, or 62% of the total spend; with feature film production contributing £2.1 billion, or 38% of the total spend.
Inward investment and co-production films and HETV shows combined delivered £4.8 billion, or 86% of the combined production spend, continuing to demonstrate the UK’s global reputation as the world-leading centre for international film and TV production.
Of the total £3.4 billion spend on 181 HETV productions in 2024:
inward investment shows contributed £2.8 billion (82% of total HETV spend), a 36% increase on 2023;
domestic UK shows accounted for £598 million (17% of total HETV spend), a 22% decrease on 2023; and
co-production spend was £19.6 million (less than 1% of total spend), a 50% decrease on 2023.
Of the total £2.1 billion spend on 191 film productions in 2024:
inward investment films contributed £1.85 billion (87% of total film spend), a 78% increase on 2023;
domestic UK films accounted for £185.8 million (9% of total film spend), a 24% increase on 2023; and
co-production spend accounted for £79.8 million (4% of total film spend), a 51% decrease on 2023.
The production statistics also reveal a varying level of investment made by streamer platforms in single long-form ‘film’ productions (ie not episodic or series). In 2024, there were 25 single feature-length productions which contributed £511 million to the HETV spend of £3.4 billion. However, the methodology to collate the data requires complicated analysis; whilst most productions for streamers are captured as HETV production because they use the HETV cultural test to access tax relief, some are captured within film data because they use the film cultural test.
Ben Roberts, BFI Chief Executive, said:
"The UK’s film and TV industries continue to be a powerhouse for creativity, investment and jobs. After a disrupted 2023, including the impact of US strikes, production spend rebounded to £5.6 billion in 2024 – up 31% on the previous year – demonstrating the UK’s strength as a world-leading destination for filmmaking. Wicked, made here in the UK, led the box office, following Barbie’s success in 2023, while independent films like Back to Black and One Life helped grow market share.
"At the same time, we know these figures don’t tell the whole story. The 22% drop in domestic HETV spend is a reminder that many in the industry are feeling the pressure, and what happens next will be critical. Continued investment in skills and infrastructure, alongside strong government support, is essential to ensuring the UK remains a magnet for international productions while strengthening our independent sector for the future.”
Adrian Wootton OBE, Chief Executive of the British Film Commission, said:
“Today’s figures reflect the buoyancy and continued growth of our inward investment film and HETV production sector in the UK. After a challenging 2023 due to US strikes, and a slower than expected return to production, these figures reflect the increased inward investment film and HETV production activity we saw in the UK as 2024 gathered pace. So we see 2024 as a transitional year.
“Looking forward, we’re cautiously optimistic. The British Film Commission is experiencing the highest level of inward investment production enquiries for many years. And while we’re still waiting for the market to settle, to reach a ‘new normal’, we have strong support from UK Government, new and enhanced tax credits - including an increased VFX tax credit and the all-new credit for independent films – a world-class skills base and a UK-wide offer of diverse locations and stage space boasting cutting edge facilities.
“The UK remains well-placed to see a competitive share of the global production spend and all signs are that we’ll see strong growth in film and HETV in coming months.”
Film production in detail
The total number of films that went into production in the UK in 2024 was 191 which is 16 fewer than reported for 2023. The total production spend was £2.1 billion, a 56% increase on £1.36 billion in 2023 (subsequently updated to £1.7 billion).
The majority of spend in 2023 was contributed by inward investment films with £1.85 billion from 67 features, accounting for 87% of the total UK film spend, continuing to demonstrate the UK’s reputation globally as a world-class production hub.
This is a 78% increase on 2023’s inward investment spend of £1.04 billion (subsequently revised to £1.35 billion), reflecting the increase in Hollywood films (re)starting following the strikes; production spend more than quadrupled between the first and second quarters of the year. As more budget information becomes available for some productions made last year it is possible that inward investment spend will reach the highest level over the past five years.
Inward investment films which contributed to the £1.04 billion spend included The Running Man, directed by Edgar Wright and starring Glen Powell, Katy O’Brian and Daniel Ezra; Bugonia, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and starring Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons and Alicia Silverstone; 28 Years Later, directed by Danny Boyle and starring Jack O’Connell and Aaron Taylor-Johnson; Hamnet, directed by Chloe Zhao and starring Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley; Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, directed by Michael Morris and starring Renée Zellweger and Leo Woodall; Christmas Karma, directed by Gurinder Chadha and starring Eva Longoria and Kunal Nayyar; Hedda, directed by Nia Da Costa and starring Tessa Thompson and Nina Hoss; Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, directed by Rian Johnson and starring Daniel Craig, Glenn Close and Josh O’Connor.
Of the total £2.1 billion spend on 191 film productions in 2024:
inward investment films contributed £1.85 billion (87% of total film spend), a 78% increase on 2023;
domestic UK films accounted for £185.8 million (9% of total film spend), a 24% increase on 2023; and
co-production spend accounted for £79.8 million (4% of total film spend), a 51% decrease on 2023.
Of the 191 films which started production, 95 are domestic UK features contributing £185.8 million in spend, a 24% increase on the £150.2 million spend first reported in 2023 (subsequently updated to £183.1 million). Films which went into production included The Man in My Basement, directed by Nadia Latif and starring Willem Dafoe and Gershwyn Eustache Jnr; Pressure, written and directed by Anthony Maras and starring Andrew Scott, Brendan Fraser and Kerry Condon; Glenrothan, the directorial debut of Brian Cox, starring Alan Cumming and Shirley Henderson; Out There, the feature length directorial debut of Simon Ryninks; and Rose of Nevada, directed by Mark Jenkin.
A further 29 UK-international co-productions generated a UK spend of £79.8 million, a 51% decrease on 2023’s spend, however that year’s result was driven primarily by a small number of unofficial co-productions. Co-productions shot in 2024 included Borges and Me, directed by Marc Turtletaub, a UK/Belgium/Netherlands co-production starring Fionn Whitehead, Harriet Sansom Harris and Luis Gnecco.
In 2024, 65% of total UK production spend on film was accounted for by productions from the five major US studios and the three major US steaming platforms (Netflix, Apple and Amazon), also representing a 49% increase in spend in 2024 versus 2023. Films within this grouping include The Running Man, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, How to Train Your Dragon, Project Hail Mary, and Jurassic World Rebirth.
UK production spend in 2024 by non-US studio and streamer films (includes UK and non-studio inward investment independent productions) was £751.9 million. This represents 34% of total UK film production spend.
High-end television production in detail
In general, HETV production in the UK has boomed since the introduction of the UK’s HETV tax relief in 2013. In 2024, UK spend was £3.44 billion, a 20% increase on 2023’s £2.87 billion (revised to £3.09 billion).
Of the 181 HETV shows that started principal photography in 2024, spend on inward investment shows accounted for 82% of the total with a spend of £2.82 billion, a 36% increase on 2023’s £2.07 billion. The £598.2 million spend on domestic shows accounted for 17% of the total HETV spend and represents a 22% decrease on 2023’s £766 million. Co-productions accounted for less than 1% of the total spend with £19.6 million.
Inward investment HETV productions included The Immortal Man: A Peaky Blinders Film, The Donovans, Young Sherlock, Man vs Baby and Art Detectives. Domestic HETV productions included Gavin & Stacey: The Finale, Inheritance, Transaction and Man Like Mobeen (series 5).
HETV co-productions included Ten Pound Poms, Austin (series 2) and Professor T (series 4).
Film and high-end television production generates local business activity and jobs across the UK. Productions made across the UK in 2024 included:
Northern Ireland: film – How to Train Your Dragon, World Breaker, Saipan; HETV – A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: the Hedge Knight, Art Detectives, Dalgleish (series 3), Malpractice (series 2), How to Get to Heaven from Belfast, Trespasses
Scotland: film – Borges and Me, Son of Sardaar 2, Glenrothan, Grow, Tornado, California Schemin; HETV – Karen Pirie (series 2), The Island (An t-Eilean), Blood of My Blood, Outlander (season 8). Shetland (series 9), The Buccaneers (series 2)
Wales: film – The Scurry, The Man in My Basement, H is for Hawk, Madfabulous, Mr Burton, Out There; HETV – Gavin & Stacey: The Finale, Mudtown, The War Between the Land and the Sea, Under Salt Marsh, The Change (series 2), Young Sherlock (series 2)
London: film – Downton Abbey 3, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, Christmas Karma, Marching Powder, Moss and Freud; HETV – Slow Horses (seasons 5 & 6), Strike: The Ink Black Heart, Deep Cover, Too Much, The Diplomat (season 3)
East of England: film – Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, Warfare, The Running Man, The Conjuring: Last Rites, Jurassic World, Rebirth; HETV – the Cleaner (series 3), Ludwig, The Franchise, Grantchester (series 10), Code of Silence, Silo (season 3), Man vs Baby
East Midlands: film – Hedda, CC: Emily; HETV – The Seven Dials Mystery, Missing You, Frankenstein, Reunion, Peaky Blinders: War aka The Immortal Man
West Midlands: film – Hamnet; HETV – Three Birds, aka We Go Again, Man Like Mobeen (series 5), The Immortal Man: A Peaky Blinders Film
North-east: film – 28 Years Later Parts 1 and 2, Night and Day, Housefull 5; HETV – Transaction, Vera (series 14), I Fought the Law
North-west: film – Greenland: Migration, Bank of Dave 2: the Loan Ranger, Fackham Hall, CC: Emily; HETV – Disability Benefits, Fountain of Youth, Missing You, This City is Ours, House of Guinness, The Talamasca
South-east: film – The Magic Faraway Tree, Bugonia, Project Hail Mary, Pressure, The Fantastic Four: First Steps; The Thursday Murder Club; HETV – The Witcher (season 4), Grace (series 5), The Devil’s Hour (season 3), The Gold (series 2), Wild Cherry, Ladies First
South-west: film – Bad Apples, Umbaro, Retreat, Rose of Nevada, Mother’s Pride, The Dreadful; HETV – The Forsyte Saga, Am I Being Unreasonable (series 2), Boarders (series 2), Inheritance, The Crow Girl, Beyond Paradise (series 3)
Yorkshire and the Humber: film – Giant, 28 Years Later, The Choral, Falling, Maintenance Required; HETV – All Creatures Great and Small (series 5), Riot Women, Virdee, Reunion, Adolescence
Box office and admissions in 2024
Total admissions for 2024 reached 126.5 million admissions, a 2% increase on 2023 helped by a surge at the box office in the last quarter of the year, but lagging behind 176 million admissions in 2019 by 28%.
Box office takings in the UK in 2024 totalled £979 million, less than 1% down on 2023’s £980 million, but 22% behind 2019’s pre-pandemic £1.3 billion. Box office across the UK and Republic of Ireland for the 997 films (excluding event cinema) released in 2024 totalled £1.01 billion. These figures do not include 26 Netflix-backed titles which had a theatrical release as their box office revenues are not reported.
The highest grossing release of 2024 was Wicked with £59.6 million, representing 6% of the year’s total box office followed by Inside Out 2 with £59.5 million. In 2023 Barbie was the highest grossing film with £95.6 million, and 10% of the year’s box office. Both Wicked and Barbie were made in the UK.
The top grossing UK independent release was Back to Black with £12.3 million, followed by One Life, Wicked Little Letters, Conclave and All of Us Strangers. Within the independent top 20, 16 films were collaborations with other countries and four were UK-only titles, compared with eight in 2023 and 11 in 2019. Five UK independent releases grossed more than £5m in 2024 compared to one title in 2023 and 10 in 2019. Re-releases are not included in the top 20 list but if they were, Shaun of the Dead would have celebrated its 20th anniversary in 16th place.
The top 20 film releases of the year in the UK and Republic of Ireland also feature seven UK/USA feature films made in the UK: Wicked, Deadpool & Wolverine, Gladiator II, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Bob Marley: One Love and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire; as well the UK/France co-production Paddington in Peru. These UK-made collaborations accounted for 44% of the top 20 films’ collective box office.
The top 20 releases totalled £604.9 million at the box office compared with £595.6 million in 2023 and £753 million in 2019. Total earnings of the top 20 UK qualifying films was £360.8 million.
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, and accounting 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, equating 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.
The last three months of 2024 saw a surge in cinema attendances generated by a slate of family-targeted franchise releases, sequels and musical adaptations delivering 37.2 million admissions. The three highest earning releases each took more than 10% of the quarter’s total box office: Wicked (17%), Moana 2 (11%) and Paddington in Peru (11%).
Box office revenue per admission was £7.74 in 2024, down from £7.92 in 2023, partly owing to the performance of family-targeted releases – child or family tickets are typically sold at a lower price than standard tickets.
