National Cinema Day draws in 1.5 million attendees

National Cinema Day in the UK, which took place on Saturday, September 2nd, proved to be a resounding success, generating an impressive £4.65 million in box office revenue from nearly 1.56 million admissions. This marked a noteworthy 6% increase compared to the previous year's event.

To entice moviegoers, tickets were generously discounted to a minimum of £3 at more than 630 cinemas across the nation. Among the top-grossing films of the day were Warner Bros' "Barbie," which raked in £860,812, Sony's highly-anticipated release "The Equalizer 3," with earnings of £753,335, and Universal's "Oppenheimer," which collected £412,509, according to box office analysts at Comscore.

Other noteworthy titles that attracted audiences included "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem," "Elemental," "The Meg 2," and "Blue Beetle." Additionally, the 30th anniversary edition of "Jurassic Park," which was recently re-released, added to the cinematic mix.

This success follows last year's rebooted edition, which marked the return of National Cinema Day after nearly three decades and generated £4.4 million from almost 1.5 million admissions.

The National Cinema Day initiative was developed by Cinema First, a collaborative industry organization, and received support from the Film Distributors' Association and the UK Cinema Association.

Early results from a nationwide survey indicated that three-quarters of attendees expressed a strong likelihood of returning to the cinema in the coming weeks.

After a somewhat modest first half of the year, the UK-Ireland box office experienced a resurgence in July and August, driven by the popularity of films like "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer." Currently, the box office in the UK is running 10% higher than in 2022 at the same stage, signalling a promising step towards pre-pandemic levels for cinemas.