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1. 2016 BFI Statistical Yearbook
Compiledbythe ResearchandStatisticsUnit,thisYearbookpresentsthe mostcomprehensive
picture of filminthe UK and the performance of Britishfilmsaboardduring2015.
Top Filmsin2015:
Three of the topfour filmsreleasedatthe
UK box office in2015 were UK qualifying
productions.The year’stoptitle,Star
Wars: The Force Awakensbecame the
highestearningfilmof all time inthe UK
withgrossreceiptsof more than £122
million.The secondmostpopularrelease
was the latestJamesBondouting,
SPECTRE, whichearned£95 million,the
thirdhighestgrossof all time at the UK
box office,anda figure whichordinarily
wouldhave seenittopthe annual chart.
The most populargenre wasactionin the
2015 listof top 20 films,intermsof both
numberof releasesandbox office takings.
It accountedforsix titles,including
SPECTRE, JurassicWorldand Avengers:
Age of Ultron,whichbetweenthem
earned£285 million.Animationwasin
secondplace,againintermsof bothnumbersof releasesandtotal box office takings,grossing£153
millionfromfivereleases.The recordbreakinggrossearnedbyStarWars: The Force Awakens
togetherwiththe takingsfromThe Martian made sci-fi the thirdhighest earninggenre inthe top20
with£146 million.
Genre and Classification:
Table 1 showsthe relative popularityof different
genresat the box office inthe UK and Republicof
Irelandin2015. The patternof box office bygenre
each yearisusuallydeterminedbyasmall numberof
highgrossingreleases.Action,whichincludedthe
secondbiggestfilmof the year,SPECTRE,wasthe top
earninggenre withacombinedgrossof £394 million.
Animationwasthe secondhighestearnerwitha
combinedgrossof £210 millionandsci-fi,due mainly
to the successof the year’stopfilm, StarWars: The
Force Awakens,wasthirdwith£141 million.Drama
filmshadthe highestproportionof releases(26%) but
earnedonly10% of the total box office gross.

2. BBFC Classification
Table 7 providesapicture of
how 2015 releaseswere
classified.Itshowsthat,as in
previousyears,more ‘15’films
(45%) were releasedthanany
othercategory,but the largest
share of box office grosswas
earnedby‘12A’ filmswhich,at
56% wasthe largestshare since
recordsour began.The
proportionof releasesforboth‘15’and ‘12A’ films(31%) washigherthanin 2014 (43% and 30%
respectively).Filmsclassifiedas‘15’ in2015 accountedfor19% of the overall box office gross,down
from27% in2014.
Filmpreferencebyage:
UK filmshada significantappeal acrossall age groups,particularlythe olderage groups.Animated
featuresappealedmosttothe 7-14 age groupwithHome,BigHero 6 and Minionshavingthe highest
significantabove-average audiences.FamilyfilmsandfantasiessuchasPan andCinderellaalso
appealedstronglytothisgroup(Table 1).While actionandadventure filmssuchasFast& Furious7,
The Hunger Games:Mockingjay – Part 2 and Kingsman:The SecretService dominatedthe listof films
withthe strongestappeal to15-24 year olds,the music-basedcomedyPitchPerfect2had the
highestsignificantabove-average audience.The ‘18’certifiedFiftyShadesof Greyalsohada high
appeal with30% of its audience comprisedof youngadultsfromthisgroup(Table 2).FiftyShadesof
Grey alsoappealedstronglyto25-34 year oldsalongside manyof the othertitlesthatwere popular
withaudiencesfromthe 15-24 year oldage group. (These groupswere the onlytwotohave above-
average audiencesforthe Kraytwinsbiopic,Legend,the topearningUKindependentreleaseof the
year.) The filmwiththe highestsignificantabove-average audience share among25-34 yearoldswas
the action title MadMax: Fury Road (Table 3).Family-friendly titlesalwaysfeature highlyamongthe
mostpopularfilmswithaudiencesfromthe 35-44 year oldage group,whichismade up of a high
percentage of parentsandcarers.Releaseswiththe mostsignificantappeal tocinema-goersinthis
categoryin 2015 were Home,Hotel Transylvania2and Cinderella(Table 4).The onlynon-familyfilm
to achieve asignificantabove-average audienceinthisage categorywasFiftyShadesof Grey.A
varietyof genreswere popularwithcinema-goersinthe twoolderage groups,bothof which
showedastrong preference forUKfilms.Releasesattractingabove-averageaudiencesfromboth
age groupsincludedthe latestJamesBondouting,SPECTRE,aswell asindependenttitlesFarfrom
the Madding CrowdandThe SecondBestExoticMarigoldHotel.The filmwiththe highestsingle

3. above-average audience acrossall age groupsin2015 was The Lady in the Van,whichgenerated
74% of its audience fromcinema-goersaged55 and over(Tables5 and6).
Filmpreferencebygender:
The overall audience forthe top20 and topUK filmsin2015 had a veryslightbiastowardsmales
whomade up 51% of total cinema-goersforthese films.Onanindividualbasis,some filmsattracted
substantiallymore of one genderthanthe other.Table 7 showsthe top six filmswithstatistically
significantabove-average maleandfemale audiences,andthe three filmsthathadno significant
genderappeal.Titleswithastrongaction elementwere particularlypopularamongmale audiences,
withTerminatorGenisys,MadMax: FuryRoad and The Man fromU.N.C.L.E.toppingthe listof films
witha greaterappeal.Female audienceswere drawntoa broaderrange of films,withCinderella,
PitchPerfect2 and FiftyShadesof Greyhavingthe greatestabove-average appeal.Unlikeinprevious
years,in2015 male audienceshada strongerpreference forUKfilmscomparedtofemale
audiences,withall butone of the topsix filmswithanabove-averagemale audience share being
British.

4. From thisinformation,itiscleartosee thatthe popularfilms,are those releasedinrecentyears.
Thisis mostlikelydue tothe rise intechnologyandproliferationof hardware thatthese companies
have.Theyare nowable to use newlydevelopedsoftware suchas3D technologyandCGI technology
whichmake itall the more appealingtoourmodernday audience.Furthermore,Itisalsoclearto
see that filmssuchas'Skyfall'whichispart of the JamesBond franchise wasparticularlypopular,and
thisismainlydue to the stereotype thatrevolvesaroundJamesBondfilms,thattheyhave always
beengood.Aswell asthis,classicfilmssuchasthe Harry Potter,have alsoremainedhighlypopular
and are therefore aselectionof filmswhichhave the highestgrossingbox office.Theyare extremely
popularall overthe world,andwill continue tobe formany years.
In conclusion,ittherefore seemsthatactionandfantasyfilmsare some of the highestgrossingand
popular.Actionfilmsprovide the adrenalineand excitementthe audience want,whereasthe fantasy
films(HarryPotter) are mostlikelyable toprovide escapismforitsaudience,aswell asthe fact that
as there are somany of them,itmeansthat a lotof the olderaudience whotake upalarge
percentage of the box office statistics,wouldhave beenachildwhenthe firstfilmwasreleased.This
meaningtheywouldhave grownupwiththe characters;so feel anattachment/bond.
My chosengenre ishorror/thriller,fromthe BFIstatisticsitisapparentthathorror filmsare
incrediblypopular,butitseemsthatas there isnotone particularhorror film thathas made it into
the highestgrossingUKfilms,butthismaychange in comingyears. I mayadd insome action intomy
traileras itseemsthe mostpopularin2016 movie ratings.