Cinema of the United Kingdom

Cinema of the United Kingdom
Logo of the British Film Institute
No. of screens	4,264 (2017)[1]
• Per capita	7.3 per 100,000 (2017)[1]
Main distributors	Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures StudioCanal Universal Pictures Pathé 20th Century Studios Entertainment One[2]
Produced feature films (2017)[3]
Total	285
Fictional	213 (74.7%)
Animated	5 (1.8%)
Documentary	66 (23.2%)
Number of admissions (2017)[4]
Total	170,600,000
• Per capita	2.9
Gross box office (2017)[5]
Total	£1.38 billion
National films	£515 million (37.4%)

Cinema of the United Kingdom
List of British films
British horror
1888–1919
1920s
1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929
1930s
1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939
1940s
1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949
1950s
1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959
1960s
1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969
1970s
1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979
1980s
1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989
1990s
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
2000s
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
2010s
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
2020s
2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
By Country
Northern Ireland Scotland Wales
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British cinema has significantly influenced the global film industry since the 19th century.

The oldest known surviving film in the world, Roundhay Garden Scene (1888), was shot in England by French inventor Louis Le Prince. Early colour films were also pioneered in the UK. Film production reached an all-time high in 1936,^[6] but the "golden age" of British cinema is usually thought to have occurred in the 1940s, which saw the release of the most critically acclaimed works by filmmakers such as David Lean, Michael Powell, and Carol Reed.^[7][8][9]

Many British actors have accrued critical success and worldwide recognition, including Julie Andrews, Michael Caine, Joan Collins, Sean Connery, Benedict Cumberbatch, Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench, Olivia de Havilland, Audrey Hepburn, Anthony Hopkins, Glynis Johns, Vivien Leigh, Ian Mckellen, Peter O'Toole, Gary Oldman, Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, Emma Thompson, and Kate Winslet.^[10][11][12] Some of the films with the largest ever box office profits have been made in the United Kingdom, including Harry Potter and James Bond, the fourth and fifth highest-grossing film franchises of all time.^[13]

The identity of British cinema, particularly in relation to the cinema of the United States, has been the subject of debate. Its history has often been affected by its attempts to compete with the United States; the career of producer Alexander Korda was marked by this objective, which the Rank Organisation also attempted to do in the 1940s, as well as Goldcrest in the 1980s. British filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock, Christopher Nolan, and Ridley Scott achieved success primarily through their work in the United States,^[14] as did British performers such as Charlie Chaplin and Cary Grant.^[15]

In 2009, British films grossed around $2 billion worldwide and achieved a market share of around 7% globally and 17% in the United Kingdom.^[16] UK box office earnings totalled £1.1 billion in 2012,^[17] with 172.5 million admissions.^[18] The British Film Institute has produced a poll ranking what it considers to be the 100 greatest British films of all time.^[19] The annual BAFTA Awards hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts are considered to be the British equivalent of the Academy Awards.^[20]