Bond and Pirates join box office winners
Casino Royale and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest have joined the elite club of the 10 highest ever grossing films at the UK box office, according to new figures released by the UK Film Council.
Both films have broken the £50m barrier and are now in the company of Titanic, the Harry Potter films and The Full Monty as Britain's most popular movies.
The 21st Bond film, which attracted great controversy for hiring Daniel Craig as the new 007, has now become the most commercially successfully Bond movie, with earnings topping £55m. It is currently the sixth most popular feature of all time in the UK.
Meanwhile, Jack Sparrow and his buccaneers pilfered over £52m with the second installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, which is now in eighth position in the chart.
Despite these very positive results, 007 and Sparrow are still quite some way from conquering the top spot. The most popular film of all time remains Titanic (£69m), followed by Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (£66m) and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (£63m).
The success of Casino Royale and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest came in a year when the UK box office was in slight decline. Revenues, totaling £762m, fell 1% in 2006 compared to 2005, while cinema ticket sales stood at £157m, down 5% compared to the year before. The UK Film Council blamed the World Cup and record-high temperatures for the drop in cinema attendance.
Overall, the top 20 UK films grossed £151m at the box office in 2006 with Casino Royale, The Da Vinci Code, Flushed Away, The Queen, Stormbreaker, Children of Men, The History Boys and The Wind that Shakes the Barley proving to be the most popular choices.
The latter, which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes film festival last year, has proven to be Ken Loach's most commercially successful film to date.
The top 10 most popular UK films of all time
1. Titanic (1998)
2. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001)
3. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
4. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
5. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
6. Casino Royale (2006)
7. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
8. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
9. The Full Monty (1997)
10. Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace (1999)
Отредактировано ВЕТРЕННАЯ (2007-04-24 16:35:38)