U.K. Box Office Back to Full Health — But What Lessons Do We Learn?

It really is the year of original voices at the box office.

Cinema-going in the U.K. and Ireland is currently up 21 percent on 2025. "We haven't had year-on-year growth like that since the pandemic," said Charles Gant, Screen International's box office editor, hosting a BFI London Film Festival Industry Forum session with cinema programmers on Thursday morning.

He was joined by Ben Lyndon (Curzon), Carol McKay (Picturehouse), and Madeleine Mullett (BFI IMAX). Together, they reflected on the state of U.K. cinema-going, shared insights into audience behaviour, and discussed what recent releases can teach them about programming the year ahead.

The Year of Original Films

Curzon's Ben Lyndon delivered the stat that framed the entire conversation: in each of the past five years, an average of fewer than five original films made the annual top 20. In 2026, that number is already 12.

"We've seen an over-mining of franchises," Lyndon said. "Audiences need a breather, and studios need to be more judicious about how often they return to the well."

This year's Top 20 reflects that shift. It includes musicals (Michael, Oasis: Don't Look Back in Anger), franchise sequels (Toy Story 5, The Devil Wears Prada 2, Spider-Man: Brand New Day), literary adaptations (Wuthering Heights, Sense and Sensibility), and auteur-driven originals (The Odyssey, Disclosure Day).

A24 Deserves the Credit

Lyndon singled out A24 for praise, calling the studio "a major player that is still an independent."

A24's Backrooms, directed by 20-year-old Kane Parsons, opened to £4.3 million ($5.7 million) in the U.K. and Ireland — the biggest opening ever for an original horror film in the territory and A24's best-ever debut there.

"They've revived a sector that was struggling post-COVID — mid-budget films that were largely going to streaming," Lyndon said. "And their online presence is driving people back to cinemas."

The IMAX Effect

BFI IMAX programme manager Madeleine Mullett shared that the London venue — with roughly 500 seats — is currently the highest-grossing IMAX screen in the world, out of more than 1,800 globally.

The driving force has been Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, which opened to £12.5 million in the U.K. and Ireland. BFI IMAX alone took $294,249 over its opening three days, the venue's biggest three-day debut ever, surpassing Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Mullett traced the premium large format migration back to Oppenheimer in 2023. "Nolan did something clever — essentially a drama about a nuclear physicist, but in IMAX," she said. "On paper, would that get greenlit if it wasn't Nolan?"

The 2026 Heavyweights

So far, the year's top two films in the territory are Spider-Man: Brand New Day (£99.8 million) and The Odyssey (£87.1 million). Picturehouse's Carol McKay noted that The Odyssey is already the chain's fourth-biggest film of all time and has entered its all-time top 10 for a single screen.

The panel agreed the momentum that began with Oppenheimer is accelerating — and with awards season still ahead, they are optimistic about what comes next.

The 70th BFI London Film Festival runs through October 18.