The Economic Impact of the UK Film Industry - BFI - British Film ...

4. Direct impact – Employment and GDP
Economic Contribution of the UK Film Industry
July 2007
The film industry in the UK has grown significantly over the last 25 years. On the production side, there
has been a steady rise in the number of UK feature films made, from an average each year of 43 in the
1980s to 83 in the 1990s and to 120 a year since 2000 5 .
Similarly, on the exhibition side, the number of UK cinema admissions has grown, from an average of 78
million per annum in the 1980s to 119 million per annum in the 1990s, and to 162 million per annum since
2000. However, cinema admissions peaked in 2002 and UK box office revenues peaked in 2004. In
2006, UK box office revenues amounted to £762 million from cinema admissions of 156.6 million;
respectively around 1% and 9% lower than the corresponding 2004 figures.
This chapter details the trends in employment, GDP and investment directly supported by these activities,
and by the activities specifically related to film production in the UK and the distribution/exhibition of UK
qualifying films – referred to here as the ‘core UK film industry’. It also quantifies the direct contribution of
companies and employees in the core UK film industry to the Exchequer through income and other taxes.
Key Points
• The core UK film industry directly employed around 33,500 full-time equivalents (FTEs) in
2006 (including those self-employed).
• On a turnover of £3.3 billion, the direct contribution of the core UK film industry to UK GDP is
estimated to have been around £1.5 billion in 2006.
• Capital investment in the core UK film industry is estimated to have been £120 million in 2006,
with most of the investment undertaken in the production sector. Since 2000, fixed capital
investment in infrastructure and new technology has totalled around £635 million.
• The direct tax contribution of the core UK film industry via income tax, national insurance
contributions, corporation tax and net VAT was about £435 million in 2006 (gross of tax relief
and other fiscal support).
4.1. Direct employment
Employment in the core UK film industry has been rising steadily since the mid-1990s (Charts 4-1 and 4-
2). Total direct employment is estimated to be around 33,500 in terms of full-time equivalents (FTEs) 6 .
This means that the core UK film industry is of a similar size to, for example, the book publishing industry
and larger than the IT hardware consultancy sector.
5
Box office revenue figures and admission numbers are taken from ‘UK Film Council Statistical Yearbook 2006/07’
and from BFI.
6
Based on the assumption that one part-time job equates to 0.5 of a full-time job.
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