Lego Movie is top grossing film of 2014, but UK box office takings fall to lowest in 20 years
Everything is awesome for the makers of the Lego Movie as it pulled in the most cinema-goers in 2014 topping the year’s UK box office charts.
The film, featuring more than three million animated bricks, pulled in £34.3m from audiences in the UK and Ireland beating the second movie in the Hobbit trilogy, The Battle Of The Five Armies.
Close behind was the second Inbetweeners film, monkey movie prequel Dawn of the Planet of The Apes and the latest Hunger Games instalment, Mockinjay Part 1.
Sequels and the latest instalments of movie franchises dominated cinema screens, with just the Lego Movie, Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy and Paddington the only original movie or first in a series to appear in the top 10.
Everything’s not quite so awesome for the UK box office overall though.
A total of £1.13bn ticket sales were made in 2014, down by nearly three per cent on 2013’s £1.16bn signaling the biggest fall in box office takings since 1991.
The top 10 films grossed £297m compared to £334m the previous year, a larger drop of 11 per cent amongst the biggest grossing films of the year.
According to Rentrak, the research firm which tracked the takings, the poor performance was due to the lack of heavy-hitters such as a Harry Potter or Bond movie.
Next year audiences will be treated to blockbusters, many of them franchises, such as Star Wars, James Bond and The Avengers.