- guardian.co.uk,
- Thursday September 27 2007 15:33 BST
Deja view... The Lives of Others, out this week on DVD, drew more than one million British visitors
The wettest summer on record appears to have resulted in the hottest movie summer of modern times as British filmgoers flocked to the cinema. According to figures released by the Film Distributors Association, there were 50.8m visits to British cinemas between June and August - up 27% on the same period in 2006 and the highest number in at least 40 years.
"These are sensational figures, unprecedented in modern times," said FDA chief executive Mark Batey yesterday. He added, "The first eight months of 2007 have seen 116.5m admissions - more than took place in the whole of 1995."
Inevitably, the summer blockbusters accounted for the bulk of admissions, with 10m visits to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix alone. But several foreign language dramas also fared fell. The German thriller The Lives of Others, the French film Tell No One and the Hindi drama Partner all drew more than 1m British viewers to the cinema.
Last month, the US box office celebrated its own record summer, with till receipts passing $4bn for the first time in its history.
