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Britain's £1.5bn box office record

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Box office gold: The Golden Compass, starring Nicole Kidman, took £26 million in Britain

Going potty for it: Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix made £49 million

Top of the class: the new St Trinian's film

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Keira Knightley and JK Rowling have helped the British film industry enjoy its best ever year, earning a record £1.65 billion around the world.

British films including Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix and The Golden Compass achieved global success as audiences at home and abroad flocked to cinemas to watch movies showcasing homegrown UK talent.

The scale of the British takeover was revealed in a new report from the UK Film Council published today. It revealed that around 700 million people worldwide bought tickets to see British films in 2007 - twice as many as in 2006.

UKFC calculates that the top 20 UK films grossed £244 million at the British box office - an increase of more than 60 per cent on 2006.

UK movies also accounted for almost a third of all cinema tickets sold in Britain, up from one in five the previous year.

The most successful British movie of the year was the latest Harry Potter film, based on JK Rowling's book, which earned £49million in the UK alone.

Other top films included another adaptation of a popular children's book, The Golden Compass (£26 million takings in the UK). Comedies Mr Bean's Holiday (£22 million) and Hot Fuzz (£20million) proved popular, as did the Sienna Miller movie Stardust (£15 million), St Trinian's (£12 million) and Atonement (£12 million), which starred Keira Knightley and James McAvoy.

The Bourne Ultimatum, much of which was filmed in London, is also included on the top 10 list, taking £23million.

Its report also highlights the success of Lottery-funded films over the past decade and the input of British writers on the film industry around the world.

The top three independent UK films of the last decade - Gosford Park (£12.3 million), St Trinian's (£12.2 million) and Bend It Like Beckham (£11.6 million) - were all co-funded by the UK Film Council.

Of the top 200 films at the worldwide box office from 2001-2007, 30 were based on stories and characters created by British writers. Those films have earned in excess of $14 billion.

John Woodward, chief executive officer of the UK Film Council said: "These statistics show that in the UK we make films in every genre from comedy to fantasy to thrillers and British films took more than $3.3 billion across the globe last year. The real success story of UK film is that we not only make big budget films like Harry Potter but we also make hugely successful smaller indie films such as Control and This is England.

"Last year we had a great crop of British films and a good year at the box office and the two are connected because the British public buy more tickets when there are more home grown films. We've got more to look forward to this year with a Bond and a Potter, as well as Brideshead Revisited, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People and Keira Knightley as the The Duchess all due in cinemas soon."

But he warned: "The future is not without challenges; winning film investment is going to be tougher with the fall out from the US writers' strike

 

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