The British Film Institute released some buoying numbers for the U.K.’s mammoth film and TV industry on Thursday.
Film and high-end TV production in the U.K. topped 6.8 billion pounds ($9.2 billion) in 2025, a 22 percent increase from 2024 and the third-highest annual spend on record, according to the BFI, with the sector continuing to generate billions for the country’s economy.
The majority of the total production spend was contributed by high-end TV, which accounted for 59 percent of the total spend and is up 17 percent on 2024 figures. Feature film production contributed 2.8 billion pounds, 31 percent up on last year’s stats, and the highest annual spend on record.
The majority of spending last year was contributed by inward investment films — 193 went into production in 2025 in the U.K. — with 2.51 billion pounds from 58 features, “continuing to demonstrate the U.K.’s reputation globally as a world-class production hub,” said the BFI. Inward investment films here included Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, Sam Mendes’ The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event, and Craig Gillespie’s Supergirl, as well as the Russo brothers’ Avengers: Doomsday and Michael B. Jordan’s The Thomas Crown Affair.
Elsewhere, the U.K. box office generated 996.8 million pounds ($1.35 billion) in 2025, up 2 percent on 2024, but down 21 percent from pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
A Minecraft Movie was the highest-earning release at the U.K. and Ireland box office, but there were a multitude of U.K.-shot films in the top 10, including Wicked: For Good, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, Jurassic World Rebirth, Mission Impossible – The Final Reckoning and The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
The top five U.K. independent films at the box office were The Roses, We Live In Time, The Salt Path, I Swear and The Choral.
Culture minister Ian Murray said: “From Wicked and Hamnet to Bridgerton and Slow Horses, some of this year’s most successful films and high-end television were made in the U.K. The creative brilliance of our independent film sector shone with films like Pillion and The Ballad of Wallis Island, and the tax measures we have introduced will only strengthen this part of the industry further in the years to come.”
BFI CEO Ben Roberts added that Britain attracts “some of the most ambitious projects and leading international names to make work in the U.K., while our creativity remains one of our greatest exports.”
