The Iron Lady
Media reports that The Iron Lady is playing to empty cinemas in the North of England and packed houses in the South have been contradicted by the official statistics from IBOE (the independent box office reporting body).
The success of The Iron Lady, both throughout the UK and in countries as divergent as Australia and Spain, proves that the mainstream appeal of the story has nothing to do with UK party politics or voting demographics.
The Iron Lady was released last Friday 6 January on 439 sites across England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland.
The film is number 3 at the UK box office following a very strong opening of £2.2m, which is 62% of the opening weekend of The King’s Speech the same time last year.
The Iron Lady enjoyed a strong reception in each and every nation and region in the UK, with almost 7% of box office from Scotland compared to 6% for The King’s Speech, over 6% from Ireland compared to 3.7% for King’s Speech, and 5% from the Yorkshire region compared to 4.7% for the King’s Speech.
The Iron Lady punched above its weight in John Prescott’s home town of Hull, delivering a bigger opening weekend than The King’s Speech, a feat also achieved in the former steelworkers’ stronghold of Sheffield.
In Glasgow Park Cineworld it delivered almost twice the box office of The King’s Speech in its opening weekend with over £2,000 at that site alone.
Cinemagoers also beat the picket lines in Chesterfield, with the film delivering 68% of The King’s Speech numbers in the local Cineworld site - ahead of the national average of 62%.
The film is a Pathé, Film4, UK Film Council presentation with the participation of Canal+ and Cine Cinema in association with Goldcrest Film Production LLP of a DJ Films Production.
Twentieth Century Fox distributed the film in the UK on behalf of Pathé.
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