UK cinemas defy the recession and the Olympics with a bumper year

Cinemas in Britain and Northern Ireland took a record £1.1bn at the box-office in 2012, an increase of 5.9% over 2011. This figure is substantially higher than had been expected only a few days ago, and will come as a welcome surprise to the industry.

Analysts tend to rely on statistics for the distribution territory of which the United Kingdom is only a part. Figures for this area emerging last week suggested that receipts across it had risen by around 4%. However, it now seems that this number was dragged down by a poor year in the crisis-hit Republic of Ireland. The true figure for the UK turns out to be substantially up on last year, even when adjusted for inflation, and marks the sixth successive annual increase in box-office revenues.

This is a remarkable and unexpected achievement. The industry was bracing itself for a sharp decline in 2012 in the face of subdued consumer spending and the rival appeal of the Jubilee, the European Football Championship and the Olympics and Paralympics. At the same time, it was having to fight off the impact of alternative distribution systems and piracy, together with ever more intense competition from newer forms of entertainment.

Yet UK admissions, considered by some a sounder measure of success than receipts, were also up. They rose by 0.5% to 172.5m, following an increase of 1.4% from 2010 to 2011. In the Irish Republic, admissions dropped by 6.7%.

Behind these figures lie stellar performances by a small number of films. "You could almost boil it down to Skyfall," says Charles Gant, the Guardian's box-office analyst and Heat magazine's critic. He estimates that if the Sam Mendes picture had performed no better than Casino Royale, the 4% revenue increase across the territory embracing Britain, Ireland and Malta would have been wiped out.

Over that territory, Skyfall took £101m. Then came The Dark Knight Rises with £56.3m, Marvel's Avengers Assemble with £51.9m, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey with £40.8m, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 with £35.5m and Ted with £30.3m.

There was no wholly British contribution to rival those made in recent years by The King's Speech, Mamma Mia! or The Inbetweeners Movie, but Skyfall qualifies as British on grounds such as cultural content and technical input, in spite of being American-owned. The Woman in Black (£21.2m) and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (£20.3m) also performed better than expected.

"Cinema has a track record of holding up well in times of economic difficulty," says Phil Clapp, the chief executive of the Cinema Exhibitors' Association. He adds: "This might be attributed to a number of things, including a desire for escapism and the belief that (as the latest figures would seem to support) many people continue to believe that cinema represents a value for money experience." The average ticket price in 2012 across the UK was around £6.37.

Favourable results for 2012 are being posted elsewhere. In Germany, revenues are expected to top the €1bn mark for the first time ever. In China, takings were up by 30%, and in Russia by 19%. Even in North America, where real fear about the industry's future had taken root, a 6% increase in takings is expected, together with the first increase in admissions since 2009.

So far, 2013 has also been looking good. In the British Isles/Malta, takings have been up on their 2012 equivalent every weekend. The long-anticipated death of cinema will, it seems, have to be postponed once more.