U.K. BOX OFFICE DROPS BELOW 2012

For the first time in ten years, the British box office was down from the previous year. But the slippage was slight, just one percent to $1.92 billion, according to Rentrak, following a year that saw two homegrown James Bond and Harry Potter films set local records for ticket sales. Since 1991, when Rentrak first began tracking the British box office, revenue has risen every year except 2003, when it was down a tiny 0.3 percent. Once second only to the U.S. as a box-office powerhouse, the U.K. has fallen behind China and Japan to rank fourth worldwide.