As a whole, the creative industries are worth £120 billion to the UK economy, directly employing over 2.3 million people, and since 2011, have grown five times faster than the rest of the economy.

The audiovisual sector – film and television – is a key contributor to this success:

In 2022, UK films had a 16% market share of the global box office, earning a total of £2.78bn

• The total box office revenue for all films released in the UK and the Republic of Ireland in 2022 was £945m, up 57% since 2021.

• In 2022, film production spending in the UK reached the highest level on record at £6.27bn, beating the record from the previous year of £5.64bn, according to the British Film Institute.

• Between 2021 and 2022, the creative industries employed 2.37m people, with 278,000 in the film, TV and photography sectors. In the DCMS sector overall, employment grew by 3.2% between July 2021 and June 2022, compared to 1.7% growth in overall employment.

• In 2022, the top 20 UK qualifying films grossed £515.8 million. The top grossing UK independent film was Belfast, which grossed $49 million worldwide.

The creative industries, together with our technology businesses, service sectors and many others, are all underpinned by intellectual capital, making the UK one of only three countries in the world to be a net exporter of intellectual property. This helps our economy grow, creates jobs, attracts investments from overseas and boosts the UK’s cultural heritage, which in turn projects the UK’s cultural appeal to audiences around the world.