Cineworld revenues lifted by The Inbetweeners Movie

The runaway success of The Inbetweeners Movie has driven a rise in box office sales and total revenues at movie chain Cineworld. Cineworld, the UK's second largest cinema chain behind Guy Hands's Odeon and UCI, also announced an increase in the number of people watching 3D versions of films over the course of 2011. The company on Tuesday reported a 0.9% year-on-year increase in total revenues in an interim management statement covering the 42 weeks to 20 October. Box office revenues were up 1.4% year on year, a solid performance given the "very strong" film releases in the same period last year. Cineworld said that while The Inbetweeners Movie was not the biggest release of the year it was certainly the "most notable", almost matching The King's Speech, bringing in £44m nationally. The biggest release of the year to date has been the 3D version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, which along with a number of other 3D releases – including Transformers: Dark of the Moon – has ensured that the fad for 3D films is yet to run out of steam. Cineworld said that in terms of admission 3D films represented 18% of all revenue, up from 16% when the company reported results for the first half of its year. However, Cineworld saw its share of the UK box office drop slightly from 26.4% to 26.1% year on year. Cineworld said the final quarter of the year has a "very promising" film lineup compared with last year including the return of Rowan Atkinson as bumbling spy Johnny English, another addition to the Mission Impossible franchise and a second outing for Sherlock Holmes. The company added that the strong slate of releases should "more than offset the ongoing weakness in the wider advertising market". • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook .