Despite continued adverse economic conditions in 2012-13, the UK motion picture production market is forecast to grow by 2.6% to £2.15 billion. Over the five years through 2017-18, industry revenue growth is expected to remain high at 3.5% per annum to reach £2.55 billion.

Growth within the UK motion picture production market looks set to be fuelled by the robust nature of the UK film industries, strong demand for film production services, high demand from foreign companies to produce films in the United Kingdom, and government film tax incentives.

However, even though these figures look encouraging the number of films being made in Britain has fallen to its lowest level since at least 2003, with those that are being made on noticeably lower budgets.

The number of films made was down from 87 in 2009 to 79 in 2010. Total films made in Britain, including Hollywood productions and co-productions, fell from 150 to 128 in 2010.

The UK motion picture production industry is the fifth-largest in the world, behind the US, Japan, France and Germany.

In 2011, global box office receipts are estimated to have totalled US$30 billion, and films produced in the UK generated 6.7% of this. A total of 119 major UK feature films (with a budget of over £500,000) were produced, 72 of which were totally independent UK productions.

For the UK motion picture production market, finance has always been a problem. The government has assisted, either directly or through encouragement and inducements to potential investors, but the problem remains.