The UK Cinema Index

Considering on-demand services have given us a wealth of films at our fingertips for a relatively small monthly fee these days, you’d think cinemas would be dropping their prices to tempt viewers in.

On the whole though, this hasn’t really been the case, with a trip to the cinema more expensive than ever. But where in the UK can you catch a film the cheapest?

• The average cheapest cinema ticket for the 63 towns and cities was £8.13.
• Birmingham (mac) and Hull (Reel) were the cheapest, at £4.00, while Crawley was the most expensive (£13.50 – Cineworld).
• Generally speaking, it’s the smaller towns and cities with just one cinema that are the most expensive, as the big chains don’t have any competition.
• On the other hand, in bigger cities where there are more cinemas, the chains are forced to drive their prices down by independent cinemas.
• Of the biggest chains, Vue is the cheapest with an average of £6.27, with most towns and cities enjoying £4.99 tickets, plus a 75p booking fee.

Methodology

We found the cheapest cinema in each city to purchase one adult ticket for a 2D showing of Incredibles 2 on a Friday night, including online booking fee.

For London, we limited our search to cinemas within Central London (within two miles of Leicester Square).