People living in scenic but remote parts of Britain are almost as likely to appear in new films as to see them, according to figures released today which show an increased "screen gap" between town and country.
Cinema-going is more heavily urban than ever, with London accounting for more than a quarter of the visits last year, and towns in the North and Midlands mopping up well over half the rest.
The gulf, only slightly offset by a boom in film-making in unspoilt parts of Britain, is causing concern in the industry, which has been pressing for ways of getting new releases to communities without cinemas on their doorstep.
Although primarily a rural problem, the lack of cinemas extends to some sizeable towns, such as Rotherham in South Yorkshire.
An application by the UK Film Council for £500,000 of lottery money to supply digital projectors to village halls and film societies, so that they can show films as soon as they are released, is expected to be announced in the next few days.
"Cinema-going remains an incredibly popular pastime, but the challenge is to ensure that people across the country have access to a wide range of films," said John Woodward, chief executive of the UKFC, which is charged with promoting the domestic industry.
"We also need to make sure that more of the films that people go and see - both in the UK and abroad - are British films."
Little progress was made towards the second target last year, when the country's 10 most popular films included only three British productions.
Love Actually, Calendar Girls, and Johnny English made the list as well as doing their bit for tourism in London and the Yorkshire Dales.
But by far the most popular film was Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King, which earned £54,366,487 at the British box office, £17m more than its nearest rival, Finding Nemo.
Love Actually came next with £35,322,703.
Calendar Girls (£20,377,313) was in eighth place, and Johnny English (£19,634,179) in ninth.
"It's a very good performance in a year which had no Harry Potter release and no new Bond film either," said Ian Hepplewhite of the UKFC.
"We are up one as well, compared with 2002 when there were two British productions in the top 10, though we had five in the top 20 that year. This time it's just the three."
In all cinema visits fell by 5% from 2002's record total to 167.3m, but ticket price increases meant that takings fell by only 0.3%.
Money rolled in from production work, including the making of the now notorious Sex Lives of the Potato Men: the number of films using British settings increased from 114 to 175.
Mr Woodward welcomed the increase, but said that there was cause for concern about the meagre number of recent British films broadcast by the country's ever-increasing range of TV channels.
A 5% increase resulted in only 33 of the 1,125 films shown on the main channels being made in Britain in the past eight years. Of the six shown on ITV three were Bonds.
"This clearly shows the need for action to improve the involvement of broadcasters in our domestic film industry," Mr Woodward said.
"That would only benefit both our culture and our economy."
