Harry Potter film studio sees 68% revenue rise

James Bond to Harry Potter film studios owner Pinewood Shepperton today revealed a 68% surge in film revenues as the company turned down television contracts in favour of big screen work.

Film productions including gothic horror Dark Shadows, directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp, Margaret Thatcher biopic The Iron Lady, starring Meryl Streep, and Ridley Scott's Alien prequel Prometheus, helped lift film revenues to £18.2m (€9.38m) in the six months to June 30.

But the surge in film trade offset a decline in TV revenues from £5.1m (€5.83m) last year to £4.7m (€5.37m) as Pinewood chose to give up space to movie productions.

The company, which is majority-owned by property firm Peel Holdings following an increased shareholding earlier this year, reported flat pre-tax profits for the period of £1.5m (€1.71m).

Pinewood, Europe's largest provider of stage and studio space, said other film productions using the facilities included Woman in Black, a ghost story starring Daniel Radcliffe in one of his first outings since filling the lead role in the Harry Potter series.

The company, which celebrates its 75th anniversary next month, also saw progress with its pledge to provide investment funding of up to 20% on selected British films with a total budget of up to £2m (€2.3m).

Pinewood, which has hosted 1,500 films and 600 TV shows, committed to funding A Fantastic Fear of Everything, directed by former rock musician Crispian Mills and starring Simon Pegg.

The move to fund "small" British flicks was seen as an attempt to echo the success of The King's Speech, which was made for around £9m (€10.3m) and has grossed $135m (€93.76m) to date.

Pinewood said it was unable to meet demand from television customers in the period as the facilities were used for film productions.

But new and repeat business from 'The Rob Brydon Show', 'Piers Morgan's Life Stories', 'Dragon's Den' and ITV's 'Dancing on Ice' all helped TV revenues.

Pinewood's Media Park division, which hosts 287 media-related businesses offering services to film, TV, advertising and computer games industries, saw revenues edge up from £3m (€3.4m) to £3.2m (€3.66m) in the period.