The total UK spend across film and high-end TV (HETV) production in the first half of 2026 was £2.7bn, down 15.6% from £3.2bn in the equivalent period for 2025, according to the latest statistics published today (11 August) by the BFI.
There was good news for local UK films and co-productions, however, which were up by 20% and 35% respectively in the first half of 2026 compared to H1 2025, although that positive news was somewhat tempered by the fact that, overall, UK feature film production was down by 6% YoY at £1bn for H1.
A total of 73 films started shooting between January and June 2026, seven more than the 66 first reported for the same period in 2025, although 26 inward investment films accounted for the lion’s share of £905m, or 88% of the total UK production spend on film. Productions to shoot in this period included Warner Bros’ Liverpool-shot The Batman: Part II (part 1 pictured), A24’s The Elden Ring, Amazon MGM’s Hello & Paris and Amazon MGM’s Highlander.
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This is a 9% decrease on the inward investment during the equivalent period in 2025, when it accounted for £999m from 22 films.
35 local UK productions brought in £75m, or 7% of the total, compared with 27 films bringing in £62m during the first half of last year. UK films shooting in the first half of 2026 included Element Pictures’ Séance On A Wet Afternoon, starring Rachel Weisz, and EMU’s Richard E Grant starrer, The Man Who Stole Portugal.
A further 12 features were co-productions, with a UK spend of £47m, or 5% of the total UK spend on film, including DJ Caruso’s UK-Italy-Belgium co-production A Visit To Grandpa’s and Antonia Campbell-Hughes’ UK-Ireland-Switzerland co-production High End. The number of co-productions was down from 17 in the same 2025 timeframe; however, the spend was up from last year’s £35m.
Overall film spend was also down on the equivalent period in 2024, which hit £1.11bn.
In TV, the number of HETV programmes to start shooting in the first half of 2026 was 82, the same as H1 2025. UK spend on HETV programmes starting principal photography during the first half of 2026 was £1.7bn, a 19% decrease on the £2.1bn spent in 2025.
Inward investment programmes again accounted for the bulk – 78% – of the UK spend on HETV productions which started production in the first half of 2026, totalling £1.3bn from 39 programmes, or 48% of programming.
These included Disney+ and Hulu’s Alien: Earth season two, Netflix’s Department Q season two, Disney+’s Only Murders In The Building season six and Netflix’s Peaky Blinders sequel series.
This was a 23.5% decrease from the £1.7bn inward TV production spend in the equivalent 2025 period.
There were 37 UK productions, accounting for 45% of programmes, with a UK production spend of £337m, or 20% of total spend. These included Sky’s Meantime and BBC’s Blue Lights series four and Silent Witness series 30.
The total spend from the 37 productions was £337m, an increase from £332.3m of the equivalent period in 2025.
There were six co-productions with a UK spend of £38m, an increase from £27m in the 2025 period, such as BBC Northern Ireland and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)’s Committed.
The BFI presents the 2025 figures as ‘first reported’ to enable accurate comparison, however production spend data tends to be revised upwards rather than downwards throughout the year owing to lags in reporting, although by the same token the 2026 figures are equally likely to be revised over time.
The full report is available on the BFI’s statistics page.
