PARAMOUNT PICTURES - MAMMA MIA! HELPS UNIVERSAL RULE UK BOX OFFICE

MAMMA MIA! HELPS UNIVERSAL RULE UK BOX OFFICE

The huge success of Mamma Mia! has helped Universal Pictures International in being named the UK's most successful film distributor in 2008.

UPI earned £176.6 million at the UK box office last year to claim an 18.5 per cent market share, with Paramount Pictures in second with £161 million, according to market monitor Nielsen EDI.

The staggering popularity of Mamma Mia! - which recently overtook Titanic to become the most successful film ever released in the UK - played a significant role in UPI's success, having earned more than £69 million since its release last July.

Paramount was helped into second by the popularity of the fourth instalment in the Indiana Jones franchise, which earned £40 million after its May 2008 debut, while the new James Bond film Quantum of Solace helped Sony Pictures International grab third place with a 12.5 per cent market share.

Though its flagship release The Dark Knight proved a global smash and has almost surpassed the $1 billion (£680.7 million) landmark in worldwide box office takings, Warner Bros could only finish fourth overall at the 2008 UK chart, with total earnings of £105.1 million.

The charming exploits of Pixar's robot Wall-E helped Walt Disney Studios International to reach fifth place with a 9.9 market share and £94.7 million in box office takings.

Entertainment Film Distributors was the most successful independent studio in the UK, with £75.9 million in takings, almost half of which came from the Sex and the City film.

The 2008 figures represent a huge swing from the previous year, in which Warner Bros topped the UK box office chart thanks to the smash hit success of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Universal can credit Mamma Mia! with its two-place ascent in the charts while Sony has leaped four places since 2007, in no small part thanks to Daniel Craig's return as 007 in Quantum of Solace.