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Story by: Jack Foley
OSCAR-winning epic, Gone With the Wind, starring Vivien Leigh
and Clark Gable, has topped Channel 4's Ultimate Film Poll, having
attracted the biggest audience figures of all-time in UK cinemas.
The film, based on Margaret Mitchell's novel, has been seen by
more cinema-goers than any other film, according to research conducted
by experts from the British Film Institute (BFI), who studied
cinema ticket sales since the advent of the talking picture.
More than 35m people went to the cinema to see the film, according
to researchers, who compiled the list based on audience figures.
BFI director, Amanda Nevill, explained: "These are the nation's
favourites - selected not by vote, or by critics, but by the number
of actual visits to the cinema by everyone living in this country
over the past 100 years.
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"The result is a remarkable
record of the nation's film tastes."
The survey is believed to be the most accurate yet, with figures
for films released before the Seventies being collated from statistics
in trade magazines and anecdotal evidence.
The second-placed film was another Oscar-winner, Robert Wise's
The Sound of Music, with audience figures of 30m, while Disney's
animated classic, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, came in at
three, and Star Wars
at number four.
The most recent film in the top 10 was James Cameron's Titanic,
with 18.9m admissions.
Other recent classics include Harry
Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which came in at number
11 with audience figures of 17.5m, and the final instalment of
Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, The
Return of the King, which finished at number 19, with admissions
of 15.22m.
Other popular blockbusters, such as Jaws, Jurassic Park and Lord
of the Rings: The
Fellowship of the Ring all made the top 20.
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