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Registration number: 03088677

British Film Institute (Big Screen) Limited

Annual Report and Financial Statements

for the Year Ended 31 March 2025

Brebners
Chartered Accountants & Statutory Auditor
130 Shaftesbury Avenue
London
W1D 5AR

 

British Film Institute (Big Screen) Limited

Contents

Company Information

1

Directors' Report

2

Statement of Directors' Responsibilities

3

Independent Auditor's Report

4 to 6

Income Statement

7

Statement of Financial Position

8

Statement of Changes in Equity

9

Notes to the Financial Statements

10 to 13

 

British Film Institute (Big Screen) Limited

Company Information

Directors

Professor Dame E Closs Stephens DBE

B Roberts

Company secretary

A D W Owen

Registered office

21 Stephen Street
London
W1T 1LN

Auditor

Brebners
Chartered Accountants & Statutory Auditor
130 Shaftesbury Avenue
London
W1D 5AR

 

British Film Institute (Big Screen) Limited

Directors' Report for the Year Ended 31 March 2025

The directors present their report and the financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2025.

Directors of the company

The directors who held office during the year were as follows:

Professor Dame E Closs Stephens DBE

B Roberts

A B Hagan (ceased 7 November 2025)

Directors' liabilities

As permitted by the Articles of Association, the Directors have the benefit of an indemnity which is a qualifying third party indemnity provision as defined by Section 234 of the Companies Act 2006. The indemnity was in force throughout the last financial year and is currently in force.

Disclosure of information to the auditors

Each director has taken steps that they ought to have taken as a director in order to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the company's auditors are aware of that information. The directors confirm that there is no relevant information that they know of and of which they know the auditors are unaware.

Small companies provision statement

This report has been prepared in accordance with the special provisions relating to companies subject to the small companies regime within Part 15 of the Companies Act 2006.

Approved by the Board on 17 December 2025 and signed on its behalf by:




 

.........................................
B Roberts
Director

 

British Film Institute (Big Screen) Limited

Statement of Directors' Responsibilities

The directors acknowledge their responsibilities for preparing the Annual Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and regulations.

Company law requires the directors to prepare financial statements for each financial year. Under that law the directors have elected to prepare the financial statements in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (United Kingdom Accounting Standards and applicable law). Under company law the directors must not approve the financial statements unless they are satisfied that they give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the company and of the profit or loss of the company for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the directors are required to:

select suitable accounting policies and apply them consistently;

make judgements and accounting estimates that are reasonable and prudent;

state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and

prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the company will continue in business.

The directors are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the company's transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the company and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006 and in accordance with FRS 102 'The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland'. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

 

British Film Institute (Big Screen) Limited

Independent Auditor's Report to the Members of British Film Institute (Big Screen) Limited

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of British Film Institute (Big Screen) Limited (the 'company') for the year ended 31 March 2025, which comprise the Income Statement, Statement of Financial Position, Statement of Changes in Equity, and Notes to the Financial Statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including FRS 102 Section 1A 'The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland' (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion the financial statements:

give a true and fair view of the state of the company's affairs as at 31 March 2025 and of its profit for the year then ended;

have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and

have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006.

Basis for opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the auditor responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the company in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Conclusions relating to going concern

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the director's use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the company's ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the original financial statements were authorised for issue.

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the directors with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

 

British Film Institute (Big Screen) Limited

Independent Auditor's Report to the Members of British Film Institute (Big Screen) Limited

Other information

The directors are responsible for the other information. The other information comprises the information included in the annual report, other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.

In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether there is a material misstatement in the financial statements or a material misstatement of the other information. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.

We have nothing to report in this regard.

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:

the information given in the Directors' Report for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and

the Directors' Report has been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

In the light of our knowledge and understanding of the company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the Directors' Report.

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters where the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:

adequate accounting records have not been kept, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or

the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or

certain disclosures of directors' remuneration specified by law are not made; or

we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit; or

the directors were not entitled to prepare the financial statements in accordance with the small companies regime and take advantage of the small companies' exemptions in preparing the Directors' Report and from the requirement to prepare a Strategic Report.

Responsibilities of directors

As explained more fully in the Statement of Directors' Responsibilities set out on page 3, the directors are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the directors determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the directors are responsible for assessing the company's ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the directors either intend to liquidate the company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Auditor Responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

 

British Film Institute (Big Screen) Limited

Independent Auditor's Report to the Members of British Film Institute (Big Screen) Limited

Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below:

Based on our understanding of the company and the industry in which it operates, we determined that the principal risks of non-compliance with laws and regulations related to the reporting framework (FRS 102 and the Companies Act 2006) and UK corporate taxation laws and health and safety legislation. These risks were communicated to our audit team and we remained alert to any indications of non-compliance throughout our audit.

We understood how the company is complying with relevant legislation by making enquiries of management. We also considered the results of our audit procedures and to what extent these corroborate this understanding and assessed the susceptibility of the company’s financial statements to material misstatement. This included consideration of how fraud might occur and evaluation of management’s incentives and opportunities for fraudulent manipulation of the financial statements.

We designed our audit procedures to identify any non-compliance with laws and regulations. Such procedures included, but were not limited to, inspection of any regulatory or legal correspondence; challenging assumptions and judgements made by management; identifying and testing journal entries with a focus on large or unusual transactions as determined based on our understanding of the business; and identifying and assessing the effectiveness of controls in place to prevent and detect fraud.

Owing to the inherent limitations of an audit, there remains a risk that a material misstatement may not have been detected, even though we have properly planned and performed our audit in accordance with auditing standards. We are not responsible for preventing non-compliance with laws and regulations and cannot be expected to detect all instances of non-compliance.

The primary responsibility for the detection and prevention of fraud rests with those responsible for governance and management. The further removed non-compliance with laws and regulations is from the events reflected in the financial statements, the less likely the auditor will become aware of it.

The risk of not detecting a material misstatement due to fraud is higher than the risk of not detecting one resulting from error, as fraud may involve deliberate concealment, collusion, omission, misrepresentation or forgery.

A further description of our responsibilities is available on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report.

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the company’s members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the company’s members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the company and the company’s members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

......................................
Richard Smith (Senior Statutory Auditor)
For and on behalf of Brebners, Statutory Auditor

130 Shaftesbury Avenue
London
W1D 5AR

17 December 2025

 

British Film Institute (Big Screen) Limited

Income Statement for the Year Ended 31 March 2025

2025
£

2024
£

Turnover

7,936,104

9,406,023

Cost of sales

(2,525,314)

(3,408,258)

Gross profit

5,410,790

5,997,765

Administrative expenses

(3,357,097)

(3,041,597)

Operating profit

2,053,693

2,956,168

Other interest receivable and similar income

73,435

44,688

Profit before tax

2,127,128

3,000,856

Profit for the financial year

2,127,128

3,000,856

 

British Film Institute (Big Screen) Limited

Statement of Financial Position as at 31 March 2025

Note

2025
£

2024
£

Current assets

 

Stocks

5

26,070

20,936

Debtors

7

978,294

858,821

Cash at bank and in hand

 

2,164,317

2,674,007

 

3,168,681

3,553,764

Creditors: Amounts falling due within one year

8

(3,168,679)

(3,553,762)

Net assets

 

2

2

Capital and reserves

 

Called up share capital

2

2

Shareholders' funds

 

2

2

These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies subject to the small companies regime and FRS 102 ‘The Financial Reporting Standard Applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland’.

Approved and authorised by the Board on 17 December 2025 and signed on its behalf by:
 

.........................................

B Roberts

Director

Company registration number: 03088677

 

British Film Institute (Big Screen) Limited

Statement of Changes in Equity for the Year Ended 31 March 2025

Share capital
£

Profit and loss account
£

Total
£

At 1 April 2024

 

2

-

2

Profit for the year

 

-

2,127,128

2,127,128

Gift aid donation to parent

4

-

(2,127,128)

(2,127,128)

Total comprehensive income

 

-

-

-

At 31 March 2025

 

2

-

2

Note

Share capital
£

Retained earnings
£

Total
£

At 1 April 2023

 

2

-

2

Profit for the year

 

-

3,000,856

3,000,856

Gift aid donation to parent

 

-

(3,000,856)

(3,000,856)

Total comprehensive income

 

-

-

-

At 31 March 2024

 

2

-

2

 

British Film Institute (Big Screen) Limited

Notes to the Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31 March 2025

1

General information

The company is a private company limited by share capital, incorporated in England and Wales.

The address of its registered office is:
21 Stephen Street
London
W1T 1LN

The principal activity of the company is that of the management and operation of the BFI London IMAX Cinema.

2

Accounting policies

Statement of compliance

These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Financial Reporting Standard 102 - 'The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland' Section 1A and the Companies Act 2006.

Basis of preparation

These financial statements have been prepared using the historical cost convention and are presented in sterling, which is the functional currency of the entity.

Summary of significant accounting policies

The principal accounting policies applied in the preparation of these financial statements are set out below. These policies have been consistently applied to all the years presented, unless otherwise stated.

Going concern

The company made a profit for the year ended 31 March 2025 and made a gift aid donation to the British Film Institute of this amount. At 31 March 2025 an amount of £2,321,479 was due to the parent undertaking which has confirmed that it will not call for repayment until such time as the company has sufficient working capital.

The directors have considered the impact of the ongoing economic uncertainty in the UK, and their view is that the impact is manageable. The company's cash flow forecasts show the company has sufficient working capital for a period exceeding 12 months from the date of approval of the financial statements.

Having made sufficient enquiries, and based upon the above, the directors have a reasonable expectation that the company has adequate resources to continue operating in the foreseeable future. Accordingly, the directors continue to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the financial statements.

Revenue recognition

Turnover comprises the fair value of the consideration received or receivable for the provision of services at the BFI London IMAX in the ordinary course of the company’s activities. Revenue from box office takings and corporate events are recognised on the date of the screenings of events taking place. Deposits and advance bookings are deferred in the statement of financial position until the date of the screening or the event. Concession, bar, cafe, and other retail income is recognised at the point of sale. Advertising income is recognised evenly over the contractual period.

 

British Film Institute (Big Screen) Limited

Notes to the Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31 March 2025

Trade debtors

Trade debtors are amounts due from concession holders in respect of services performed in the ordinary course of business.

Trade debtors are recognised initially at the transaction price. They are subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method, less provision for impairment. A provision for the impairment of trade debtors is established when there is objective evidence that the company will not be able to collect all amounts due according to the original terms of the receivables.

Cash and cash equivalents

Cash and cash equivalents comprise cash on hand and call deposits, and other short-term highly liquid investments that are readily convertible to a known amount of cash and are subject to an insignificant risk of change in value.

Stocks

Stocks are stated at the lower of cost and estimated selling price less costs to complete and sell. Cost is determined using the average cost method.

The cost of goods comprises the purchase price and those overheads that have been incurred in bringing the inventories to their present location and condition. At each reporting date, stocks are assessed for impairment. If stocks are impaired, the carrying amount is reduced to its selling price less costs to complete and sell; the impairment loss is recognised immediately in profit or loss.

Share capital

Ordinary shares are classified as equity. Equity instruments are measured at the fair value of the cash or other resources received or receivable, net of the direct costs of issuing the equity instruments. If payment is deferred and the time value of money is material, the initial measurement is on a present value basis.

Defined contribution pension obligation

A defined contribution plan is a pension plan under which fixed contributions are paid into a pension fund and the company has no legal or constructive obligation to pay further contributions even if the fund does not hold sufficient assets to pay all employees the benefits relating to employee service in the current and prior periods.

Contributions to defined contribution plans are recognised as employee benefit expense when they are due. If contribution payments exceed the contribution due for service, the excess is recognised as a prepayment.

3

Staff numbers

The average number of persons employed by the company during the year was 70 (2024 - 68).

4

Gift Aid Donations

During the year Gift Aid donations amounting to £2,127,128 (2024: £3,000,856) were made to the parent undertaking, British Film Institute, a charity registered in England and Wales.
 

5

Stocks

2025
£

2024
£

Merchandise

26,070

20,936

 

British Film Institute (Big Screen) Limited

Notes to the Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31 March 2025

6

Auditor's remuneration

2025
£

2024
£

Audit of the financial statements

15,000

15,000


 

7

Debtors

2025
£

2024
£

Trade debtors

864,300

776,367

Other debtors

113,994

82,454

978,294

858,821

8

Creditors

Creditors: amounts falling due within one year

2025
£

2024
£

Trade creditors

278,144

496,609

Amounts owed to group undertakings

2,321,479

2,200,004

Other creditors

569,056

857,149

3,168,679

3,553,762

9

Financial commitments, guarantees and contingencies

Amounts not provided for in the statement of financial position

The total amount of financial commitments not included in the statement of financial position is £94,595 (2024 - £90,376).

The company has a further lease commitment which is based upon a proportion of future box office revenues and cannot therefore be estimated reliably.

In March 2024 a third party contractor received a business rates demand in relation to earnings derived from the cinema building, with effect from 1 April 2017. This was a new and unexpected assessment, given that they have been providing the services since 2006 without such a charge. They are in the process of appealing, on the grounds that there is no legal basis for them to be assessed as the appropriate entity responsible for business rates on the property and also that the amount of the assessment is excessive. Under the contractual arrangements the company is liable for approximately 50% of the cost of business rates, and therefore the company would be adversely affected by any new costs as a result of the case. Following their initial challenge the amount of the demand has been significantly reduced and payment is in abeyance pending appeal. Should that appeal ultimately be unsuccessful, the cost to the company could be as much as £1.7m. However, if their appeal is upheld the cost to the company could be limited to the cost of legal and professional advice incurred in the process and not material to its financial statements. As the amount of the company's obligation cannot be estimated reliably, no provision has been recognised.

 

British Film Institute (Big Screen) Limited

Notes to the Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31 March 2025

10

Related party transactions

In accordance with FRS 102 paragraph 1AC.35 exemption is taken not to disclose transactions in the year or amounts falling due between undertakings where 100% of voting rights are controlled within the group.

11

Controlling Party

The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of the British Film Institute, whose registered office is situated at 21 Stephen Street, London W1T 1LN.

The smallest group preparing group accounts including the results of the company is headed by the British Film Institute.