Odeon, the UK cinema chain, has reported a record year for the British box office, citing an 8 per cent growth in takings for 2007.

The news comes as thousands of people abandoned their usual Christmas routines to go and see the Will Smith movie I Am Legend on Boxing Day, which took more than £2m on that day alone.

Odeon itself saw a 60 per cent increase on its figure for the 26th December last year, attracting 187,905 visitors.

Rupert Gavin, CEO of ODEON and UCI Cinema Group, said: “This is the perfect way to end what has been an extremely strong year for UK cinema.

The last weekend in July saw box office records smashed with the release of Transformers and The Simpsons Movie and now thanks to films like I Am Legend, Enchanted, Golden Compass, St.Trinian’s and Alvin and the Chipmunks we have had our the biggest Boxing Day and New Year’s Day box office.”

A poll of over 1,200 Odeon film fans found that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Indiana Jones are the most hotly anticipated films of 2008, closely followed by Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, The Dark Knight and the return of James Bond.