British films have taken their biggest ever share of the cinema box office — thanks to the success of The King’s Speech and The Inbetweeners. New figures from the BFI also show that total box office takings in the UK topped one billion pounds for the first time, in 2011.

With £73m, the final episode of the Harry Potter franchise was by far the biggest hit of last year – but it was financed with American money, so it doesn’t count as a UK production.

But the next two highest earners were British. The Oscar winning The King’s Speech just pipped The Inbetweeners to the second spot — each taking just over forty five million pounds.

The BFI figures show that in total, more than 13% of the total box office takings in the UK last year went to independent British films — which is a record.

The number of cinema tickets sold increased a little — to nearly 172 million — but this margin was slightly smaller than the total rise in takings, suggesting that the cost of seeing a film has also gone up.

The total amount of money spent on film-making in the UK also rose slightly last year — to more than one and a quarter billion — another record.

The Culture Minister Ed Vaizey said 2011 was an amazing year for British film — but it was vital to ensure that the success continues.