THE Regent in Christchurch is celebrating a box office bonanza.

Results for the Christmas and New Year period show Regent regulars the New Milton based Glad Rag Production Company broke their own box office record. Their Christmas Spectacular 2016 in December, attracted an extra 886 patrons over Christmas Spectacular 2015 - a 26% increase in audience levels year on year.

Meanwhile, Highcliffe Charity Players’ audience levels for their New Year Pantomime, Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs in January 2017, were also "stellar", no doubt boosted during the run by the visit of their patron Guy Henry, star of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Snow White sold 7 % more seats than Goldilocks & the Three Bears, HCP’s January 2016 pantomime.

Added to this the New Year’s Eve Party film Mamma Mia not only sold out all of 484 seats but there was also a waiting list at the box office.

Further good news for the Regent came with the announcement in January that the Centre was one of only seven independent cinemas in the whole of Europe to be nominated by the Event Cinema Association for the award of Best Independent Cinema for quality and customer satisfaction for Event Cinema and live satellite broadcast screenings.

The nomination - "a great compliment to the Regent", came off the back of achieving the highest admissions in the UK for the 2015/16 Season of live satellite screenings from the Royal Opera and Royal Ballet and also for being ranked as No 1 Cinema in UK and Ireland for admissions to Andre Rieu’s 2016 Maastricht Concert screening.

The Awards Ceremony was held at the QE II Centre in London on February 3 and Regent General Manager, Felicity Porter, was there to hear the Centre being highly commended for its continuing contribution to Event Cinema in the UK.

The Regent’s new What’s On Guide, covering events up until June, has just come out and already the hot favourite for Oscar glory, La La Land (12A), has been playing to full houses and a number of live shows, including Georgie Fame in March and Rob Beckett in April, have also sold out!

Regent General Manager, Felicity Porter said: “This has been the best ever start to a New Year for the Regent. We are all so pleased that the hard work of the volunteers, staff and Board Members has been recognised and rewarded. I also want to thank our loyal patrons who have supported us through the years for live theatre, films, concerts and event cinema. We already have exciting plans in place to build on this success and make 2017 a year to remember!”