The Film Industry

Media Booklet 2

In the UK film market, an increase in the number of screens available to show films has not led to an increase in the number of films being shown. Why?

This is because not many films have big audiences and do not make a huge impact to the industry and do not have a wide range of interest. The growing number of screens means that the bigger films that do have a bigger audience and more people want to watch it can have more screens showing the same film and different times shown to facilitate to different people. This is why the growing number of screens does not mean that more films are being shown. 

In your opinion what might account for the fact that cinema attendances have fluctuated between 139 million and 176 million between 1999 and 2008?

The main fluctuation from 139 million attendances in 1999 and in 2002 the attendances rose to 176 million. This in my own opinion was because the style of films and the budget that would have been allocated to the films that were given cinema release.  Below are the top 5 profit making films in the year of the highest attendance for cinema.

1			The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers	$91,914,687	12/18
2			Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets	$88,104,108	11/15
3			Die Another Day	$59,182,873	11/22
4			Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones	$58,762,764	5/16
5			Spider-Man	$45,780,340	6/14

In 2011, UK film distributers invested £330 million in advertising their new releases and on 33mm film prints. If around 450 new films receive a theatrical release in the UK every year. How much, on average, do distributers spend distributing a film in the UK?

0.7 Million

This spending stirred up enormous demand-171.5 million cinema tickets were bought UK in 2011. This is great news for cinemas- what’s the downside of all this excitement generated and consumer demand for film producers in the UK?

For smaller companies, producers have a much bigger problem in balancing advertising and making profits than bigger companies. When distributing films, companies have to pay for each separate print of the film for each cinema. This means that bigger companies can pay for a lot more prints to be produced and so therefore a lot more can be produced and yet they can still make back their profit through audiences. This means that for the smaller companies to have a greater demand in films, they will not be able to distribute the film on a greater scale.

In 2004 the average cost of releasing a US film domestically was $39m, in addition to the average production cost of $63.8m, making an overall average production/distribution cost per film of $102.8m. What effect might this have on Hollywood production and distribution if these increases have continued?

It could cause the Hollywood production and distribution to decrease because of too high a profit, which would result in less Hollywood films being made.

Why are more ‘middle aged’ people going to the cinema in 2011? Who, in your opinion, are the current most bankable leading actors for the ‘youth’ market in the UK?

More ‘middle aged’ people are going to the cinema to watch films because actors are around the same age and the older aged cast attracts the older audience.

How many of the top 10 films in the US last year made two-and-a-half times their budget?

‘The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1’

‘The Hangover Part 11’

‘Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol’

‘Cars 2’

‘Thor’

Only 5 of the top 10 films in 2011 made two and a half times their budget.

Jerry Bruckheimer is still producing films today- find some of the recent films he’s produced and look at the trailers. Is he still a ‘high concept’ producer? Michael Bay has taken over his mantle as the go-to man for the ‘event’ movie. Watch some of the trailers of his recent films- does he deserve his reputation for the films that are high on effects and low on narrative?

His most famous, recent releases such as 'Pirates of the Caribbean' (all of them) and both 'National Treasure' films obviously show 'the look' and 'the hook' as both have very Hollywood style plots of action and romance and also have that specific Hollywood, glossy and sharp cutting of shots. 

I think that Bay does deserve the reputation that he has. His most recent and probably most famous releases are all of the 'Transformer' films and 'I am Number Four'.' From the trailers of these films, none of them seem to have a strong story line other than that they are obviously action films. However, in all of these films, they seem to use loads of effects to show the fast paced action in the film.

Find some recent ‘Indiewood’ type films- ones associated with a certain ‘Art house’ feel yet connected to a big Hollywood studio- that these companies have produced. Who are their films aimed at?

Sony Pictures classics have produced films like, ‘The Patience Stone’, which is aimed towards adults who are interested in over-seas.

Focus Features have produced films where they are aimed at young adults who enjoy romance/comedy films.

Fox Searchlight creates films which are aimed towards the middle aged audience. They have also produced, “under the same moon”, which again is aimed at your more mature audience.

To what extent does Hollywood dominate the UK film landscape? And how has it managed to retain its stranglehold?

Hollywood does dominate the UK film industry to a large extent. It seems that high budget Hollywood blockbusters acquire the biggest audience for cinema viewing in the UK.  Also, they are generally the types of films that end up in major cinemas. This results in them being shown widely to the UK’s cinema audiences. Although there is a large market for indie looking films, there is also the ‘indiewood’ genre, which is Hollywood making indie-like film. This is an example of just how much Hollywood has taken over the film industry. Hollywood has managed to retain its audience and interest, because of how popular it is. The popularity automatically means the Hollywood films make more money, which results in more and more films can be afforded to be made, produced and distributed.