Assignment: Cinema going in the
UK The survey of the UK Film Council (2003) recorded 176 million visits to the cinema in 20023, a 70% increase over the past decade. Spending by cinema-goers reached £755m in 20023, a 13% increase on the previous year. More than one in four people in the UK now go at least once a week. However, they are invariably watching films made by the big US studios. For example, the overall top 20 list contained 13 US productions and a further 5 US co-productions. The report provides many useful insights. Men preferred action, science fiction and horror films, whilst women voted for relationship dramas, romantic comedies and films with family appeal. Comedies were the most popular genre, providing 26% of the box office returns.
Fantasy films, dominated by The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, was the second most popular genre (with 14% of turnover), followed by action movies (13% of turnover). The report shows that the average cinemagoer is likely to be young and well off. Cinema going is unevenly distributed across age, class and region. Almost 70% of the audience is aged under 35 and Londoners buy a quarter of all cinema tickets. The AB social group accounts for 21% of the population and 28% of ticket sales by value. Figures on the representation of people from ethnic minorities in the film industry are regarded as imprecise, but suggest that the proportion is below the 6.1% level in the national workforce. While 10.9% of employees work in cinema management, the largest single employee group, 22%, is made up of cleaners. In the era of the DVD, cinemas must recognise that Hollywood studios and their distributors depend less and less on box office takings. Today the video and DVD market is around four times the size of the box office market. Further, in the case of blockbuster films, the studios often earn far more from merchandising revenues than from box office takings. In other words, a box office flop can still be an eventual success for the studios, whereas the cinemas depend on films being successful immediately.
Question
1 What implications might this report have for cinema-related businesses in the UK?
2 Can you identify some of the new problems facing cinema owners?
The response should include a reference list. Double-space, using Times New Roman 12 pnt font, one-inch margins, and APA style of writing and citations.