Research Task 3: Content analysis of film distribution in Norwich
In my research, I have looked at 3 different cinemas in Norwich. They are the Odeon, Vue and Cinema City. I have taken the listing from the weekend of the 11th and 12 of October 2008. I have collected the listing from the website www.timeout.com.
In total there were 73 films on offer in Norwich. At the Odeon cinema, there was the most amount of films on offer. On Saturday, there were 16 different films shown, while on Sunday there was 20. At Vue, there were 14 films shown on Saturday and the same again Sunday. Finally, at Cinema City, there were 4 films on Saturday and 5 films on Sunday.
There was only one film that was offered at all three cinemas. This was How to Lose Friends & Alienate People. There were 10 different films that were both shown at the Odeon and Vue on the Saturday or Sunday. This shows that there are so many American films that cinemas can pick and choose the ones they think we bring the most in.
From the three cinemas in Norwich, there were 73 films on show and they were played 210 times. This is a ratio of nearly 3 viewings per film. The Odeon had the most of films shown. They had 56 viewings on Saturday, while they had 3 more views on Sunday. Cinema City had one more viewing on Sunday (5) than Saturday (4). Vue was the only cinema that had more film viewings on Saturday than Sunday. On the 11th, they had 46 viewings and 40 on the 12th. This was mainly because of the late night films on offer that none of the other cinemas have.
At the Vue cinema, out of the 14 films available, the percentage of American films was 69% (9 films). There were only two British films on offer, two films with both American and British connections and one French film. It was a similar outcome at the Odeon. The percentage of American films was 62.5% (10 films) and a staggering 70% on Sunday. British produced films had 4 shown on Saturday (25%) and only 3 on Sunday (15%). The influx of American films at multiplex cinema like Vue and the Odeon is because of many problems. Firstly, multiplex cinemas are often owned by American companies who wanted to promote American directors and actors/actresses. Vue Entertainment is owned by Legal & General Ventures, and Boston Ventures and Clarity Partners, the American private equity firms. Since the turn of the century, the Odeon cinemas has undergone a series of sales, firstly to Cinven in 2000, which merged Odeon with Cinven's ABC chain and then to a group of private investors in 2003. In 2004, the chain was purchased by Terra Firma and merged with United Cinemas International to produce the largest cinema chain in Europe. Also, America produces many more films than Europeans because of the amount of money and funding available to producers in Hollywood. The amount of money in Hollywood helps to promote them to wider audiences unlike some British films who have very small budgets compared to some block-buster films.
Trying to buck the trend of American films taking over cinemas is Cinema City. Over of the weekend of the 11th and 12th of October, they had three British films and one French film on offer on the Saturday and three British, one French and one Italian film on the Sunday. The attitude of cinemas like Cinema City is helping to produce more and better directors and actors/actresses because more people may be tempted to watch a British film than watching the norm (American films).
Out of the 73 films on offer around Norwich, only two films had English as there second language. This was Gomorrah (an Italian film) and I've Loved You So Long (a French film). Both of these films were shown at Cinema City. This shows that countries that have English as their first language produce the most well known and watched films in the UK.
Overall, I can see that the British film industry is struggling to cope with the amount of money used by Hollywood producers. Without the money to advertise and bring in ‘A list’ actors/actresses, British films are playing second fiddle to American movies.
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