UK Cinema 2013 review - BFI key facts

You can find a wide range of BFI reports here (see screenshot below).

I've been reading through their 2013 Statistical Yearbook report - as its a cool 252 pages long, the following are just a few of the many points you can pick up from a skim or a more leisurely read yourself.

2013 BFI Yearbook - Selected Points

Note: Definition of ‘UK film’
For the purposes of this chapter, a UK film is one which is certified as such by the UK Secretary of
State for Culture, Media and Sport under Schedule 1 of the Films Act 1985, via the Cultural Test, under one of the UK’s bilateral co-production agreements or the European Convention on Cinematographic Co-production, or a film which has not applied for certification but which is obviously British on the basis of its content, producers, finance and talent. Most UK films in the analysis (including the major studio-backed films) fall into the first group – films officially certified as British. [p.76; see longer quote at the end]

Only the US and Japan have a larger 'filmed entertainment' market than the UK (valued at £4bn).

Comparing WT's Wild Child with Warp's Submarine

There are links lists for both companies on this blog!!!

Some useful links for each film:

WILD CHILD:
IMDB page (for rating, budget, some box office data, cast etc);
Wiki;
RottenTomatoes.com (for reviews and ratings);
Trailer (look for it in this playlist);










 
SUBMARINE:
IMDB page (for rating, budget, some box office data, cast etc);
Wiki;
RottenTomatoes.com (for reviews and ratings);
Trailer (look for it in this playlist);














SOME FACTS ABOUT THE FILM INDUSTRY YOU COULD CONSIDER:

1. NO film 'grossed' (took in from total cinema ticket sales) over £50m in 2013
2. Only TWO of the top THIRTY UK cinema box office hits of 2013 were British, including Les Miserables which is only marginally 'British'
3. The rest are American!
4. The combined cinema takings (box office) of all films released in the UK in 2013 was £1.17bn - its a big business!
5. Of the current top ten at the UK box office, only THREE have made over £10m since their release
6. If a film is budgeted over £10m, it almost certainly needs to include factors which will help it appeal to audiences in the US and elsewhere outside of the UK
7. The 'Gant rule' (which is generally fairly accurate!) states that a US box office hit will make around 10 times as much money as a UK box office hit
8. You can generally multiply the number of screens by 10 too!
9. As Disney's $250m mega-flop John Carter showed, there are NO guarantees in the film business, no matter how many stars or how much money you throw at a film - especially if the marketing is as messed up as it was for this film!
10. However ... as 2008's £10m budget Slumdog Millionaire showed, you can sometimes make serious box office despite picking unpopular genres, unknown cast and unlikely settings!

Surprised to find this...

...
 

Universal launches $35k Prima Cinema: $500 tickets!

Prima Cinema has teamed with Hollywood studio Universal to offer the new service, which is targeted at super-rich film stars and other celebrities. The $35,000 price tag covers a digital box allowing movies to be delivered via the internet: once downloaded, they can be viewed just once at a cost of $500. Prima inspects every client's home cinema to ensure there are no more than 25 seats, so the service cannot be used to set up a commercial cinema business.
Universal is the only major studio currently offering its movies via Prima, but it is hoped others will follow suit if the service is found to be commercially viable. Upcoming films which will be available to view at home on the same day as their US cinema release include the Tom Cruise sci-fi thriller Oblivion as well as past titles such as Les Misérables, Identity Thief and Admission.

Universal is confident its latest strategy to combat the effects of online and home cinema on box office will reinforce its revenues - and it does seem a smart move. Basically, they're catering for the wealthy by offering $35,000 equipment that allows new releases to be viewed at home for $500 a pop. By 'home' they mean multi-million pads with space to accomodate a mini-cinema (up to 25 seats). The film is streamed, the latest use of digital distribution. They can verify that users don't seek to abuse the service with multiple screenings and ticket selling. See below for more info, from this article.

$35,000 kit allows super-rich to watch films at home on day they are released

Hollywood studio Universal is first to offer the service, aimed at film stars – with each viewing costing $500

• Ben Child
• guardian.co.uk, Friday 5 April 2013 13.25 BST
• Jump to comments (20)

Home truths … a scene from Jurassic Park. Owners of the Prima Cinema equipment can see the 3D version at home this weekend. Photograph: MCA/Everett/Rex

The experience filmgoers have been waiting for since the dawn of Hollywood has arrived: the chance to see new releases at home on the same day they hit cinemas. There is, however, a catch: to view Jurassic Park 3D this weekend you will first need to install projection equipment costing $35,000 (about £23,000), while each viewing costs $500 a pop (£330).

Danny Cohen on Les Mis cinematography (Kodak blog)

Taken from Kodak's About the Storyboard blog, which is obviously a promotional tool + thus pro-analogue film but still a very useful resource for the flipside to the pro-digital arguments, you may find some of this (an interview with Danny Cohen) familiar from Cohen's seminar at the 2012 ASFF...
See http://motion.kodak.com/motion/About/The_Storyboard/4294971312/index.htm.

Sample quote:

The filmmaking team also did quite a bit of testing, comparing different mediums. ... “In the end, for a variety of reasons, we chose 35mm film. What film has over digital is that it’s organic, it’s slightly softer, and there’s grain. There’s a certain sharpness to digital; you can treat it, but if you shoot on 35, what you see is what you get. You get an amazing image without a lot of post production.
“We shot well over a million feet of film ..."