By MCN Editor editor@moviecitynews.com
LORD (DAVID) PUTTNAM SHOWS FILM DISTRIBUTION IS AT THE HEART OF UK FILM CULTURE AND CONSUMPTION IN THE DIGITAL AGE
London — 24 March 2011. In his role as President of the UK trade body, Film Distributors’ Association (FDA), Lord Puttnam of Queensgate CBE today gave a keynote speech in which he called for the distribution of cinema releases to be placed at the heart of planning for a new UK film policy. Speaking in London’s Leicester Square to an audience of film industry members, press and politicians, Lord Puttnam said:
“By acquiring, positioning, licensing, marketing and publicising films, distributors are the point at which movies connect with their audience, the largest possible audience that can be identified and motivated in each individual case. Films reach their audiences by professional design, not purely by accident or lucky chance. And it’s only when they reach their audience that they achieve their extraordinary potential to seize people’s consciousness – to amuse, amaze and excite. The global demand for film, including British films, has never been greater. But because all intellectual property markets are ‘content-led’, any forward-looking film policy in the digital age must adopt demand-side, as well as supply-side, strategies.”
Having discussed some digital challenges and opportunities affecting UK media, Lord Puttnam observed that however the release of movies is remodelled across myriad platforms, the cinema launch pad remains distinct and special, for audiences and filmmakers alike: “The cinema is where directors and actors aspire to have their work seen; in fact it’s where they make it to be seen, and there’s no sign of that changing one bit.”
FDA publications
At today’s event Lord Puttnam also launched two new publications:
- The FDA Yearbook 2011, which contains an array of data on the last 12 months cinemagoing, and the £300 million investment by film distributors to launch 573 feature films for UK cinema audiences in 2010 – a new record number in a single year.
- A pack for primary schools to help teachers convey the value of creativity in the real world to 8–12 year-olds. Called Maths + Movies, the resource was commissioned by FDA from Film Education. To be supplied free of charge to schools on request, the resource comprises a CD-ROM and teacher’s notes. It uses film box-office numbers to teach and practice skills in arithmetic. The challenges invite young learners to consider the potential consequences of taking a film without paying for it.
The full text of Lord Puttnam’s speech, together with samples of the two new publications launched today, are available from FDA.
Encouraging signs for cinema in 2011
Cinemagoing in the UK for January and February 2011 was up by an impressive 10.1% year-on-year compared to 2010 – 32.46 million admissions were recorded during the first two months of 2011. This is partly due to the tremendous theatrical success of The King’s Speech, and a very buoyant half term period, Valentine’s weekend and an array of awards titles that captured audience appetites. February 2011 on its own notched up the highest ever UK box office takings on record for the month with £112.1m in cinema receipts.
UK cinema snapshot 2010
Some highlights extracted from the FDA Yearbook 2011:
§ No matter what the economic climate, cinema continues to offers the ultimate escape. One in seven British adults go to the cinema at least once a month.
§ UK box-office receipts topped £1 billion in 2010, an all-time high. 3D accounted for £237.9m – more than a fifth of the total box-office. Distributors’ support of digital switch-over is gathering pace in UK cinemas. Already around 1,500 screens are digital, nearly half of the total, and most of those are 3D-enabled.
§ The number of feature films released, which has exceeded 500 a year in each of the last five years, leapt higher than ever to 573, an average of 11 openings each week, all competing for available screens, media space and audience time and money.
§ Hot summer: 24% of the year’s admissions took place in July and August – by far the busiest months – led by Toy Story 3, Inception, Shrek Forever After, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and The Karate Kid. In those two months alone, the box-office exceeded a quarter of a billion pounds (£268.9 million), driven by 83 new releases, while admissions (40.5 million) were equivalent to two-thirds of the population.
§ 136 films took more than £1m at the box-office. 55 films grossed over £5m, of which the top 27 grossed over £10m. The seven highest-grossing releases of 2010, led by Toy Story 3, earned places in the UK’s all-time top 100 box-office hits.
§ Overall admissions dipped slightly below 2009’s total to 169.25m, the first decline in four years, yet still an average of 3.25m per week. Cinemagoing pre-Christmas, like other retail activities, was hampered by the Arctic weather conditions: December 2010 had the lowest admissions for any December since 2000. At the end of November, the moving annual total of admissions was up 2.3% year-on-year.
The following newly published charts are extracted from the FDA Yearbook 2011 and may be reproduced by the media when credited to “FDA Yearbook/Rentrak”:
Top 20 films of the decade 2001 – 2010
This chart is peppered with franchises based on British stories, such as Harry Potter, James Bond, The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia. Many titles, including Mamma Mia! and The Dark Knight, had British cast and crew members fulfilling key creative roles. All these British titles have been hits worldwide, not just in the UK.
Film
|
UK cinema
release date |
Total UK cinema
box-office to 31 Dec 2010 |
|
1 | Avatar | 18 Dec 2009 | £94,025,632 |
1 | Toy Story 3 | 23 July 2010 | £73,791,346 |
2 | Mamma Mia! The Movie | 10 July 2008 | £69,166,922 |
3 | Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone | 16 Nov 2001 | £66,096,060 |
4 | The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring | 21 Dec 2001 | £63,009,288 |
5 | The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King | 19 Dec 2003 | £61,062,348 |
6 | The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers | 20 Dec 2002 | £57,600,094 |
7 | Casino Royale | 16 Nov 2006 | £55,600,009 |
8 | Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets | 15 Nov 2002 | £54,780,731 |
9 | Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest | 7 July 2006 | £52,515,550 |
10 | Quantum of Solace | 31 Oct 2008 | £51,216,877 |
11 | Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince | 17 July 2009 | £50,723,508 |
12 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 | 19 Nov 2010 | £50,640,371 * |
13 | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix | 13 July 2007 | £49,874,480 |
14 | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire | 18 Nov 2005 | £49,196,228 |
15 | The Dark Knight | 25 July 2008 | £49,074,220 |
16 | Shrek 2 | 2 July 2004 | £48,243,628 |
17 | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | 4 June 2004 | £46,083,704 |
18 | The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe | 8 Dec 2005 | £44,403,774 |
19 | Alice in Wonderland | 5 March 2010 | £42,536,343 |
20 | Bridget Jones’s Diary | 13 April 2001 | £42,007,008 |
Top 10 weeks in UK cinemas 2010
This chart shows the enduring popularity of the cinema experience during holiday periods
Play week in cinemas
Friday – Thursday |
Total week’s
box-office |
Top film on UK release | |
1 | 23 – 29 July 2010 | £47,159,521 | Toy Story 3
(first full week of release)
|
2 | 2 – 8 April 2010 (Easter) | £42,364,315 | Clash of the Titans
(first week of release)
|
3 | 30 July – 5 August 2010 | £38,882,576 | Toy Story 3
(second full week of release) |
4 | 12 – 18 February 2010 | £35,531,039 | Valentine’s Day
(first week of release) |
5 | 9 – 15 July 2010 | £33,114,074 | The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
(first week of release) |
6 | 19 – 25 November 2010 | £31,467,005 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
(first week of release) |
7 | 6 – 12 August 2010 | £31,337,272 | Toy Story 3
(third full week of release) |
8 | 31 December 2010 –
6 January 2011 |
£29,297,174 | Gulliver’s Travels
(first week of release) |
9 | 22 – 28 October 2010
(half-term) |
£28,804,857 | Paranormal Activity 2
(first week of release) |
10 | 28 May – 3 June 2010
(half-term) |
£28,682,239 | Sex and the City 2
(first week of release) |
Cinemagoing by nation 2010
Nation | Gross box-office | Admissions
|
Population |
Scotland | £88,327,671
(+ 5.3% vs. 2009) |
16.0m | 5.19m |
Northern Ireland | £26,202,618
(-1.4% vs. 2009) |
4.3m | 1.79m |
England & Wales
Breakdown in table below |
£891,686,499
(+ 6.7% vs. 2009) |
148.95m | 54.80m |
UK total |
£1,006,216,788 (+ 6.4% vs. 2009) |
169.25m |
61.78m |
Cinemagoing by region of England & Wales 2010
English TV region | Gross box-office | Admissions
(approx) |
London
of which the West End |
£294,211,426
£92,221,348 |
42.6m |
Central (East + West Midlands) | £130,667,856 | 23.95m |
Granada | £100,612,883 | 17.95m |
South | £92,982,618 | 15.5m |
Yorkshire | £74,671,035 | 14.4m |
Wales/West (Harlech) | £67,556,131 | 11.5m |
Anglia | £64,638,153 | 11.1m |
Tyne Tees | £37,685,912 | 6.7m |
Westward (South-West) | £21,789,099 | 3.95m |
Border | £6,871,386 | 1.3m |
Total England/Wales |
£891,686,499 |
148.95m |
London cinema highlights in 2010 (figures published for the first time)
§ The London TV region accounted for 29.2% of the total of UK cinema box-office in 2010 with £294.2m in receipts compared to £271.4m in 2009, which is annual increase of 8% in the regions takings.
§ London’s West End alone accounts for 10% of English’s cinema box office and just over 9% of the entire UK market. The West End is the UK’s fifth highest grossing region, which saw a 2.6% rise in cinema ticket sales from £87.4m in 2009 to £92.2m in 2010 – representing a 5.5% increase on the previous year.
§ While the overall UK population continues gradually to age, London’s diverse population is relatively young: 43.5% of the capital’s population is aged 20–44, compared with only 34.6% of the England population as a whole.
§ In February 2011, the London TV region spent around £30m at the cinema box office, the highest ever recorded for the second month of the year.
ends/
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