GOOD OR BAD?

Big British films are doing well but smaller films are struggling to be seen, heard or even thought of.

The latest figures on Britain’s film going habits are out and they highlight that more people are going to the cinema than for years, with almost 117 million tickets collected by the end of August, up more than 10% on the same period last year.

And more of these movie buffs are going to see British productions, accounting for 27% - over 24 million - of tickets sold. Impressive.

This time last year, only three of the top 20 films in the UK only three were “British”. This year an amazing 16 of the top 20 are “British”.

Of course this is good news. Especially that people are viewing British films not merely as niche market items but as thoroughly entertaining fare.

But the figures are distorted by the success of a few blockbusters at the expense of smaller films.

So the lion’s share of the audience went to see some obvious titles: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (which grossed £49.2m up to September 23); Mr Bean's Holiday (over £22m); UK director Paul Greengrass's The Bourne Ultimatum (also over £22m).

For surprises you had to look at Hot Fuzz, which grossed a startling £21m despite an over reliance on shoot ‘em up noise.

Other worthy successes were Miss Potter (£6.9m), Atonement (£6.7m and still on release), Run, Fat Boy, Run (£6.3m and still on release); Notes on a Scandal (£5.9m); The Last King of Scotland (£5.7m); and 28 Weeks later (5.3m).

That is a total of 10 films and £150 million. Very nice.

But Britain made some 100 films last year. What happened to the other 90 of them? The truth is that many did not get distributed in cinemas and of those that did, they attracted only very small audiences, despite deserving better, and sank with little more than a ripple.

Until these smaller films arouse more interest and attract more viewer, it will always be hard to win the money to make ever bigger and better films.

Filed November 14, 2007