Celador Films is a British independent production company formed in 1983 that is known for producing the game show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and the film "Slumdog Millionaire". Originally taken over by Complete Communications, Celador Films is now self-managed after buying back shares. As a small production company, Celador Films hires freelance crews and funds each film project individually through profits from previous works. Some of their other productions include the films "The Descent" and TV shows like "You Are What You Eat". While competing with larger studios, Celador Films has found success with lower-budget films like "The Descent" that earned profits despite smaller production costs than many competitors.

1. Celador Films
By Ryan Banks

2. Ownership
What is the history of Celador Films?
- Originally formed as an independent production company in 1983.
- Known for the production of the show ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’ and co-producing
the show ‘Slumdog Millionaire’.
- Celador was originally taken over by a company called Complete Communications
which bought out shareholders such as Paul Smith CBE and Jasper Carrot. This
allowed them to expand there company from just film to radio and international
businesses.
- Complete Communications announced they are selling the company and Celador
Films have now become a self managed company after managing to buy there selves
out.
- Celador produces a range of media such as radio and film as they have 18 radio
stations across the UK.

3. Operating Model
How do they go about making their films?
- Celador Films are a small production company which makes film on a project-by-project
basis.
- Celador Films don’t have a technical crew that can go out and film whenever, they have to
hire freelancers. This will consist of all the crew needed to make and produce the film. The
people they hire will be hired on a short contract such as 6 months, they never hire full time
crew. The free lancing staff consist on a range of directors and actors to lawyers and
caterers.
- Celador Films originally started by creating a program called ‘Detectives’ which was funded
by the BBC. As they became a more successful company they were able to use profits from
other projects to fund any future products.
- Pathe bought the distribution rights to The Descent before the film was even made. This
helped budget The Descent as they were able to use the money they made from selling the
distribution rights.
- When creating ‘The Decent’, Celador Films used profit and co-funding to fund the production
of the film. They put their own funds in during pre-production so the could use them during
production.

4. Products
- Celador Films have been making films since 1999 and have created 8 films in the past 15 years.
These films include; Dirty Pretty Things (2002)
The Descent (2005)
Separate Lies (2005)
Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
The Descent: Part 2 (2009)
The Scouting Book for Boys (2009),
Centurion (2010)
Selma (2014)
Celador also created quite a few TV programs such as;
- The Detectives
- You Are What You Eat
- Who Wants to be a Millionaire
- All about me
- They are currently working on TV, film production, radio broadcasting, theatrical performance and
music publishing. They have two radio stations called The Breeze and Jack FM.

5. Market Position and
Competition
- Celador are always going to be in competition with every other film company in the world for things
such as DVD sales and ticket sales.
- However, despite only being a small company, Celador Films have had a lot of success with films
such as Slumdog Millionaire.
- One of Celador’s biggest competitors, despite being a significantly larger company than them, is
Sony Pictures Entertainment.
- Sony Pictures Entertainment have produced some of the biggest films in the world such as Spider-
Man 3, which had a budget of $258 million and made $890 million. Sony have much bigger budgets
than Celador do which allows them to produce much more films. Sony Pictures Entertainment are
able to produce several films a year whereas Celador have only produced 8 in the past 15 years.
- Another competitor is Film 4 who have also created big names such as This is England. It had a
budget of £1.5 million which is the smallest budget out of the 4 films I’ve mentioned, but it still
managed to make a profit of £5 million also being the smallest profit out of the 4.
- The Descent (2006) had a budget of £3.5 million and managed to make over $57 million shows that
Celador Films are a very successful company for their size when compared to other films made
around that time, such as 28 Weeks Later which had a budget of $15 million, a much larger budget
than The Descent and made a profit of $64 million.