Final presentation

Is modern cinema becoming
dominated by mainstream American,
formulaic films and if so why?

FOR MY RESEARCH UNIT I DECIDED TO
INVESTIGATE THE FILM INDUSTRY AND
WEATHER HOLLYWOOD FILMS ARE TAKING
OVER THE FILM WORLD

Topic breakdown into sub-questions

I decided to focus mainly on independent films role in the current cinema
climate and weather with the increasing popularity of formulaic
mainstream films independent film will be left behind and forgotten. I
also wanted to find out the general statistics of cinema attendance and
what the publics views on film are. So I created a number of sub-questions
to find out these things. The questions were: Is the current film climate, in
the UK, encompassing all mainstream and independent of film or a
certain genre and style of films and what are the figures?, What are the
most common styles and genre of films seen in the cinema and why?, Is
this change inevitable?, How does the mass audience of mainstream
cinema view independent films?, How do niche audiences behave?, How
has the consumption of films changed the type of films that are
viewed?, What demographic are the biggest cinema goes and how does
this link to popularity?,

Summary of Primary Research

I did three main methods of primary research for this project. They consisted of
the following: An experiment, questionnaire and an in-depth interview.
The experiment I designed myself was for two people. I gave them a collection of
14 actors that all appeared in films in IMDB’s top 50 independent films.
http://www.imdb.com/chart/independent. The participants then had to name as
many as they could with no confirming or help. The object of the experiment was
to see how aware the general public were of well respected figureheads in the
independent industry.
The survey was a general assortment of questions that I designed to help me find
out about the types of films that the general public go to see and their view.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SVZLZZH.
The interview that I conducted was with Mark Stewart. An aspiring filmmaker and
film fanatic. I wanted the interview to discover what a young person interested in
films though about the points I had raised.
http://www.tumblr.com/blog/judelovesresearch.

Interview Questions

 Why do you think the Hollywood blockbuster is so
popular?
 What are the rising trends in cinema and why?
 Do you think the independent cinema is treated fairly in
the movie world and why?
 What are the main problems with the current cinema
climate, if you think there are none then explain why?
 Do you think cinema attendee’s priorities have changed?
 Is there a future for independent cinema?
 Where do you see films place in the future?
 Do you think advances in new media technology will help
independent films get more recognition?

Is the current film climate, in the UK, encompassing all mainstream and
independent of film or a certain genre and style of films and what are the figures?

For this question I found information that helped me very easily. Source 1, The
UK film council was a non-departmental body that promoted and developed the
film industry. On there site they keep records of all the cinema takings in different
categories. I looked at the weekend of February the 10th-12th. The results that I
found really support my theory as you can see that the top nine films are all by big
mainstream Hollywood
distribution companies.
The data that I am
basing this statement on
Is very solid reliable
Data as it the UK Film
Council were one of the
Most respected
companies about film.


This is only one weekend however and it is not good practice to make theses
assumptions however having looked and other weeks the trends are obvious but
not unexpected. I also collected some data from a blog, source 4, about family
movies are taking over the cinema industry. It states “So it turns out the box office
is not a place of hopelessness and despair. It's just a place of hopelessness and
despair for those of us who are not young children.” The rest of the article is about
how the film market is being saturated by kids films because they are safe money
makers. This further confirms my point on the movie industry and the fact that we
are
the independent film to the more popular and
money safe films.


Weekend Gross (Million)
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0 Weekend Gross (Million)

Source 1

What are the most common styles and genre of films seen in
the cinema and why? Is this change inevitable?

Source 11

What are the most common styles and genre of films seen in the
cinema and why? Is this change inevitable?

The previous results are collected from my questionnaire, source 11, about the UK
cinema atmosphere. It shows that the top three genres that the general public would
go to see at the cinema are: Action/adventure, comedy and Sci/fi. In my opinion the
first two of these results is true because they are the most easily accessible films.
However I think that the results that I got are slightly influenced by the way that I
distributed my survey. As it was only on my Facebook it would have only got to my
friends who are the same age and share similar interests. If I had more time to
conduct my research I would get my survey to a much wider audience rather than
just my friends. Also the fact that there are only thirty four responses to my survey it
is not a real representation of the population as it is such a small number. However
if I had more time I would have been able to get it to a much larger amount of
people by sending it through mass emails and sending it directly to peoples houses.
Based on these findings I think that the mainstream is always going to be more
popular because as I have surveyed the younger generation they seem to have
similar attitudes to new films.

What are the most common styles and genre of films seen in the
cinema and why? Is this change inevitable?

The results from my experiment, source 12, support my theory of the most popular
style of films being the mainstream and the fact that these would be unchanging.
From the fourteen actors that I showed Andrew could only name four and holly
could only name five. This surprised me as both have a good knowledge of movies
both independent and mainstream. The actors that both of them got were the actors
that had gone on from those films to do more mainstream films like Brad Pitt and
Uma Thurman. From these results I came to the conclusion that independent film
just like its nature is very underground and does not really have much awareness
especially with the younger generation. However as with all my methods of primary
research there are some problems with the results. Participants
If I had more time I would have been able to
conduct the experiment with more people and
then get much fairer results instead of having to
generalise. However I would need to conduct it on
mass as it took at least twenty minutes to conduct
one experiment.
Andrew Holly

How does the mass audience of mainstream cinema view independent films?
How do niche audiences behave?

These are the results for the 2011 Cannes
Film Festival, source 5. Every year Cannes
showcases the best of independent film and
awards the best with its distinguished
awards. This is one of the main ways that
independent films gain prestige and
acclaim in the movie world as it is a major
festival in the film calendar. So in theory
independent films should be widely
acclaimed throughout the movie world.
However it is still very obvious that this is
not the case at all. I found a blog called
What Makes a
Blockbuster, source 10. In this is states the best things that make a sure hit at the
box office. It also tells us the most unlikely things to be a success at the box office.
The number one of these is either foreign or independent films. It says that 3.6%
of blockbusters are indie and this shows that the masses don't want to see these
types of movie.


I found two sources that closely link to the way niche audiences behave towards their
favourite movies. The first of these is an article by the guardian called: Dudeism, the
faith that abides in The Big Lebowski. It is about the religion built around fans of the
cult movie. The second is a case study by the UK Film Council called: A Qualitative
Study of Avid Cinema-goers. It is a series of experiments about avid fans of movies
and how they behave. Both of them make lots of reference to the fact that
independent films are the ones that get this kind of cult following even though they
do not succeed in making huge box office killings like its mainstream counterparts.


Source 11


As part of source 11 I created a section of questions on independent film. I tried to
get people opinion on a film called The Sound Of My Voice. From the results of this
you can see that the majority are interested in a film like this. I think that this is a
positive and shows that if independent films got the same kind of advertising as
mainstream films then people would be much likely to see them. Although the next
question in my questionnaire did not give such positive results. It shows most
people surveyed do not go to see independent films very often if at all. However
these results are hindered by the same things as before.

How has the consumption of films changed the type of films
that are viewed?

This graph below is from a group of surveys that Nielson, source 9, has done into
huge surge of interest in 3D movies. It shows a selection of demographics and age
groups that have show interest in 3D. Although it is an American statistic which
affects the relevance of these statistics, we can assume that Britain's responses
would be similar to these as we share lots of similarities in film preference and
popularity among audience. There are only certain types of films that get put into
3D and these are the ones believed to make a big box office gross. This enforces the
idea that new gimmicks will make the mainstream audience more likely to go and
see the films that Hollywood deem to be worth the money risk.

How has the consumption of films changed the type of films
that are viewed?

I conducted an interview with Mark Stewart, source 13 as mentioned at the
beginning of the presentation and he thinks that this is not true and that
independent films are becoming more popular through the publics eyes. He says
that through mediums like the internet, independent films are becoming more able
to spread their influence and get themselves to a much wider audience. He also
states the 3D is not a selling point for films as he doesn't like it and knows many
others who don't. This is coupled by Mark Kermode in his book: The Good, The Bad
and The Multiplex, source 3. He is a film critic with huge critical acclaim and is very
respected in the film world. In his book he has a whole chapter dedicated to why 3D
is bad called: The Inevitable Decline of 3D. He talks in depth about how it is a
useless medium that has been tried before and failed. This shows that even though
film consumption is changing audiences are still able to judge for themselves what
they want to see.

What demographic are the biggest cinema goes and how does
this link to popularity?


Getting specific information on actual cinema attendance figures are difficult. So
these statistics below are of the audience figures of the cinema companies
website, source 8. I looked at two big cinemas, Odeon and the Vue, and the
independent contender, PictureHouse. They show that the main audience for all of
these site are eighteen two twenty four. This would follow that the people who
attend theses cinemas most regularly are 18-24 years of age. This shows us that the
main demographics for these cinemas are of that age. However these are just the
cinemas and not the whole of UK cinema as a whole.

Odeon Vue PictureHouse


I found an article on the Independent Cinema Office’s website, source 6, that talked
about the specific demographics of independent films. The article stated that older
audiences were more likely to go and see independent films and people in the
fourteen to twenty age bracket were very unlikely to attend these types of film. This
backs up the information that I found in source 8 because they show mainstream
films and are highly unlikely to show independent films. However it contradicts that
of PictureHouse’s results. This is confusing as PictureHouse are an independent
cinema company and show lots of independent films. This clash suggest my theory
of it being very hard to find exact demographical results as the cinemas and
companies all keep them private or are only accessible by paying money for them.

Conclusion

So in conclusion after collecting all of my data and research I feel that
modern cinema is becoming dominated my mainstream American films.
However even though this is true I do not feel that this will hugely effect the
workings of independent films as it still has a strongly devoted and wide
audience. I feel that the reason as to why the mainstream is taking or has
already taken over the cinema world is the fact that it is hugely pushed by
the Hollywood companies to make money and has millions spent on the
advertising and making sure people will go and see it. I think that if
independent film had funding like this it would be able to be as popular.
However as this will never happen I also think that with the rise of the
internet and new media, independent films are going to be able to get
themselves know for much less than the big Hollywood blockbusters. So
independent films will live on, ever the underdog, but still loved by its fans.

Bibliography/Webography

 Source 1 – UK Film council, 2012, UK Box Office: 10 - 12 February
2012, online, http://industry.bfi.org.uk/article/17803/UK-Box-Office-10---12-February-
2012, accessed on 24/4/2012.
 Source 2 – British Film Institute, 2007, A Qualitative Study of Avid Cinema-
goers, online, http://industry.bfi.org.uk/media/pdf/7/j/Avids_report.pdf, accessed on
24/4/2012.
 Source 3 – Kermode M, 1st September 2011, The Good, The Bad and The
Multiplex, Random House.
 Source 4 - Steven Zeitchik, June 21 2010, Is a multiplex full of family films the future of
moviegoing?, online, http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2010/06/toy-story-
karate-kid-family-films.html, accessed 25/4/2012.
 Source 5 - Cannes film festival, May 22 2011, Awards 2011, online, http://www.festival-
cannes.fr/en/archives/2011/allAward.html, accessed 31/4/2012.
 Source 6 - Independent Cinema Office, no date specified, Demographic and lifestyle
data, online, http://www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/resources/how-to-start-a-
local-cinema/understanding-audiences/demographic, accessed 31/4/2012.
 Source 7 - Ben Walters: Wednesday 20 January 2010, Dudeism, the faith that abides in
The Big Lebowski, online, http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/jan/20/dudeism-the-
big-lebowski, accessed 32/4/2012.

Bibliography/Webography

 Source 8 - Alexa.com (unable to find direct author + date), Alexa web searches on
Odeon,Vue and
Picturehouse, online, http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/odeon.co.uk, http://www.alexa.co
m/siteinfo/myvue.com, http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/picturehouses.co.uk, accessed on
32/4/2012.
 Source 9 - Film Journal International July 15, 2009, Moviegoer Quick Facts: Nielsen
PreView reveals audience
preferences, online, http://www.filmjournal.com/filmjournal/content_display/news-
and-features/features/cinemas/e3ie3cb96740c26f800a294d7506ba771da, accessed
32/4/2012.
 Source 10 – jinni blog(no specific author), 26/5/2010, What Makes a
Blockbuster?, online, http://blog.jinni.com/2010/05/what-makes-a-
blockbuster/, accessed 33/4/2012.
 Source 11 – My own questionnaire, http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SVZLZZH.
 Source 12 – My experiment, based on http://www.imdb.com/chart/independent.
 Source 13 – My interview.

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