DB7

<span style="font-size:18pt;line-height:100%">Hollywood producers abandon UK as British box office bucks global downward trend</span>

<span style="font-family:GenevaArialsans-serif size2"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:100%">Owen Gibson, media correspondent
Tuesday January 17, 2006
<span style="color:#cc6600">The Guardian</span>

</span></span>Hollywood movie studios have abandoned the UK as a production base in droves, with their investment falling by almost half in the last two years, according to new figures.



But while fewer films were made in the UK, cinema-going was increasingly popular, with British audiences bucking a global downturn in box office revenues.

ince the chancellor, Gordon Brown, put film industry tax breaks under review, Hollywood giants have deserted UK studios such as Pinewood, often for eastern Europe. The amount spent on production in the UK last year declined by 31% from 2004 to £559.5m, according to statistics published yesterday by the UK Film Council.

Even that figure was buoyed by increased investment by British film-makers. Big budget projects such as Stormbreaker, featuring teenage spy Alex Rider, and Sir Richard Eyre's adaptation of the Zoë Heller novel Notes on a Scandal, boosted spending by more than a third.




The high water mark for inward investment was 2003, when more than £1bn was spent on movies, including Troy, Batman Begins and the Harry Potter series.



However, the British film industry is hopeful that a new tax regime unveiled by the Treasury last month will result in foreign investment swiftly returning to the UK. In his pre-budget report, welcomed by the industry, the chancellor offered producers of films costing more than £20m a rebate of 16% provided they fulfil certain criteria, including a "cultural test".



British-made films costing under £20m will be entitled to claim up to a fifth of their budget in tax credits.

Steve Norris, of the British Film Commission, which promotes the UK as a production centre, said that 2005 "was always going to be a tough year for production in the UK, due to the overhaul of tax incentives and a strong British pound against the US dollar". In contrast, with the new arrangements in place, 2006 offered "a great deal of promise".



Yesterday's figures also showed that home-grown films are proving more popular with British audiences than at any point in the past decade.


]British films accounted for 34% of UK box office revenues, with Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were Rabbit and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy among them. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the most recent cinema instalment of the fantasy saga, topped the chart with box office receipts of £47.6m in 2005.

Cinema chains and the film industry were also cheered by figures showing that UK audiences had bucked the worldwide downward trend in cinema attendances. UK and Ireland box office receipts totalled £840.35m during 2005, a marginal rise on the previous year.



Audiences across Europe and the US declined during 2005. In Germany, total box office revenues fell by 18%, while in Spain the total value of cinema receipts fell by a tenth.



Biggest box office

Top 10 films in the UK in 2005, ranked by box office receipts

1 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, £47.6m

2 Star Wars Episode III, £39.3m

3 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, £38.3m

4 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, £37.4m

5 Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were Rabbit, £32m

6 War of the Worlds, £30.6m

7 Meet the Fockers, £28.9m

8 King Kong, £26.1m

9 Madagascar, £22.7m 10 Hitch, £17.4m

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Ted Holmes

That must be the most intellectually and emotionally undemanding top 10 of all time!

arty-dave

[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/clapping.gif[/img]

sanndevil

You can be forgiven for thinking so, but in fact I think the early seventies were worse! The top tens were littered with cheap and nasty TV sitcom spin-off movies. I'm sure I have the figures somewhere but I'm not sure I have the will to look them up! [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/no.gif[/img]

Ted Holmes

You may well be right. What really bothers me about this Top 10 is that it has a global look about it. I suspect many other countries will have a similar list. I'd actually be delighted to see some cheap TV spin-off in the list. At least then it would be home-grown rubbish rather than rubbish that cost an obscene amount of dollars and was forced on every cinema on the planet.

samkydd

Does that mean we'll get good fillums made now?

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

DB7

The mention that "British films accounted for 34% of UK box office revenues" and that home-grown films have produced their best showing for a decade gives a glimmer of hope.

smudge

Ah, but how are we defining 'British' here ?

SMUDGE

[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/vampire.gif[/img]

Welcome to my house. Enter freely, and of your own will...

David Brent

You're right Ted. The UK top ten is almost identical to that in Australia.
Seems people are a little like sheep. The more highly publicised a film is the more the patrons, particuarly the young, will go to see it. They do not appear bothered by the quality of the film they just want to say to their mates "Yeah, seen that!" as if it's a status symbol.
I personally wouldn't go out of my way to see any of the films listed in the top ten - even if I was offered free tickets.

Dave.

Johnjackgilbert

Mass entertainment follows the rule of lowest common denominator. So called 'universal appeal' is the aim of many of these film makers - all ages, all classes, all nationailities (Western of course) and nothing controversial or intellectual to interrupt the message of complacency. It makes a hell of a lot of money and that is purpose of their film making careers.

I haven't watched any of the films mentioned, therefore cannot comment on their merits (or otherwise) but they fit the model of pure escapist entertainment. There is a place for such entertainment even though their success stifles the hopes of less commercial film themes and styles as cinemas tend to run these films rather than independently produced, 'art-house' or 'foreign' language films - they need the cash too. And their success leads to producers and financial backers to demand more of the same.

Although it has to be noted that some film makers will do a commerical blockbuster in order to finance something with less 'universal appeal'...

penfold

indeed Lady Lois....and let's not forget that, by the same token, the most successful British film with British audiences of all time is..... Spring in Park Lane.... I love old films (why else am I here ?) but I wouldn't cross the road to see that!!

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

sanndevil

Weird one that, isn't it? I don't even think I've seen it, and I'm sure if you asked 100 citizens very few would be able to name it as the most popular at the box office of all time.

Rob Compton

But - as I am ALWAYS telling people - you have to judge films in the context of the times in which they were made. And "Spring in Park Lane" was made just after the war, when many more people visited the cinema than now, and Britain was in the midst of rationing (typically: "is this what we fought for? etc) and the country was starved of colour and vitality and lightheartedness - all of which this film provided, together with popular and bankable stars.

As it happens (and since I have children in the age groups that the top ten films were made) I have seen several of them - and there are some excellent films among them. "Harry Potter", and "The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe" to pick out two that I liked, are both excellently and skillfully made entertainment. Star Wars, which I've also seen, wasn't - but my 12 year old adored it!

rgds
Rob

Aenima

Steptoe and Son, On The Buses, Dick Emery......Looks pretty good to me. God I'm shallow [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]
Now.....where did I put my copy of "Thus Spake Zarathustra" I had it a minute ago

I'll 'av 'arf

samkydd

I saw The Likely Lads and Dad's Army ones just recently, a cut above some of the others I think.

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"