Cinema City is primarily an independant cinema. It's different from mainstream multiplexes like Odeon and Vue because it is privately owned and receives grant money from the council to run. Cinema City primarily shows more independant, low budget or foreign films to offer the public a different sort of experience than a typical cinema. It also gives these small films more chance to be shown and recommended onwards. However to maintain profits, Cinema City does show a few mainstream films such as 'The King's Speech' and 'Avatar'.
In our short lecture, we learnt all about the cinema industry. I was surprised to see how dramatic the fall in cinema admittances has been since the late 1940s to now. In 1948, there were 500 million cinema admittances. In 1980, due to the release of VHS, cinema admittances fell to 50 million. In 2008, it has risen though to nowhere near as high as the late 1940s - 164.2 million admittances. In 1975, Jaws was released, sounds way off the point but Jaws was the first blockbuster. Literally, queues for the film ran around the block and in 1984, the first multiplex was opened in Milton Keynes. It was based just outside the city, on cheap land. The multiple screens meant that you could sell more tickets to a larger variety of films and profits expanded. Most cinemas have peak admissions in the summer although the UK are different and usually has its peak from January to March.
The following figures were particularly interesting for me to learn. In 1945, the top 20 films represented about a quarter of the films available to see at the time. In 2000, the top 20 films represent just half of the films available to see. In the 1970s, U.S films accounted for 20% of the films being shown. In 1998, that figure was at 70%. Nowadays, more mainstream films come across from America, hence why they hold most of the market.
There are six main distributors of film that collectively distribute about 85% of films:
Warner Bros.
Paramount Pictures
20th Century Fox
Universal Studios
Buena Vista
Columbia
Important film terms:
Mainstream - commercial films that are made by major entertainment studios or companies that are owned by international media conglomerates.
Crossover - films that go beyond the traditional markets and usually end up making a lot of money.
Specialist - films that challenge ideals, usually low budget
'Animal Kingdom'
'Animal Kingdom' is a low budget Australian independant film directed and written by David Michôd. It was released in 2010, took $5.2 million to make and brought in $6.8 million worldwide.
Plot: Despite being no saint herself, Julia Cody has shielded her seventeen year old son, Joshua "J" Cody, from her Melbourne-based criminal relatives who they have not seen in years. After Julia dies in front of J's eyes from a self-inflicted heroin overdose, J, who is slightly detached from life, feels he has no choice but to contact his maternal grandmother, Janine "Smurf" Cody, the family matriarch, for a place to live. Smurf rules the family with a borderline incestuous love over her three sons, the quietly menacing Andrew "Pope" Cody, the hyperactive Craig Cody, and the barely of age Darren Cody. Pope and his best friend, Barry "Baz" Brown, are armed robbers, with Darren their up and coming apprentice, while Craig is a mid level drug dealer. Melbourne's Armed Robbery Squad is after specifically Pope, who is hiding out. But when the standoff between the Codys and the Armed Robbery Squad is brought up a notch, an all out war ensues, with some casualties and J caught in the middle. The only grounding in J's life is his girlfriend, Nicky Henry. With those casualties comes an investigation by Homicide Detective Senior Sergeant Nathan Leckie, who knows the Codys are involved in some of those deaths. As Leckie tries to get J on his side, J has to figure out how best to get himself out from the middle, where he trusts neither side. J also wants to figure out how to exact what he considers justice in an all around bad situation.
Cast:
James Frecheville - Joshua 'J' Cody
Jacki Weaver – Janine ‘Smurf’ Cody
Joel Edgerton – Barry ‘Baz’ Brown
Luke Ford – Darren Cody
Sullivan Stapleton – Craig Cody
Mirrah Foulkes – Catherine Brown
Laura Wheelwright – Nicky Henry
Justin Rosniak – Detective Randall Roach
Personally, I didn't think that the film was very good. The concept of the film was good but I think that too much was going on for a low budget film to pull off well. People were constantly being shot for no reason and as much as I tried to put the pieces together, there were elements that I just couldn't understand.
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