The box office performance of European films in the UK market
The box office performance of European films in the UK market
European films accounted for 17.4% of UK cinema releases in the period 2002-2014, but only 1.8% of the gross box office. Drawing on box office data, audience surveys and interviews with industry players, this article argues that European films generally perform badly in the UK box office because they suffer from a heavy 'cultural discount' and structural weaknesses at the level of production and distribution. Those European films which do 'breakout' are either Englishlanguage films with qualities designed to appeal to a mainstream British audience (e.g. stars and special effects) or foreign-language films with cultural elements (e.g. well-known story, director, genre, subject matter or source material) which many British cinemagoers are already familiar with. Breakout European films are also mainly released by Hollywood studios or major independent distributors. These findings provide insights into academic and policy debates about transnational media flow.
Audiences, Cultural discount, Distribution, European cinema, Foreignlanguage film, Transnational media flow
153-171
Jones, Huw David
8a9d536b-2b68-41be-a1a6-da9aff14ec63
2017
Jones, Huw David
8a9d536b-2b68-41be-a1a6-da9aff14ec63
Abstract
European films accounted for 17.4% of UK cinema releases in the period 2002-2014, but only 1.8% of the gross box office. Drawing on box office data, audience surveys and interviews with industry players, this article argues that European films generally perform badly in the UK box office because they suffer from a heavy 'cultural discount' and structural weaknesses at the level of production and distribution. Those European films which do 'breakout' are either Englishlanguage films with qualities designed to appeal to a mainstream British audience (e.g. stars and special effects) or foreign-language films with cultural elements (e.g. well-known story, director, genre, subject matter or source material) which many British cinemagoers are already familiar with. Breakout European films are also mainly released by Hollywood studios or major independent distributors. These findings provide insights into academic and policy debates about transnational media flow.
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Accepted/In Press date: 2 December 2016
e-pub ahead of print date: 28 December 2016
Published date: 2017
Keywords:
Audiences, Cultural discount, Distribution, European cinema, Foreignlanguage film, Transnational media flow
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 415051
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/415051
ISSN: 1741-1548
PURE UUID: 037b0d08-b04c-419d-b0c6-5504ff32f4e1
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Date deposited: 24 Oct 2017 16:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 04:32
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