UK films are unable to compete with international productions – namely the US – in the top 15 box office sales charts.
Data by the BFI shows while on average 4.5 of the films appearing in the top 15 list are from the UK – including films that were made in collaboration with other countries – the US has almost exclusively dominated the top spot this year.
The data shows that while UK films have surged on particular weekends, leading them to briefly overtake the internationally listed films, these surges can be attributed to the hype built around the release of individually successful films.
Leto Purser, who runs the newly established production house Purcee Productions as its creative director and producer, said: “It does seem from the ground level like unfortunately we’re still at the whim of the American film industry.
“Strikes in the US seem to hit our output pretty heavily and I know a lot of people who lost positions as a result, that kind of volatility I imagine scares off a lot of investors which leads to less internal productions which of course means less visibility in cinemas.”
While the US and UK aren’t the only competitors on the list, with collaborations between various other countries popping up, for the sake of analysis all foreign films have been grouped together.
The Valentine’s Day weekend saw the release of the highly anticipated book-to-screen adaptation of Wuthering Heights, similarly, the 20th of March weekend saw the release of the hugely popular Project Hail Mary, both of which were led by UK teams.
In terms of box office sales, UK films only made up 30% of sales, almost one hundred million pounds, while the non-UK films combined made up 70%, amounting to more than £231m.
Purser added: “I’d love to see UK films pushed into the light a little again. I know a lot of industry people here are reliant on US productions shooting here, so I’m sure it’d be a process.
“That being said I think there’s a lot of value in producing and pushing our own features. The UK has such impressive talent and crew to draw from, and we see historically how capable the UK is at producing really beautiful films.
“We all know that we’re facing down a lot of division and tension and I think we’re primed for expression and discourse in the art space.”
The numbers beg the question what could be done to promote UK productions more within the country, and whether this would be a necessary step to take.
Considering that all but five of the overall top 15 films of the year so far are US productions, one must wonder whether taking steps to compete against these big budget productions would have any effect.
Thomas is a self-proclaimed movie nerd in his early 20s, and member of a film club that mainly focuses on historical films.
He said: “Recently I’ve been making more of an effort to keep up with smaller British releases through what’s getting boosted by the BAFTAs and BFI.
“Also sometimes I leaf through the culture sections of various newspapers to see if there’s anything interesting in there.
“I didn’t use to do this as much but I’ve been thinking that a person should do their best to engage with their own country’s cultural works.”
Places like the BFI Southbank offer discounted tickets to young people to incentivise younger generations to continue going to the cinema.
Thomas added: “My film club doesn’t make an effort to show films from Britain specifically.
“What will usually happen is a common throughline in world cinema will be chosen and we’ll watch a series of films week after week along that theme, usually two per country showing a better known film then a lesser known one that contrasts with it.
“In my opinion, it makes sense, the history of cinema wasn’t limited to any one country of course, it’s always been a pretty international art.”
Overall, less of a focus seems to be placed on whether a film is locally produced, but rather its overall presence in the mainstream.
Image by wernerredlich from Pixabay
Data credit: BFI
Graphs and stories by: Laura Zeppenfeld
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