Media News

2008 was always going to be a hard act to follow, especially as cinemas in Britain enjoyed their best summer since 1969 with admissions reaching 164.2 million.  Based on this, we are delighted to report that cinema has had yet another relatively successful year with 2009 reporting the highest recorded audiences since 2002.

The first half of the year saw admissions rise by 14.5% which means that around 83.5 million tickets were sold; some of the highest grossing movies in the first half of 2009 were Slumdog Millionaire, Monsters Vs Aliens, Star Trek, Night At The Museum and Angels And Demons. 

The question is, why in the current climate, has cinema proved so popular when other social activities including clubs, pubs & restaurants have not fared so well?  The experts believe there are a number of factors ranging from the quality of films (especially British films like Slumdog Millionaire), people demanding cheap entertainment (average ticket in the UK is £5.30) and the fact that the public need some escapism from the economic downturn.  John Woodward the chief executive of the UK Film Council was quoted as saying “These figures underline film’s vital contribution to our wider economy and the central role it plays in all our lives. Today, more UK audiences are going to the cinema than ever before, and not just to see the big blockbuster movies.”

Despite the increase in admissions and the constant positive press, inevitably cinema experienced a decline in ad revenue. The latest data shows a decline of 5.22% which is actually slightly healthier than other media - considering the market was down approximately 15% (year on year Jan – May 09).

In regards to the media owners, Pearl & Dean now account for 35.1% of all UK admissions vs. DCM’s 64.9%

Digital cinema is finally gathering momentum with some cinemas running dual projection – prehistoric 35mm film, plus all digital adreels.   With such areas as music, video and photography all having switched from old analogue tape formats to digital why has cinema taken so long to switch over? It's all been down to agreeing a common industry standard worldwide for film distribution and exhibition (now resolved) and secondly funding the cost of such a major switch over. 3D movies have become something of a catalyst in accelerating digital growth (2009 has seen a whole bunch of 3D releases with more to come) and 2010 will see a major growth in penetration according to industry pundits.
 
As for the future I'll leave you with a quote from Peter Seabrook-Harris, Pearl & Dean's veteran Regional Sales Director, who says
 
"Make no mistake; digital cinema is not going to be just movies by another format. It's about cinemas no longer being totally reliant on Hollywood as digitally driven alternative content such as live music, world cup football and computer gaming are all added to the programme mix. For advertisers, as well as our regular young adult and family audiences, a whole raft of niche audiences are going to be more readily available than ever before - both in terms of buying opportunities and also dramatically lower production costs"

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