This document summarizes research conducted to determine what factors contribute to the success of British independent films at the box office. The researcher analyzed the top 10 highest grossing and 10 lowest grossing British independent films from 2011.
Methods used included secondary research of film data, a content analysis comparing the two groups of films, questionnaires distributed to audiences, and a focus group. Key findings were that plot was the most important factor for audiences deciding which film to see, and advertising/marketing, particularly trailers, were critical for drawing initial interest. A positive correlation was also found between advertising spend and box office performance.
While lower advertising levels likely contributed to failures for some films, the researcher notes the need to also consider budgets,
2. INTRODUCTION
• During this research project, I wanted to find out
what makes some British Independent films
successful in the box office while many do not
make any money.
• I looked specifically at the top 10 highest grossing
British Independent films of 2011 as well as 10 of the
lowest grossing films. These films were analyzed and
compared in a number of ways in order to look at
what aspects effected their box office
performance.
3. METHODS
The methods I used for this project include:
-Secondary research
- The secondary research formed the basis for my whole project. For this
research I mostly found out information on the films such as budget, actors,
release date etc. which was all used within my content analysis. I also
looked at reviews and articles to find out more qualitative information on
the films and more detailed personal analysis on what added or took away
from their success.
-Content Analysis
- I then took much of this secondary research and placed it all into a table
so that I could find similarities in the two groups of films.
-Questionnaire
- The questionnaire was used to target audiences directly and find out what
impacts their decision to see a film and also what makes them enjoy film. I
also wanted to find out how effective the advertising was for the 20 films I
am looking at. I distributed these questionnaires both online on Facebook
and by paper in class resulting in 23 questionnaires being completed.
-Focus Group
- Similarly, I aimed to find out in more detail how people decide what film to
see in cinema. However, the main purpose of this focus group was to look
at some of the films I am researching and ask respondents whether they
would go and see them and why. The focus group contained five 17 -18
years olds.
4. SUB QUESTIONS
• In order to go about this research, I had to break the topic down
into several categories to explore. The two main things I wanted
to find out were:
- Which independent films are successful?
- What is the reason for their success?
The second category was then broken down into several other
questions as follows:
- Which aspects of a film are important in drawing an audience in?
- Which aspects are important in making the film enjoyable?
- Do these things contribute to the films success through reviews
and word of mouth?
- Is a film’s success partly down to marketing, advertising and
distribution?
- How important is the budget?
- Are there any other factors which contribute to a films
performance?
5. WHICH BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILMS
ARE SUCCESSFUL?
Before I began my research, I needed to find out which films
were most successful in 2011. For this I looked at official statistics
from the BFI who provide a yearly report on box office figures.
One section gave the top 20 successful British Independent films
of 2011. I took the top 10 of these as follows: (Source 1)
From this information, we can
1 – The Kings Speech (45.68m) already see that the genre and
2 – The Inbetweeners Movie (45.03m) types of films here vary from
3 – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (14.14m) comedies, family films and
dramas, and there is no obvious
4 – Horrid Henry (6.62m) connection between them or
5 – Jane Eyre (5.07m) clear reason for their success.
6 – The Three Musketeers (3.48m) Therefore the rest of the
7 – My Week With Marilyn (3.05m) research aims to find similarities
between these 10 films and the
8 – The Eagle (2.88m) overall reasons for their success.
9 – West is West (2.69m)
10 – Attack the Block (2.47m)
6. WHICH BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILMS
ARE SUCCESSFUL?
I then found out 10 low grossing British Independent films to
compare with these other films. To find these films I went to
BoxOffice Mojo and looked at all film releases of 2011 in order of
box office gross. (source 2)I had to research each film in order
to find out where it was made and whether they were
independent . The 10 films I found are as follows:
1 – Retreat (£2,838)
2 - Break My Fall (£1,497) As you can see box
3 - Treacle Jr. (£1,418) office figures for these
4 - Wake Wood (£1,266) films are considerably
5 - The Tapes (£555) lower and drew in a
6 - Big Fat Gypsy Gangster (£475) very small audience.
7 - This is Our Still Life (£367)
8 – Travellers (£227)
9 – Turnout (£210)
10 - 7Lives (£32)
7. WHICH ASPECTS OF A FILM ARE IMPORTANT IN
DRAWING AN AUDIENCE IN?
I wanted to know what about a film draws in an audience. This is
useful as the initial drawing in of an audience will have a large
effect on a films box office success.
As part of my questionnaire I asked the question; ‘Please rank the
following in order of importance when making a choice to see a
film (1-10 with 1 being the most important)’ with the following
options:
-Actor/s
-Director
-Reviews
-Word of mouth
-Genre
-Plot
-Advertising campaign
-Setting
-Franchise/adaptation
-Awards
8. WHICH ASPECTS OF A FILM ARE IMPORTANT
IN DRAWING AN AUDIENCE IN?
I added up all of the results from this question using a tally table and found the average
rating of each aspect. From this I found that plot was generally rated as first or second most
important variable in deciding to go and see a film. This was followed by reviews and word
of mouth, then actors and genre followed by director and advertising, leaving
franchise/adaptation and awards as the least important aspects.
Actors Director Review Word of Genre Plot Advertising Setting Franchise/adaptatio Awards
s mouth n
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9
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Average 4.6 6 3.6 4.1 4.7 2.3 6.5 7.3 8.1 7.2
However, as you can see above, there was not much between each factor in terms of
averages with the exception of plot. Although this does show that the plot is the most
important deciding factor, it doesn’t really help to determine which of the others have the
most impact as results varied greatly from person to person. It also didn’t allow respondents
to specify which factors may have been equally important or not an effecting factor at all.
9. WHICH ASPECTS OF A FILM ARE IMPORTANT
IN DRAWING AN AUDIENCE IN?
In order to gather more useful results, I should have either
asked an open question – ‘Which aspects of a film are
important to you when deciding what film to go and see?’,
allowing respondents to give their own, more accurate
answers or asked the same question but asked the
respondent to rate each individual factor out of 10
according to how important they are when making a
decision. An ‘other’ option should also have been added to
this question to allow respondents to specify factors which I
may not have thought of myself. The questionnaire should
also be done on a much larger scale so that it reflects a
larger number of cinemagoers. All of these improvements
would have given much clearer results and allowed me to
answer the question above which much more clarity and
statistical basis.
10. WHICH ASPECTS OF A FILM ARE IMPORTANT
IN DRAWING AN AUDIENCE IN ?
However, also as part of my questionnaire, I asked a similar question: How do you
decide what film to see at the cinema?
This was an open question and I found that the most common answer for this was
generally through trailers or advertising followed by recommendations/word of mouth
and reviews.
Although this question is different in the sense that it doesn’t show what about the
films specifically draws people to it, it does show how most people will find out about
film and the main things they will base their decision on.
This table shows all of the answers received from this question and how many replied
similarly.
Answer No. of answers Examples
Recommendations/word of 7 ‘From reviews and asking friends’
mouth ‘Influences from my family and what they want to see’
Reviews 6 ‘Reviews on radio, word of mouth, trailers’
‘By watching a trailer on TV or feedback and reviews’
Advertising including trailers 14 ‘Whatever looks good on Apple trailers’
Genre 4 ‘Depends on what I’ve seen advertised, which actors are
involved and the type of film’
Cinema Listings 2 ‘If it fits a genre I like’
Ratings 3 ‘Cinema listings and ratings’
‘Looking at their ratings and plots’
Plots 2 ‘Adverts’
Actors 1 ‘Reviews/word of mouth/genre
‘Depends on the film - I like action & good soundtracks’
Friends/family influence or 2
‘Look at cinema listings, ratings and reviews. Or go and see
decision
a film I have seen advertised.’
11. The importance of Advertising & Distribution
I felt that this question along with other parts of my research highlights the importance of
advertising and distribution as well as word of mouth/reviews and recommendations
which I will explore later on.
As part of my secondary research, I found the following graphs created by Neilson’s as part
of their own research, which show that most people find out about films through
advertising and word of mouth. This along with my own research, shows me that
advertising, particularly trailers, are extremely important in drawing in an initial audience
for the film which then brings in a larger following through word of mouth. (Source 3)
The second graph also show that different age groups hear about films through very
different sources. This means that placing advertising in the right places for the target
audience will be very important for distributors and getting their strategy wrong may
effect the films performance.
12. The importance of Advertising & Distribution
More extensive research carried out by the BFI on 440 films, found the following:
• Among mass (TV-advertised films) films, a 1% increase in TV advertising spend is on average
associated with a 0.11% rise in box office receipts, while a 1% increase in press advertising
expenditure implies a 0.16% rise in box office.
• Among niche (non-TV-advertised) films, a 1% increase in press advertising expenditure was
similarly found to imply a 0.16% rise in box office takings.
• Average advertising expenditure was equal to 14% of box office receipts for the films in this
study, this suggests that an extra £1000 in advertising is associated with roughly £6400 extra in
box office receipts.
This graph, completed with information
from this research, shows a positive
correlation between advertising spend,
particularly television advertising, and box
office performance. I feel that this
research supports the idea that advertising
is an extremely important factor in a films
success. However, I will need to explore this
idea further and apply this research to my
own 20 films. (Source 4)
13. The importance of Advertising &
Distribution
To apply this to the 20 films I am looking at, I asked in both my focus group and as part of the
questionnaire which of these films people had seen advertised.
For the questionnaire, I included a multiple choice question which specified all 20 films and asked the
respondent to tick all of which they had seen advertised.
Which of the following films have you seen advertised?
No. of replies
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
West is West
With Marilyn
Tinker Tailor
Wake Wood
2
Jane Eyre
The Kings
Travellers
Soldier Spy
Turnout
7 Lives
Big Fat
0
My Week
Gypsy
Speech
Films
As this table of results shows, all of the 10 successful films had been seen advertised by a majority of
respondents whereas only one of the unsuccessful films had been seen advertised and by only three
respondents. This also shows that the two most successful films had been seen advertised more so than
any of the others. However, you can also see that Attack the Block also had a large number of
people who had seen it advertised. This could be largely down to the film’s target audience as the
majority of questionnaire respondent were aged 18-24 and are therefore more likely to see and notice
advertising for this type of film. The secondary research graph shown in the slide above, highlights the
fact that younger demographics will see films advertised in different places to an older demographic.
Therefore, this shows that the results gained through this questionnaire largely depends on the
demographics of the respondents and a more balanced variety would give more useful and reliable
results. Saying this, at least 7 of the 10 unsuccessful films have a target audience of 18-24 year olds
and at least 5 of the successful films, the majority of people taking part in this questionnaire.
14. The importance of Advertising & Distribution
This piece of research therefore shows that the unsuccessful films have much less
advertising, or less effective advertising. I believe this to be a large contributing factor to
their success which is supported by some of the information given through the focus
group.
As part of this focus group, I presented the group with 3 of the successful films; Jane Eyre,
The Kings Speech and The Inbetweeners Movie, and 3 of the unsuccessful films; Travellers,
7Lives and Treacle Jr, through the use of their official posters and a brief synopsis. I found
that generally people had heard about or seen the successful films advertised whereas
they were not aware that the others existed at all. For some of the unsuccessful films, the
group even said they would go and see these if they had seen some form of advertising
such as a trailer.
Example of quotes which support this from my focus group include;
- ‘Mainstream films will have more publicity and posters so you’re obviously going to hear
more about it and the films will stick in your mind’.
- ‘I think one of the major things is publicity, a lot of people were talking about it (Kings
Speech/The Inbetweeners), this lot I’ve never heard of (Travellers, 7Lives, Treacle Jr.)’
- ‘I would go an see it because I like the promotional material, it looks quite arty (Jane
Eyre).
- Because I haven't heard anything about it I wouldn’t go and see it (Travellers).’
However, before making conclusions on the impact of advertising and distribution to the
films success, I need to look at the wider picture and explore reasons why the advertising
was low in the first place.
These reasons could be down to the inability to secure an influential distribution company
due to the quality of the films themselves which means that it is important to look at
reviews and ratings of these films to find out whether there are different reasons for the
failure of the films. Budget will also have an impact as less money will be available to
spend on the advertising and distribution of the films.
15. HOW IMPORTANT IS A FILMS BUDGET?
By looking at the film budgets of all 20 films (some of which were unknown) I
found an average budget for the 10 successful films and an average for the 10
unsuccessful films. (Source 5)
Successful = £14.4 million
Unsuccessful = £420,000
This shows that the films budget probably has a large impact on a films success.
However, as I was unable to get a full breakdown of the budget, I cannot say
where the budget has an impact. For example, the budget could impact its
success due to the amount spent on production or alternatively how much is
spent on distribution and marketing or more likely, a combination of the two.
Although these results clearly show that the successful films have much larger
budgets which is likely to be a large contribution to their success, there is one
film particularly which doesn’t completely conform to this rule. The Three
Musketeers had a massive budget of £43 million. Although this was the 6th most
successful British independent film of 2011, making £3,48 million, the film made
an overall loss of almost £40 million. Therefore, spending a lot of money on a film
will not always make it successful in terms of profit. However, it will impact the
films success in terms of statistics as the film received very negative reviews, with
low ratings and winning no awards yet still ranked 6th out of all the British
Independent films released in 2011.
16. The importance of Advertising & Distribution
Although I was unable to gather a break
down of the budget to see how much
of this was spent on advertising and
distribution, it is clear from the slide
above that the budgets of the less
successful films are considerably lower
than that of the successful films and
will therefore have much less to spend
on distribution. Most mainstream films
with major distributors will spend an
average 50% of the production
budget on marketing and distribution
alone (Source 29). However,
independent films can be picked up
by these major distributors or similarly
large independent film distributors
who will be able to promote the film in
the same way as these mainstream
films with an equally large budget.
This means that by looking at each
films distribution company, we can
gain some idea on the budget, scale
and power of their marketing
campaign.
(Source 6)
18. The importance of Advertising & Distribution
As you can see above the majority of successful films have a well known distribution company behind them
who have also distributed mainstream films, with three of these films having main distributing companies
such as Weinstein behind them. This will mean that the marketing and distribution of these films will have a
much larger budget allowing trailers, posters and other forms of advertising to be high quality and be
distributed on a larger scale. This also means that more copies of the film can be made and released in a
larger number of cinemas across the country. The distribution companies reputation will also allow access to
more press advertising and possibly even under line advertising by being able to book interviews and
television appearances.
The less successful films however, are generally distributed by independent distributors or specific art house
distributors. Break My Fall for example, was distributed by Peccadillo Films; a distribution company
specialising in lesbian, gay, and bisexual film content. This will mean that these distributors will have a limited
amount of money available for advertising and distribution and may have to rely much more heavily on
free forms of advertising such as on pirate radio or online, which will reach a much smaller audience.
However, there are exceptions to this as several of these films have large distributors with some even having
the same distribution company behind them as some of the successful films. Retreat is the most obvious
example of this as they are distributed by Sony, one of the leading distribution companies. Wakewood,
7Lives, Turnout and Travellers were distributed by leading independent film distributors.
Because previous research explored above showed that advertising for these 10 films were not seen by the
questionnaire or focus group respondents, there must be reasons why advertising was not as large scale for
these films as they were for the successful films. This could bring us back to the films budget as even though
the distribution companies themselves may have money and influence, they are unlikely to spend much of
their own money but will instead rely on the films production budget. These factors also depend on the films
themselves and how much the distributors believe in them. Again they are unlikely to put much money into
a film if they do not believe they will get much back.
Another factor to consider is how many distributors a film is able to secure. Again the majority of successful
films have several distribution companies working with them and therefore several sources of money and
support for their advertising and distribution. All of the unsuccessful films however, all have only one
distribution company.
19. The importance of Advertising & Distribution
Through the research carried out within this sub category, I believe advertising and distribution
to have a large impact on a films success due to the fact that the film needs to be seen
through advertising in order to draw in an initial audience.
However, this research does not simply show that the less successful films were not so due to
their small amount of advertising. We have to consider why some of these films were unable
to secure a large distribution company. This could be due to the film makers not having the
right contacts, time or ability to contact distributors, not having the budget to pay them or
this could be down to the content of the films themselves. If the films do not appeal to
distributors due to plot, style, actors etc. then the film will not be taken on by them. Most
distributors will want to take on films which will appeal to a large audience and make them
money so aspects of the films will have to show them that this will be the case. The following
quote by Charlie Brooker, sums up this idea; ‘No one sets out to make a box-office flop. The
problem with British films isn't a failure of ambition – it's the challenge of getting the damn
things seen in a world filled with chain multiplexes programmed by monolithic distributors.
Without distribution, no one sees your film. And without a huge marketing engine behind
you, without a cookie-cutter similarity to the last big thing, the distributors often ain't
interested.’ (Source 7)
Many of these films however, did secure a distributor and to find out the reasons for this, we
can look at reviews, ratings, target audience and other aspects of the film such as actors
involved in order to determine whether or not these things will appeal to a mass audience
and therefore the main distributors.
20. Quality of the films
The underlying factor to the level of these films success, should rely on the quality of the films themselves.
This means that the successful films should be well made and have strong components such as acting,
plot, soundtrack, techniques, style etc. Having all or many of these components should mean that the
film is able to secure a strong studio and distributor, have good reviews and positive word of mouth, all
important contributing factors to a films success. In order to establish whether the successful films are of
higher quality, we can look at ratings and reviews.
Source 8
From these graphs we can see that a higher percentage of critics and spectators enjoyed the successful
films over the failing films. The majority of critics and audience members enjoyed the successful films
while the majority of critics did not like the unsuccessful films. However, it is difficult to look at averages
rather than looking at figures for each film separately. If we do so, we can see that the successful films
generally had higher ratings with over 50% of critics liking seven of the ten films while there was only two
unsuccessful films with this statistic. However, there are at least 3 successful films with poor ratings and at
least 2 unsuccessful films with good results with one being liked by 100% of the critics. This therefore
shows that the quality of the films will have an impact but not in all cases.
However, this information is not as useful as it should be as the films did not have the same amount of critics
rating each film. There were also some unsuccessful films which had no ratings at all. This means that it is
impossible to make accurate statements from this information.
21. Quality of the films
To gain a deeper understanding of the quality of each film, it is important to look at a number of reviews
and pick up common points made by several critics. (Sources 9 and 10)
22. Quality of the films
As you can see, 6 of the 10 films rated quite highly with the critics and received positive
reviews. 2 films received average ratings and mixed reviews while 2 others rated badly
and received negative reviews.
This information does show however, that the majority of these films were made to fairly high
quality receiving praise for acting, script, visual style and directing. This should therefore
mean that these films will draw in an audience through reviews and word of mouth
particularly due to these aspects which have proven to be important in my questionnaire
(as shown on slide 8).
Horrid Henry and The Three Musketeers on the other hand, were poorly acted and badly
written. Yet these films still made a box office success which proves that quality is not
always essential to bring in money if other aspects are strong.
In the case of Horrid Henry, I think it is fair to say that its success was much more down to its
target audience, among other factors. Horrid Henry is a children’s film based on the
extremely popular children’s books. Children of this age will not be judging films in the
same way as critics and are likely to enjoy most children’s films particularly comedies and
particularly if they are already fans of the books. Therefore parents will be taking their
children to see Horrid Henry knowing this and may be interested themselves due to the
famous cast.
In the case of The Three Musketeers, the film is part of a franchise and will have a massive
fan base already established. The action/adventure genre is hugely popular and the
actors are well known. The film had a massive budget of £47 million which equals that of
a mainstream film which also means that advertising would have been high. If we
consider the budget, the film seems much less successful making a huge loss of £43
million and bringing a much lower gross than many mainstream films with similar budgets.
24. Quality of the films
You can see here that these reviews are much more mixed and the
highest critic rating is only 6.8. Although this shows that critics rated 5
of the successful films higher than the top rated film in this category,
we can see that there are some quite positive reviews for several of
these films. However, we can also see that each of these films with
positive comments have something missing from a plausible premise
in the case of Retreat, to not enough impact in the case of Wake
Wood.
I believe this highlights the important of each aspect of the film and
being strong in all of these areas will allow for a much more successful
film.
Saying this, some of these films received higher ratings and more praise
than some of the successful films. Treacle Jr. for example, received
mainly positive reviews and a rating of 6.2 which is equal to the rating
of The Inbetweeners Movie and higher than 4 of the successful films.
This shows that there are other factors which have been explored in
this research which in some cases may be more important and have
more impact of a films success than the quality alone.
25. Reviews and Word of Mouth
Information shown in slides 10 and 11, highlighted the importance of reviews and word of mouth in drawing
in a cinema audience.
As mentioned previously, I asked the question; How do you decide what film to see at the cinema? This
was an open question and 7 of the respondents answered with word of mouth and 6 with reviews
making up the second and third most common answers. The secondary research graph shown on slide
11 also shows word of mouth as the second most common way people hear abut film.
Film reviews are usually available before a film is even released and initial audiences on the opening
weekend may base decisions to see a film on reviews they’ve read. Word of mouth then has a big
impact following the open weekend as many people will trust the opinions of friends and family. Word of
mouth will also reach people who may not have much access to other forms of advertising such as
internet and television. Word of mouth may also encourage people to see a film which didn’t appeal to
them through marketing. In my focus group for example, one respondent said that The Kings Speech
didn’t appeal to her but everyone was talking about it positively and she only watched it for this reason,
but when she did watch it she really enjoyed it.
University Graduate Joel Hewett commented in an article that; ’success is not down to mass marketing, or
down to trips all over the world promoting the film, but simple, old fashioned word of mouth. This is
important in many ways, but mainly as the films success is based upon whether or not those watching it
enjoyed it. This is often not the case with major studio films; the rule of thumb seems to be that if you
attach a major star, you have a major hit. (Source 11)
By looking at all of this information I believe reviews and word of mouth to be a massive factor in a films
success. Saying this, positive word of mouth and reviews will have to be generated due to the films
themselves and qualities that make people talk about them in a positive way.
26. HOW IMPORTANT IS IT FOR THE FILM
TO HAVE KNOWN PEOPLE INVOLVED?
Unsuccessful Films
Big name actors
Known actors
Unknown
As these pie charts show, the successful films have much more known people involved either as director or actors than the
unsuccessful films. Although my questionnaire showed that famous actors and directors were not the most important factors for
a films success, according to the respondents, there will be fans of these actors and directors who will go and see a film for this
reason. A few responses from my survey supports this idea as I gained replies such as ‘…..’.
If we look at these results in more detail, we can see that four of the top 10 films had famous actors with names such as Gary
Oldman, Colin Firth, Channing Tatum and Helena Bonham Carter who have all starred in mainstream films, building up a fan
base through this.
Three of these films also had a known director such as Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In) and Paul W. Anderson (Resident
Evil, Alien VS. Predator). Having these people involved in a film may not only attract fans but may also sway cinemagoers
choices when deciding between several films if they know they will enjoy watching an actor or have enjoyed previous films
from the director.
This is supported by replies given as part of my focus group with comments such as ‘I think it helps if you’re trying to chose
between two films and one of them has people that I know of’ and ‘for me the director heavily weighs whether I see a film or
not because I’m really interested in the way it’s crafted and made.’
We can also see that 5 of the 10 unsuccessful films had known actors such as Thandie Newton, Danny Dyer and Eastenders
actor Ricky Grover. Although these actors are not as well known and some of the previous names, they will still have some sort
of fan base and should help attract some viewers to the films. In my focus group for example, one participant commented that
in 7Lives; ‘Having a name like Danny Dyer makes it more interesting.’ However, the audiences and fans of these actors will
have had to have heard of these films and be interested in seeing them, bringing us back to the importance of advertising.
(Source 12)
27. ARE THERE ANY OTHER FACTORS
WHICH CONTRIBUTE TO A FILMS
PERFORMANCE?
One of the most obvious factors I found during this research project, was the fact that the majority of the
successful films already had an established fan base. Through my content analysis, I found that six of the
top 10 films were adaptations or carry-ons of novels or television shows, one was a sequel to a previous film
and two others were based on real people and real events. Attack the Block was the only film which was
not based on anything already in existence.
To support this research, I carried out some more secondary research into audience figures for these films
origins.
-The Kings Speech has been based on King George VI and real historical events in the King’s life. This will
therefore draw in an audience interested in British history, culture and the royal family. The royal family is
very popular in both the UK and across the world including America which can be seen through the
popularity and press around the Royal wedding which happened only 3 months after the films release.
-The Inbetweeners - this film was a carry on from the E4 comedy series. In its third series, The Inbetweeners
pulled the highest ever audience for an E4 original commission with 2.247 million viewers watching the
opening episode. (Source 13)
-Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – this film originates from a book of the same name, published in In 1974. The year it
was published alone, 154,647 copies were sold. Since then thousands more books have been printed and
sold worldwide. The book was then made into a short television series shown on the BBC and later adapted
into two BBC radio dramatizations in 1988 and 2009. Although I was unable to find official audience
statistics for these, it is fair to say that the story had a large following because of these things. (Source 14)
-Horrid Henry originates from a collection of 21 children's books. The Horrid Henry makers have also made 6
joke books, 13 activity books and a 52 episode television series. The combined sales of all the Horrid Henry
books and audiobooks now stands at over sixteen million copies. (Source 15)
-Jane Eyre – Jane Eyre is a 1847 classic which has been adapted into 16 films, 9 musical versions, 3 radio
versions, 11 television adaptations, 1 graphic novel and 23 pieces of literature ranging from spin offs,
retellings, prequels and sequels. Because of the age of the original book, it is impossible to know the exact
figure of copies sold. However, it can be assumed that this number will be in the millions. The large number
of adaptations clearly shows the massive fan base of this novel. (Source 16)
28. ARE THERE ANY OTHER FACTORS
WHICH CONTRIBUTE TO A FILMS
PERFORMANCE?
- The Three Musketeers is another 1844 classic novel which has been adapted into 40 films, several
musicals , several games, 5 television adaptations , one comic and has influenced many others. (Source
17)
- My Week With Marilyn is based on two books which depict a time in actress, model and singers Marilyn
Monroe’s life. Therefore this film is not only based on books but a real and iconic person with a large fan
base. Marilyn starred in 34 films during the 40’s – 60’s and was not only famous at the time but continues
to be appearing on posters, art work and clothing to this day. (Source 18)
- The Eagle was adapted from the 1954 novel The Eagle of the Ninth. I could not find any sales figures for
this book and I do not believe it was a massive seller. However, the film is not only based on a book but is
also based on the Romans and set in 140 AD. The Roman period and films with this historical basis, have
their own fan bases. (Source 19)
- West is West is a sequel to the film East is East. East is East made £36.2 million in cinema and a further
£12.3 million on rentals in the UK. These figures show that West is West will already have an established
fan base brought in by the prequel. (Source 20)
- Attack the Block is the only of these 10 films which has an original idea and script.
Out of the 10 unsuccessful films, only one of these was based on something already in existence. Big Fat
Gypsy Gangster takes its basis from Ricky Grover’s television character Bulla from The 11 O'Clock Show.
The 11 O’clock show however, was considered to have failed ratings averaging around 400,000 views
and a low 2.4% audience share from 10:30pm. Because of the nature of the show, this would not have
guaranteed a fan base for this character as he only plays a small part of the show which already has a
small audience. (Source 21)
This point was also picked up in my focus group with one of the respondents commenting on the fact that
the three successful films I presented to them were based on something and have therefore ‘already
got their foot in the door’ and ‘they’ve already got fans’.
29. ARE THERE ANY OTHER FACTORS
WHICH CONTRIBUTE TO A FILMS
PERFORMANCE?
The ‘high concept film’
The idea of the high concept film refers to films with a simple, understandable plot, a strong
match between image and music, simplified characters, high production value e.g.
strong special effects and parts which can be easily transferred into other platforms such
as soundtrack or a montage of images to be used elsewhere. This type of film should
appeal to a mass audience and most mainstream or popular films will follow this format.
For independent films, this idea could be extremely important. As independent British films
have less overall appeal to audiences, the high concept will help draw in an initial
audience particularly if they appear similar to mainstream films. Audiences may feel that
due to their low budget and lack of large production support, independent British films
will be unable to pull off complicated storylines. This was shown in my focus group. When
presenting, unsuccessful film 7Lives, one of the participants commented that ‘the more
unrealistic the storyline, the more people won’t become interested’.
I found this idea from the following website which explored how films such as Titanic
followed this idea and became a massive success in the box office.
http://www.medienabc.org/page32/files/page32_6.pdf
I believe this article particularly highlights the importance again of plot, storyline and
character suggesting that simplicity is the best way to go. If we look at the 20 different
films I feel that the 10 successful follow this ‘high concept film’ idea much more than the
other 10. (Source 22)
30. ARE THERE ANY OTHER FACTORS
WHICH CONTRIBUTE TO A FILMS
PERFORMANCE?
Genre
By looking at the genres of each film, I found there was a fair bit
of variety in the types of films found in both categories.
However, I found that in the most successful films, drama was
the most common genre followed by comedy. According to
the following graph, created by ddunlop with figures from The
Numbers (official box office figures), comedy is the most
watched film genre followed by action and adventure.
Drama and thriller account for a small amount of films
watched and horror and documentary along with others,
make up a very small percentage of films watched. These
statistics suggest that at least six of the top 10 films fit into 72%
of the genres of films watched, and only 1 unsuccessful film fits
the category.
(Source 23)
31. ARE THERE ANY OTHER FACTORS
WHICH CONTRIBUTE TO A FILMS
PERFORMANCE?
Genre
There is a much larger amount of thrillers and horrors in the unsuccessful film
category. These genres only amount to 11% of films genres watched by
audiences. This is already a low statistic and if we look at this in relation to the
types of films we are researching; British Independent, this factor may be even
more of a contributing factor to the films failure. Thriller and horror films tend to
rely quite heavily on special effects and production value and it could be
argued that independent films will be less able to meet audience standards
when making a thriller or horror. This was again picked up during the focus
group where one respondent commented that they would ‘only watch a thriller
or horror if it was a big Hollywood film otherwise it’s just unrealistic and looks
budget’.
Although this is only one opinion, it can be assumed that many others will feel this
way and will only go and see a thriller or horror if it is well executed and a large
budget or experienced production team may be the only way to do this.
We can also see that the majority of the top films fit into the drama genre. This
could be due to the drama genre being much more versatile and having the
ability to be made on a lower budget due to the reliance on narrative and
characters opposed to special effects. But again only assumptions and ideas
can be made with this information rather than hard facts.
32. ARE THERE ANY OTHER FACTORS
WHICH CONTRIBUTE TO A FILMS
PERFORMANCE?
Awards
Although the questionnaire showed that having awards wasn’t particularly
important in the decision process of what film to see, I found that
almost all of the successful films had a number of awards and therefore
this would be important to look at in more detail. From this table we
can see that 4 of the 10 films were nominated for Oscars with The
King’s Speech winning 4 and Attack the Block being holding 1 BAFTA
nomination. There was a total of 124 awards given between the 10
films and 216 nominations.
Results from my questionnaire, showed at the beginning of this
presentation, found that awards was the 7th least contributing factor
when deciding to see a film. However, there were some people who
rated this factor between 1st and 5th most important and one focus
group recipient commented that he wanted to see The King’s Speech
‘because it had won so many awards.’
I believe that awards had a large impact of The King’s Speech particularly
as the large number of awards won and the achievement of winning 4
Oscars, really heightened the amount of publicity and word of mouth
surrounding it even before its release. The Oscar nominations were also
used as part of the marketing, being displayed on posters as part of
the films USP.
This is a massive contrast to the 2 nominations and 2 wins within the
unsuccessful film category. Although I believe that awards will have
some effect on the films success by drawing in an audience and
raising publicity, I feel that the number of awards are more of a
comment on the quality of the films. (Source 24)
33. ARE THERE ANY OTHER FACTORS
WHICH CONTRIBUTE TO A FILMS
PERFORMANCE?
Target Audience/Age Rating
Target audience will also be a contributing factor to a films success if
they are able to appeal to and target the largest cinema audience
groups. According to ‘The Role of the Distributor’ educational DVD, 18 –
24 year olds and families are the two groups which make up most of
cinema audiences. (Source 25) As you can see in this table, the majority
of top films fit into one of these two categories.
There are also many unsuccessful films which fit into the 18 – 24 age
category yet to be really successful, the film will need to appeal to other
audiences as well as its main target audience.
The King’s Speech for example, had a target audience of over 35’s
originally. However, the large amount of press surrounding the film drew
in a much wider audience with people going to see it from all age groups
and enjoying it.
7 of the unsuccessful films have an age rating of 15 and two have an age
rating of 18. This immediately cuts off under 15s from seeing these films
as well as families with children under this age. Even families with
children over 15 or 18 are more unlikely to watch one of these films due
to the content they are likely to contain. This means that one of the
largest groups of cinemagoers is cut out immediately and this will result
in a decrease in possible box office sales.
Although the successful films also contain a large amount of 15s, there
are no 18s in this category and an equal amount of 12A’s, and PGs,
offering a much wider cinema audience. (Source 26)
34. ARE THERE ANY OTHER FACTORS
WHICH CONTRIBUTE TO A FILMS
PERFORMANCE?
Other Factors
Release date
Release date is another factor I looked at as part of my content analysis. However, I found
that the release dates of all 20 films differed throughout the year and there was no
distinction at all between the two categories. On the other hand, an article I read by
NME journalist Owen Nicholls on the success of The Inbetweeners Movie, (source 27) used
its release date as a factor for its huge box office success. The Inbetweeners Movie was
released in August, the beginning of Summer Holidays, opening on an Orange
Wednesday on the week of A-Level results where students may be celebrating possibly
by going to the cinema, and parents may be awarding their children financially.
Because of its teen and young adult target audience, this could have had an impact as
the film relied largely on this one target audience grouping. Saying this, there is no clear
way to distinguish whether or not this did have an effect on the films success and this
idea can only be implied rather than proven without talking to the audience members
directly.
Film name
During my focus group, I found that the film’s name could put off possible audience
members. When I presented the idea for the film Treacle Jr. a couple of the recipients
said that they would not go and see it simply because of the name commenting that
‘they would not be taken seriously’ if they said they were going to watch a film called
Treacle Jr. The name is generally the first thing someone hears or sees and having an
appealing and memorable name may help during the decision process when going to
the cinema. However, I did not find that this was a massive deciding factor or had much
35. Conclusion
During this research project, I have found that there are many factors which contribute to a British Independent film’s success.
The most successful films will have a combination of these factors although I also found that if one or two factors was
particularly strong, a film can become successful based on these alone.
I also found that a lot of the factors which I have explored are linked, and one factor will lead on to the next.
From this research I believe that the following factors will contribute to a films success;
- Plot
- Budget
- Marketing and distribution
- Acting
- Actors & director
- Genre
- Target Audience
- ‘High concept’
- Franchise/established fan base
- Quality
- Reviews
- Positive word of mouth
I believe these to be the most important factors. In some cases the following will also have an impact;
- Awards
- Age rating
- Release date
- Film name
If we look at the most successful film, The King’s Speech, which made £36.18 million making it the highest grossing British
Independent film of all time we can see that the film has all of these factors. The film had a strong plot, a fairly decent
budget, strong marketing and distribution, highly praised acting, well known actors, a versatile genre, appeal to a massive
audience, followed the idea of high concept film, had historical basis, received excellent reviews and generated a large
amount of positive word of mouth. The film then won a high amount of awards including four Oscars and had an age rating
of 12A making it available to a wide audience. The film also had a worldwide appeal due to its basis on the royal family
which is a popular subject in many countries across the world.
This film was a massive success due to the fact that it had all of these factor working for it. However, several of the successful films
did not meet all of these factors. The Eagle for example, did not have a particularly strong plot, the acting was not
particularly praised, the reviews and word of mouth were average and in some cases quite mixed and it won no awards. On
the other hand, the film had the second highest budget of the 10, well known actors and a fairly well known director were
attached to the film, the genre is largely popular, the target audience was large and the films subject matter, historical basis
and novel basis, will have appealed to an already existing fan base of not only the book but also of films based on the
Roman period. The film was also highly praised for its visual style and techniques. I believe that this shows that having some of
the most important factors can still make a film successful.
36. Conclusion
If we then look at a couple of the unsuccessful films in more detail we can see
that 7Lives for example, had a complicated storyline, a very low budget, little
marketing and distribution, an only slightly known cast, a less popular genre,
no established fan base, an unknown director and poor reviews with little
word of mouth. The only positives about this film was the quality of acting
which alone is not enough to make the film a success.
Treacle Jr. however, received a lot of praise for acting and storyline winning two
awards and rating an average 6.2 with critics. Despite this, the film was not a
success showing that these factors alone are not enough. The film again had
a low budget, an unknown director and cast, little marketing and distribution,
no established fan base and did not target the largest cinema demographic
audience.
Therefore, making a successful independent film is all about getting the right
combination of factors. However, if it was that easy to establish which of these
factors are most important or how to reach these factors, then more people
would be making successful British films like The King’s Speech. Filmmaker Ken
Loach (Wind that Shakes the Barley) quotes ‘If everybody knew what would
be successful before it was made, there would be no problem’.
37. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Source 1 - Top 20 Independent UK Films 2011 (out of 169 independent films) By the BFI
http://www.bfi.org.uk/filmtvinfo/stats/UK_box_office_2011.pdf
Source 2 – Box office figures of all films made in 2011 in order of gross. By Box Office Mojo
http://boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?page=6&view=releasedate&view2=domestic&yr=2011&p=.htm
Source 3 – Graphs showing how people hear about film
http://www.filmjournal.com/filmjournal/content_display/news-and-features/features/cinemas/e3ie3cb96740c26f800a294d7506ba771da
Source 4 – Graph showing the positive correlation between advertising costs and box office gross
Advertising Effectiveness in UK Film Distribution - A report for the UK Film Council
Source 5 – Budgets for all 20 films
www.boxofficemojo.com
Source 6 – Distribution companies for each film
http://www.imdb.co.uk/
Source 7 – Charlie Brooker quote
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/15/charlie-brooker-british-film
Source 8 – Percentage of film critics who liked each film
•http://www.rottentomatoes.com/
38. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Source 9 – Critic ratings for 20 films
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/
Source 10 – Quotes from reviews
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/film+tone/reviews
Source 11 – Quote from an article by university student Joel Hewwit
http://www.graduatetimes.com/gt2/2011/06/23/independent-cinema/
23rd June 2011
Source 12 – Names of actors/directors in each film
http://www.imdb.co.uk/
Source 13 – Inbetweeners TV show figures
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/sep/14/inbetweeners-e4-tv-ratings
Source 14 – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy book figures
http://people.lis.illinois.edu/~unsworth/courses/entc312/s99/search.cgi?title=Tinker,+Tailor,+Soldier,+Spy
Source 15 – Horrid Henry figures
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horrid_Henry
Source 16 – Jane Eyre figures
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Eyre
39. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Source 17 – Three Musketeers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Musketeers
Source 18 – Marilyn Monroe facts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Week_with_Marilyn
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Monroe
Source 19 – The Eagle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eagle_(2011_film)
Source 20 – East is East figures
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166175/business
Source 21 – Big Fat Gypsy Gangster
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/28/ten-oclock-live-ratings
Source 22 – Article on high concept film
http://www.medienabc.org/page32/files/page32_6.pdf
Source 23 – Graph showing popular film genres
http://ddunlop.com/2008/12/recapping-2008-most-popular-movie-genre/
December 31, 2008
40. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Source 24 – Film Awards
http://uk.imdb.com/
Source 25 – Largest cinema demographics
The Role of the Distributor DVD
Source 26 – Age ratings
http://uk.imdb.com/
Source 27 – Article on success of Inbetweeners
http://www.nme.com/blog/index.php?blog=131&title=why_has_the_inbetweeners_movie_been_so_s&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
Source 28 – Ken Loach quote on Independent film
http://www.periscopepost.com/2012/01/david-cameron-plans-to-make-british-film-industry-more-lucrative-by-only-funding-blockbusters/
Source 29 – Distribution costs figure
‘The Role of the Distributor’ DVD