Film Industry Research

To what extent does Hollywood dominate the UK film landscape? How has it managed to maintain such a stranglehold?

It can easily be said that Hollywood dominates the UK films scene. One is able to deduct this from statistics or even by standing in a cinema lobby.

The majority of films shown in British cinemas will be American Productions, and even if the film is shot and directed in England, by an English crew and funded by a British studio, it seems more and more likely that said studio would be owned by an American company.

Out of the 15 top grossing films in the UK currently, at least two thirds of the companies distributing them are American owned. The top 3 on this list alone are distributed by American owned companies.

A cause for high attendance and attraction to Hollywood Blockbusters is the fact that films produced in Hollywood tend to have larger budgets, allowing them high production values on sound and visuals, computer generated images and more widely known actors. The casting of a ‘big name’ actor alone can bring in large audiences.

Hollywood producers are effective in playing on what the audience is attracted to at the time by focusing on trends. As well as this, if a independent UK company is generating a large amount of attention then an American company will simply buy out its owners and absorb the smaller company. This is one of the reasons why Hollywood does not come under a lot of competition.