The Rise and Fall of British Cinema

Statistics over the last 100 years, as the BBC state, indicate that the popularity of British cinema has not been consistent.

* All-time high - 1945: 1585 million cinemagoers
* All-time low - 1984: 54 million cinemagoers
* Improving? 2000: 1420 million cinemagoers

Starting off in the 1940s, during World War 2, Britain's film industry took off and was very successful- even more so than Hollywood. This is because war films became very popular, and the British public were more eager to watch British films due to the fact that they were more patriotic. A number of key figures in British cinema such as Michael Powell, David Lean, Thorold Dickinson and Carol Reed, also exploded onto the scene during the war. 

In the 1950s in Britain, Carry On films (comedy) became specifically popular along with Alfred Hitchcock. During the 1950s and early 60s Films had to learn to be more exportable and welcome to foreign audiences. Many achieved both of these criteria among them works by David Lean and Carol Reed. International co-production began to be a feature of the industry. Big-budget pictures aimed at the international market and not just the British audience became the norm. Films such as Mogambo (1953), Bhowani Junction (1956), Moby Dick (1956), and The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) mixed British and American themes and stars. 

During the 1960s, British actors were able to benefit from the co-productions and find success in the US included Jack Hawkins, Keneth More, Richard Todd, Laurence Harvey, Richard Burton and Peter Finch.In 1960 the decline in British cinema continued, but also brought around the first James Bond film. During the beginning of the decade Britain were producing mainly gritty realism films. The reason the decline has slowed down since the past decade was because of the commercial success of James Bond, plus actors and actresses were aplenty and in much demand. Four of the decade's Academy Award winners for best picture were British productions, and there had also been a boom of horror movies created. In the US they'd been suffering through the Vietnam War and Rights Protests, but also produced films such as The Sound of Music, and Hitchcock had begun directing films over there.

The 70s are considered as one of the most dismal decades for British film. Hollywood dominance was paramount and American studios seemed disinterested in financing UK movies. But there were some highlights: David Puttnam, Derek Jarman and Ken Russell all emerged in the decade. British film highlights included Straw Dogs, Get Carter and The Long Good Friday. Computers were also invented during this decade, and TV's became very important for the distribution of films due to adverts. The 1970s also saw the beginning of the Star Wars series directed by George Lucas- science fiction films were gradually more popular due to steadily improving technology for special effects. The 1970s also saw the creation of Jaws in the US, which even today is still widely watched. For the UK Railway Children was created. With the film industry in both Britain and the United States entering into recession, American studios cut back on domestic production, and in many cases withdrew from financing British films altogether. Major films were still being made at this time, including Anne of the Thousand Days (1969), Battle of Britain (1969), and David Lean's Ryan's Daughter (1970), but as the decade wore on financing became increasingly hard to come by.

The 1980s saw the biggest downfall of British cinema, and in the first year only 31 UK films were made, down 50% on the previous year, and the lowest output since 1914. Critics site the main reason for Britain's failure to compete with the USA is a lack of investment in the industry, especially  when the USA began making high budget films that embraced expensive new technology and special effects. The 1980s for Hollywood include E.T and two more in the Star Wars franchise. This decade also started the downward trend in self financing British movies – the Americans began to take over and really never looked back. When movies were made in Britain they were either American financed or had American directors / producers. This was in part because the market potential in Britain is too small to produce a profit return on anything more than the most modestly budgeted production.

During the 90s decade, Hollywood produced some extraordinarily well known films such as Titanic which made $658,000,000 and is, to this day, still the highest grossing movie of all time. It was directed by James Cameron, who was also the director of Avatar (the second highest grossing film of all time, which was released in 2009). Trainspotting came out in the UK and grossed around $48,000,000 (which was nothing compared to Hollywood). Critics also felt that the standard of cinemas themselves were partly to blame for the lack of box office revenue in the UK at this time because once multiplex cinemas became common place in the 1990s more people, as the statistics above show, went to the cinema thus supporting the argument that multiplex cinemas rejuvenated the industry - 1997 was a high point in the industry as admissions were the highest they had been for 22 years! Another reason why British films suddenly became more lucrative in the 1990s could be because finance was sought from American production/distribution companies. While shot in Britain with British stars and production crew, the finances for such movies were often American. Hugh Grant, star of Notting Hill and Four Weddings, established himself as one of the few British stars with international appeal. British cinema had a strong decade at the Oscars - nine films received best picture nominations in seven years, among them The Full Monty, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Secrets and Lies and The Crying Game.

The 2000's looked promising for the UK. They had the rights to Harry Potter and although Warner Bros. (an American company) helped produce it, the cast and crew were mainly British due to J.K. Rowling's commands. For Hollywood, the 2000's was a set back because their writers went on strike. This gave Britain an advantage to catch up with some James Bond films and also good comedy films (a popular genre for Britain, mainly due to lower budgets), such as Shaun of the Dead. Hollywood produced Avatar which had a box office of $2.8 billion, and one of the biggest reasons for this was because it was the first large film to go 3D.

From 2010 to the present day, Superhero films have been dominating the film industry. American companies such as DC and Marvel have been producing many high budget (and high grossing) superhero films each year.