The British film industry has been greatly dominated by Hollywood over the last 100 years. This is caused by the struggles that the British film industry had to overcome over the last years. Only recently the British film industry started to regain their strength and competing in the market; something that has not been seen since the 1960’s where the Bond franchise has been released, one of the most successful British franchises to this day, however since then not many good British films were released until the late 90’s where Trainspotting was released and the 20th and 21st Centuary where Harry Potter was also released and smashed the box office, and was one of the most successful British films that ever competed with Hollywood. However, this still wasn’t enough to even cause a slight threat for Hollywood’s dominance over the film industry. There are multiple factors that explain this strangle hold on the market, these include money and prestige, which are most likely the main reasons for this. In other words, Hollywood has been successful for such a long time that they now have more than enough money for production, distribution and exhibition. With this money comes the opportunity for the best actors, writers, directors, editors and cinematographers, who are attracted to the fact that ‘since it’s a Hollywood production’ the film will be superior looking compared to the competition. In 2009, Hollywood introduced a real game changer by releasing Avatar which caused most if not all cinemas had to go digital which subsequently brought the costs down, alongside other technological advances Hollywood still keeps the 1st place on the podium, however this also gave the opportunity for countires like Britain to release films with a lower budget and lower costs and compete with Hollywood films in some sense.
In this Essay I will be comparing and contrasting two films, the British Sci-Fi film 'Attack the Block' and the Hollywood Sci-Fi 'Transformers: Dark of the moon' and how the global institutions impacted the production cycles of these two movies, which show the difference in the Hollywood conglomerates and the British film companies.
Transfomers Dark of the Moon was filmed in multiple locations throughout the U.S, these included Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta and even Cambodia and Russia. The production had a budget of $195 million that was spent on costumes, cast, crew locations, CGI and sets. The film was directed by Micheal Bay, the initial filming started on May 18th, 2010 and took roughly 10 weeks to complete using Arri Allexa equipment and Sony F35 cameras. In september 2010, the filming was delayed as as a metal cable snapped from a car and seriously injured an extras skull. The principle cast members consisted of actors such as Shia LaBeouf, Tyrese Gibson, John Duhamel and Josh Turturro. The person in charge of cinematography was Amir Mokri and Producers included Don Murphy and Tom DeSanto. As transformers is a Sci-Fi, CGI and special effects played one of the biggest roles, and that's what most likely the majority of the budget was spent for. This is where Hollywood productions stand at an advantage, clearly the bigger the budget the better the effects and overall quality of the film, in comparison to same genre films with a significantly smaller budget, in this case Attack the Block. This attracts a much larger audience, around the world, as the film is more appealing due to the higher quality and standard of the film.
Attack the Block has been filmed across numerous Council Estates in London. The film was Directed by Joe Cornish with a budget of £8 million. The initial filming took place on the 4th of April 2011, and took roughly 6 weeks to complete. Nira Park and James Wilson held the producers role and Jonathan Amos was the Editor. The principle cast members included John Boyega, Jodie Whittaker and Nick Frost.
Transformers: Dark of the Moon was distributed by Paramount pictures in 2011, one of the biggest and leading conglomerates in America and smashed the box office with the astonishing $1.124 billion being the second highest grossing film of 2011. Transformers used some vertical integration as the Transformers franchise source material is owned by Hasbro, the third largest toy maker worldwide, the characters from the film returned for the new toyline which was released on May 16, 2011. This promoted the film, as the toys appealed to many younger people that were attracted by the mini figures and toys and wanted to go and see the film. In 2010, behind the scenes of filming were previewed by the American entertainment show, Entertainment Tonight which made the audience aware that a new transformers film was in production, and left this 'hype', 'buzz' sensation about the film. This is an example of cross media convergence. A two minute teaser-trailer was first announced in November and posted on the internet on November 27th. The first full theatrical trailer was released on April 28, 2011. The very first clip was released on May 18. A second clip was released the next day on May 19. The North American promotional costs came to approximately $75 million, which in comparison to the usual marketing budget in Britain, is a huge amount.
Attack the Block has been distributed across the UK by Big Talk Pictures and StudioCanal mostly, and had a budget of £8 million and a box office of £4.1 million. British films such as this tend to find a Hollywood (U.S) distributor, as this will give the movie a priority in cinemas alongside the Hollywood films. Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions acquired the rights to the film and opened this film in limited theatrical release in the United States, this means that a new film is plays in a select few theaters across the country, typically in major metropolitan markets. This is due to the fact that the American Audience may not understand the slang, or the strong London accent. The film was released on DVD and Blu-Ray in Britain on the 19th September 2011 and in the United States on the 25th October.
The big difference between these 2 movies, is the fact that the Hollywood production is in fact a sequel, whereas the British production i a stand alone film. This means that the Hollywood Transformers film is much easier to promote, as most audience are already 'hooked-up' on the first film meaning that they will want to watch the sequel, and that probably significantly reduces distribution costs. In comparison to the British production, Attack the block is at an disadvantage here, as a stand alone film meaning that a lot more time and effort and of course money had to go in promotion and distribution. The fact that Attack the block has only been released in the UK and at limited theatres in the U.S makes the film stand at a disadvantage with Transformers, as this franchise has been released worldwide. This subjects the movie to a higher gross profit and a larger box office collection across the world. In the long term, Transformers Dark of the moon wins this showdown with ease, as clearly with the facts stated they were more dominant in comparison to Attack the Block.
Overall, Hollywood remains the leading superpower and dominates over the British film industry, as they have bigger opportunities coming from the money and prestige. I think that it is primarily due to the fact that Hollywood has more than enough money for good production, distribution and exhibition. I predict that during the next few years Britain's film industry will continuously rise, however this won't be enough to be a direct threat to Hollywood, as at this point Hollywood is too ahead in terms of profits compared to British film distribution; these days money means everything.
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