Essay Plan- What factors led to the decline of town or city centre cinemas in the late 1970's and early 1980's.

What factors led to the decline of town or city centre cinemas in the late 1970's and early 1980's?

Introduction- The factors that led to the decline of town and city cinemas can be attributed to three significent contexts
social- films evolved into blockbusters and turned into social events for people to go to, making the multiplexes situated in shopping centres superior to town and city centres cinema.

economically,merchandise and marketing made films in a multiplex more commercially viable because they are located in shopping centres.

technological- movie-goers preferred spectacle over substance which means that audience relied on better cinemas, rather than flea pit cinemas for an overall better experience.

These 3 factors affected the production, distribution and exhibition of films which led to the decline of town and city centre cinema.

Production-
Point 1- Social-  Films like star wars created the movie stereotype of 'style over substance'. This was a over reliance on special effects and technological advances disregarding plot, which appealed to a teenage audience who wanted to see these films in the best possible conditions, in expensive new multiplexes surrounded by shopping centres. These films turned into days out for people. There was not the same appeal for town or city centre cinema who lacked these appeals.

point 2- economically- The film industry, particularly ILM (industrial light and magic) created these expensive films and technology in order to attract this age group. The more they spent on their films, and the special effects, they knew they would get their money back. This created the blockbuster formula. Also, they spent money on multiplexes to have the best possible viewing experience. Flea-pit cinemas did not have this viewing experience that multiplexes did and they suffered financially because of it due to a lack of cinema attendance.

point 3- technological - Due to advances in technology, the hollywood film industry produced films like Star Wars which used lots of special effects. This inspired films like E.T  and created an social appeal for audiences to come and see the new special effects. This social appeal was important because other technological advances like VHS had emerged, leading to films being pirated. In fact, E.T was one of the first highly pirated films. This technological advances in terms of viewing experience led to multiplexes being superior than flea pit cinemas which couldn't offer the same viewing experience.

Distribution
Point 1- social - cinema attendance was plummeting. the film industry needed something to raise cinema attendence. They attempted to do this by marketing and building franchises to make their money back on films that cost a lot in production. This attempt at marketing meant that films were now being released in multiplexes in shopping centres to make it easier for people to buy the merchandise. This had an effect on flea pit cinema which didn't have accessibility for people to buy the merchandise. This led to its decline.

Point 2- economic- The UK was in recession, people could not go to the cinema since they did not have money, three day week. People had tv in homes and VCR. The cinema experience was pointless because they could sit at home and watch films at home. The three day week affected flea pit cinemas because there was not enough energy to power the projectors which meant that not only were cinema attendence dropping, the amount of films shown were decreased.

Point 3- technological- The emergence of VCR's and VHS as new technology meant the cinema lacked an appeal that the flea pit cinemas had. People had an alternative to going to the cinema which they didnt have before. Viewing films at home also was the fashion of the time and it turned into a social event. This affected the flea-pit cinemas who lost its status as a social event due to the rise of the VCR and later on , the multiplex.

Exhibition

Point 1- Social- Cinema attendence improved when the blockbuster Star wars was released. Star wars was heavily hyped and marketed, with lots of merchandise released around this time. It also contained lots of visual effects in the film. This attracted an cinema audience of mainly children and teenagers who had money to spend, regardless of the economic crisis at the time. This demographic was highly influenced by the hype and attraction of multiplexes and the easiness of accessibility to buy merchandise. This affected flea pit cinemas in that they were ignored by the children and teenagers in order to go to multiplexes and to spend their money on not only the film, but on merchandise.

Point 2- Economic- Because of the children and teenagers going to see Star wars, the film was a economic success and generated a lot of money for the hollywood film industry in not only the box office and merchandise sales as well. This prompted the hollywood film industry to introduce more and more multiplexes in England, in order to make more money by showing Blockbusters. This affected town or city centre cinemas because the creation of more and more multiplexes meant they became less and less popular and lost money because of this.

Point 3- technological-the emergence of technological advances in films like special effects in Star wars drew in larger audiences. These large audiences would have attended multiplexes since they were designed to hold a larger capacity of people rather than flea pit cinemas which were small by comparison. Also the cinematic experience was better in multiplexes with better projectors and sound system which the flea pit cinemas lacked putting it at a disadvantage.





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