Boss Of UK Cinema Org Says Lack Of Quality Local Content Is Biggest Challenge In Getting People Back To Theaters
deadline.comThe boss of the UK Cinema Association (UKCA) has said that British cinemagoers are not being fed enough quality local movies to get them back to movie theaters with the frequency of the pre-Covid era.
According to Phil Clapp, most pre-Covid cinemagoers are now happy to check out movies at their local theater from time to time, but frequency is the issue.
If an average person was going to the cinema six times per year before the pandemic, Clapp floated the notion that they would now be going three to four times.
He placed the blame on a lack of quality local fare amidst a tough time for indie cinema. “This is because there is nothing we’re putting in front of [cinemagoers] that encourages them to get out,” Clapp told the opening day of the British Film and High-End Television inquiry. “There are cost of living issues within that and people have less money to spend but primarily when we do surveys people are saying ‘there was nothing on in my local cinema that I wanted to see’.” In 2015, 33 British indie films made £1M ($1.27M)-plus at the box office but this figure declined sharply to just 11 last year, according to additional figures quoted by Clapp.
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