What's on at your local cinema?

FILMS Cor MALES FILMS Cor WOMEN •

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Use these tables and describe the characteristics ofthose films that appea! predominandyto a male audienee?

What characterizes thefilms that appeal predominantly to afemale audience?

Use you own experience to suggestfdms that you have been to that appeal to boith malesand/emoles.

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• What's on at your local cinema?

AUDIENCE

The audience for film reached its peak in the late 1940. after the second world with annualattendance's reaching a figure of 1.630m.illion. 'This suggests that cinema going was a weekJyactivity for almost all of the population of Britain. This was of COUISe before lV was widelyavailable, and reflects a tendency for out ofhome entenainment ( the attendance's at footballmatches were much higher than they are today). There was a sharp decline until the mid1980s when the annual attendance was S4 million There has been an increase since then witha steady rise until in 2002 the figure rose to 177 million. Although this is much lower than thefigure for 1948, given the availability of films on lV, broadcast and pay channels, video andDVD to rent or hire. it is likely that we view more films than people did in the 405

There is also considerable variation in the level of attendance at the cinema. Around 30% ofthe population never go to the cinema and this rises to nearly half of the over 45s. A quarterof the population goes at least once a month and this is again much more common among theyounger end of the population. Within this there is a sub-group referred to as Al'ids. They goonce a week, and buy 40% of all tickets sold. They usually want to see films as soon as theyare released, read film magazines and use the Internet to get information on films long beforethey are released. They are important to the success of films, not only by going, but becausethey pass 00 "word of mouth" about films. They are estimated to comprise about 1% of thepopulation.

Cinemagoers are a match with the gender mix ofthe population - 490.10 male, 51% female.However they are generally more likely to be in non-manual occupations (professionals,managers or office workers) than in manual work 66% of film-goers are in Social ClassesABCI (non-manual) as against 49010 ofthe general population. They are also more likely toyoung 36% are between 15-24 as against 15% oftbe general population. 61% of cinema­goers are young adults 15-35. However although young adults are a core audience andprobably comprise most of the Avids it is important not to think ofthem as the only filmaudience (a mistake often made by the film industry). The audience for The Lord of the Ringsfor instance shows not only a large number of childreo,'but also a significant proportion ofover 50s, who probably read the book when it was first popular in the 196Os.

The statistics above give a good general picture of cinema going. with a minority of youngpeople going on a regular basis but a wider range of the population going to the cinema as an"eveof'. However the pattern for individual films or types of films is much more varied thanthese figmes suggest.

How does yourfilm going, and those ofyour friends andfamily, relate to these figures?

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