No abstract

No abstract

European films accounted for 17.4% of UK cinema releases in the period 2002-14, but only 1.8% of the gross box office. Drawing on box office data, audience surveys and interviews with industry players, this article argues that European films generally perform badly in the UK box office because they suffer from a heavy 'cultural discount' and structural weaknesses at the level of production and distribution. Those European films which do 'breakout' are either English-language films with qualities designed to appeal to a mainstream British audience (e.g. stars and special effects) or foreign language films with cultural elements (e.g. well-known story, director, genre, subject matter or source material) which many British cinemagoers are already familiar with. Breakout European films are also mainly released by Hollywood studios or major independent distributors. These findings provide insights into academic and policy debates about the transnational circulation of film and other media products. Meanwhile, the UK has seen an unprecedented growth in the popularity of European television dramas in recent years. Scandinavian crime series such as The Killing and The Bridge have become regular fixtures on BBC Four's Saturday night schedule, frequently pulling in over 1 million viewers. On Channel 4, 1.9 million watched the French-language supernatural thriller The Returned in June 2013, while over 2 million saw the German-language spy drama Deutschland '83 in January 2016, a record for a foreign-language television series. Even the commercial satellite station Sky is getting in on the action with The Tunnel, an Anglo-French remake of The Bridge, and the Danish family drama, The Legacy.

As research on transnational cinema makes clear, films do not easily coincide with national borders, but 'link people or institutions across nations' (Ezra and Rowden 2006, 1). While Britain's strongest transnational links are with the US, it has also developed production partnerships with its European neighbours. Each year, British film companies lead-produce about fifteen co-productions with other Europeans. But why do British filmmakers work with European partners, and what are the implications of these partnerships for their film's cultural identity and its box office performance? Through analysing a sample of recent UK/European co-productions, this article suggest most British film companies work with other Europeans for financial rather than creative reasons. At the same time, UK/European co-productions are more 'culturally European' than other categories of British film (i.e. domestic and inward investment features). While this does not necessarily boost their popularity with European audiences, the bigger budgets and better distribution links which co-production enables means UK/European co-productions on average perform better in Europe than UK domestic features. Co-production is therefore a useful strategy for getting British films made and circulated within Europe, though this strategy is also thwarted by a UK film policy orientated towards attracting higher value US inward investment features.

No abstract