By Caitlin Baker｜@caitlinbakerjourno
20/12/23｜Photos by Tima Miroshnichenko | Annie Spratt | PixaBay
We've all witnessed that cinema has been subject to a steady decline over the past decade, but is it dying? And if so then who's to blame?
As an avid cinema enthusiast it doesn't bring me pleasure to admit that cinema is dying. It fills me with annoyance if anything, I find cinema to be an escape from everyday life. The cinema is able to transport you to a world that isn't yours for an hour or two, to me that feels quite surreal. Yet we find ourselves in an age where cinema is at its greatest decline, 'around 45% of the UK’s independent cinemas will be operating at a loss by the end of the 2023/24 financial year according to a survey by the Independent Cinema Office (ICO).'
Why is this? Who's to blame?
There's quite a few factors in all honesty.
Let's start with the only reason to go the cinema, the films. As of late, the films provided in the cinema have not been of a great standard. I could name a few I found highly fascinating and would watch again, very little that were ok, and a lot that weren't satisfactory. Without delving too much into the films themselves, as this isn't a film review, the quality of films from big production companies such as Marvel are lacking the entertainment aspect they once did. Their latest film 'The Marvels' has a new feel to it, and not a good one. It was bearable but it's almost like film companies are loosing their spark and just produce movies for the sake of it because they know with their name attached to it people will go and watch.
The second factor coming into place is the price. Truly is there anyone to blame for this other than cinema chains themselves? First of all, the price of the ticket itself. In the United Kingdom as of 2022 the cost, on average, is £7.69. As of 2018, '26.4 percent of cinema-goers in the United Kingdom were aged between 15 and 24'. The current minimum wage for 16-17 year olds is £6.40, for 18-20 year olds is £8.60, and for 21 and over is £11.44. This means for 16-17 year olds not even one hour at work will cover the price of a cinema ticket, and for people aged 18 and over their hourly wage barely covers it.
How do you expect people to come to the cinema in a cost of living crisis when the tickets cost almost an hour of someone's shift?
Not to mention the extortionate prices of the refreshments at the cinema.
let's take a look at Cineworld and Odeon, Cineworld is 'the largest cinema exhibitor chain in the UK and Ireland based on box office. In 2019, the revenue of the company amounted to nearly 312 million British pounds. Second came Odeon,
Comments