Independent CinemasBy James Coy and John Tye

Independent cinemas attract certain audiences. This is because they tend to show art house films and independent film aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience so is more experimental. An art film is often "intended to be a serious artistic work, often experimental and not designed for mass appeal”. Independent cinemas are there to almost balance out the film industry so that mainstream-hollywood-made movies do not take over the entire industry.

The attraction of an independent cinema

Cinema city is a independent cinema in Norwich under the ownership of cineworld.Although cinema city is a cinema, it doesn’t show just films, it also screens theatre pieces, operas and Q&A sessions from time to time. Unlike conventional Multiplex cinemas like Vue and Odeon, Cinema City rarely screens Hollywood blockbuster films. This is simply because Cinema City is an “Art house” cinema, meaning that they show Art films made by relatively unknown and small time production teams and directors. Films like Anna Karenina were also shown there.

Cinema City

Here are a few statistics from the ICO (independent cinema office):

● Programming - From 2003 to 2013 the ICO has programmed 27,439 films, to audiences of over 8.8 million people, grossing £36 million at the box office.

● Distribution - From 2003 to 2013 the ICO has distributed 326 films, to audiences of over 425,000 people, grossing over £1.25 million at the box office.

● Events - From 2006 to 2013 the ICO has delivered 16 Screening Days events to 3,261 delegates. - From 2004 to 2013 the ICO has delivered 85 training courses to 1,651 participants.

Some Statistics

The Differences...

Independent -★ Independent cinemas are often self-

run, and are not part of a larger chain. The exception being PictureHouse

★ Independent cinemas are funded primarily by their own profits.

★ Independent cinemas tend to screen less prominent films as well as speciality films and archive films.

★ These cinemas often show live performances such as opera and theatre productions.

Mainstream - ★ Are either massive national or

international companies, with many screens in each of the buildings, for example the Norwich branch Of Odeon has 17 screens and 1 IMAX screen where Cinema City has only 3 normal screens,

★ Usually only show Hollywood films, but Vue has been moving into screening theatre productions.