Barriers to Diversity in Film – A Research Review – Aug 07

4 Audiences
Who goes to the cinema? What is the case for widening access? And
can new audiences be encouraged? How important is film genre in
attracting particular kinds of audiences? And who are the leaders in
the industry who are bringing new audiences to the cinema?
4.1 Background
Audiences are critical to the film industry for obvious commercial
reasons and because engaging with them stimulates UK filmmakers.
For example, one author argues that speaking of and representing the
‘other’ ensures community cohesion at a national level; and that it is
important to have a ‘national conversation’ about these areas since
this involves everyone (Campion 2005). Other authors argue that
talking about film, as they did with their focus groups, is a vital
component of everyday discourse across a range of social and cultural
issues. This gives film and media an important and distinctive place in
contemporary debates (Bennett et al 2005).
Engagement with potential cinema audiences is important since they
do have income to spend on leisure (for details of spending power of
diverse groups see 6.3.2). On the face of it, audiences have a wide
choice of cinemas and programmes. The UK had 3,440 screens in
2006 in 697 cinemas. There were 5.8 screens per 100,000 of the
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