Content analysis of film distribution in Norwich

Over the weekend of Saturday November 8th and Sunday November 9th, I collected cinema listings from the internet for the cinemas in Norwich - Odeon, Vue, Cinema City and Hollywood Cinema. I wanted to find out about film distribution in the UK and Norwich, and to identify the different types of cinema that are on offer.
From my research, I have identified that a total of 19 films are on show in Norwich, with 6 showing at Cinema City, 8 in Hollywood Cinema, and at the multi-plex cinemas: 9 at Vue, and 12 at Odeon. Considering that in total from November 8th to November 9th there were 212 screenings overall, but only 19 films, it indicates that Norwich does not show a diversity of films, despite having a lot of screen time in which more variety could be shown.

For my research of film distribution, I also looked at the proportion of British and World Cinema screened, in contrast to the amount of Hollywood and American films that are on show at each cinema.







From these results and pie charts it is clear that there is an obvious dominance of Hollywood films over World and British cinema. Even at a picture house such as Cinema City, known for screening more independent films such as ‘Control’, they show 57% Hollywood films. In contrast to the multi-plex cinemas this is a small amount of Hollywood movies, as Vue and Odeon screen an average of 75.5% Hollywood cinema.


This domination of Hollywood films, although it may appear harmless to viewers, actually has a big effect on a lot of audience and other film industries. The films screened from the U.S.A are very typical and clichéd, and project strong views. These views, however, are often narrow minded and biased, yet influence the British audience to think and agree with the Hollywood and American ideas and attitudes. Not only this, but the British film industry is completely overshadowed by Hollywood, meaning that there are far less opportunities and chances for British directors, actors, makers, technicians, etc. This means that film industry is caught in a circle – Hollywood dominates the industry, so there are fewer opportunities for British film industry workers, meaning less British films, and therefore Hollywood dominates cinemas. This is also a problem, because it means that even fewer other types of cinema have a chance of being screened, for example out of all 4 cinemas and all the 212 screenings, 0% are foreign language films, and only 9% of Odeon’s films, 14% of Cinema City’s screenings, and 0% of showings for both Vue and Hollywood are World Cinema.

Overall, I have found out that in Norwich, and so probably all over the U.K, Cinemas are screening an awful lot of Hollywood Blockbusters in comparison with British, World, and Foreign Language films. I have discovered that this means that in general, Hollywood films are very clichéd and project narrow American attitudes and values on the British audience, whilst hindering the British film industry. I believe that this needs to change; British cinemas should promote British films in order to help the British film industry, and also screen World and Foreign Language cinema in order to bring more diversity and interest to the audiences.