Following on from last week’s look at UK distribution by number of sites I thought I’d research the quality of the films for each distributor to find out who’s behind the best films in the UK. All of today’s data looks at UK cinema releases between January 2008 and August 2014, inclusive. In summary…
- Films distributed by the BFI get the highest ratings by critics
- The BFI distributed 87 films in UK cinemas between Jan 2008 and Aug 2014
- UK distributor Park Circus was behind the films rated highest by IMDb users
Who the critics think are distributing the best films
By looking at the Metacritic score for each film released in the UK during my six and a half year period of study, I was able to build up a chart of the UK distributors who release the films critics love the most.
Highest average critics’ ratings (via MetaScore) by UK distributors, who have distributed at least 10 films in the UK (4th Jan 2008 to 17th August 2014 inclusive)
| # | Distributor | Releases | Ave critics' score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BFI | 87 | 84 |
| 2 | Independent Cinema Office | 11 | 82 |
| 3 | Park Circus | 63 | 82 |
| 4 | New Wave | 41 | 75 |
| 5 | Artificial Eye | 102 | 74 |
| 6 | Curzon Film World | 39 | 73 |
| 7 | Eureka | 12 | 72 |
| 8 | Axiom | 31 | 72 |
| 9 | Dogwoof | 80 | 72 |
| 10 | Ayngaran | 97 | 71 |
| 11 | Picturehouse | 37 | 71 |
| 12 | Arrow | 20 | 70 |
| 13 | Soda | 117 | 69 |
| 14 | Verve | 41 | 69 |
| 15 | Element | 20 | 68 |
Crowd Pleasers
I also took a look at which distributors were behind the films IMDb users rated the highest. Unsurprisingly, the same names appear. If you want to read more about this topic then you may like my previous research on the similarities and differences between critics and audience ratings
Highest IMDb user ratings by UK distributors, who have distributed at least 10 films in the UK (4th Jan 2008 to 17th August 2014 inclusive)
| # | Distributor | Releases | Ave IMDb User Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Park Circus | 63 | 7.8 |
| 2 | BFI | 87 | 7.7 |
| 3 | Dogwoof | 80 | 7.2 |
| 4 | Arrow | 20 | 7.2 |
| 5 | Independent Cinema Office | 11 | 7.1 |
| 6 | Eureka | 12 | 7.1 |
| 7 | Arrow Films | 17 | 7.0 |
| 8 | Curzon Film World | 39 | 6.9 |
| 9 | Axiom | 31 | 6.9 |
| 10 | Artificial Eye | 102 | 6.9 |
| 11 | Element | 20 | 6.9 |
| 12 | Icon | 44 | 6.9 |
| 13 | Independent | 31 | 6.8 |
| 14 | New Wave | 41 | 6.8 |
| 15 | Network | 15 | 6.8 |
The Big Boys
The biggest movies are invariably financed by one of the major six Hollywood studios. These studios also distribute their own films in the UK.
Hollywood studio distribution in the UK (4th Jan 2008 to 17th August 2014 inclusive)
| Distributor | Releases | Ave critics' score | Ave IMDb User Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Disney | 97 | 57.6 | 6.73 |
| Universal | 179 | 56.6 | 6.59 |
| Paramount | 134 | 55.0 | 6.43 |
| 20th Century Fox | 175 | 53.4 | 6.36 |
| Sony Pictures | 140 | 52.6 | 6.35 |
| Warner Bros | 154 | 52.0 | 6.52 |
Epilogue
The data for today’s article was collected from cinemas by Rentrak and provided to the public via the BFI. Many people aren’t aware of how much data is available publicly via the BFI website. For example, you can either buy the data I used today from Rentrak directly (for commercial rates) or use the fragments of data the BFI have permission to share publicly for free, as I did. I combined 338 individual weekend box office reports to provide the basis of today’s research, containing all 3800 films released over my chosen time period. This was quite a task, so it’s entirely possible the odd error has slipped in. If you spot something awry, please let me know and I’ll fix it.
Comments
Would be interesting to add box office as an indicator of popularity too