20 interesting film facts we learned this year
As we come to the end of 2013 I thought I would look back over the articles, surveys and data I've published this year to find the strangest facts.
1. 'We Bought A Zoo' was too full of 'shit', according to complaints from parents sent to the BBFC, as revealed this year. Other complaints included parents bemoaning that the violence in The Dark Knight Rises was too ‘crunchy’ and that the 1970 classic 'The Railway Children' might encourage children to play on railway tracks. More...
2. The United Arab Emirates have a higher percentage of women in their film business than both the UK and America. This came from my study of gender within film business professionals, i.e. attendees of major film markets. Within the UK film industry women only make up 13% of screenwriters and 8% of directors. More...
3. Actors who can dance the Tango are much more willing to perform nude than those who know Tap. My study of UK actors also revealed that Asians make up 7% of the UK population but only 2.7% of actors and that female actors are slimmer, blonder and much better dancers than male actors. More...
4. Screenwriters of UK Romance films under £500k only have a 1.9% chance of writing a second low-budget romance film. We also learned that in the genre of Romance, money matters. 16% of producers of Romance £500k+ films made a second film but only 2% of the low budget producers did the same. The highest chance of making a second film goes specifically to Producers of Dramas budgeted over £500k. More...
5. New Zealanders watch almost as many British films as the British. More...
6. The UK is the second largest exporter of films, after America and in 2012 British films accounted for 15% of the global box office. More...
7. There are 70,000 people working in the UK film industry. 65% work in production, 10% in distribution and 25% in exhibition. We are currently in a boom for film production jobs, up 261% on 1996. More...
8. 34% of ex-film students now work in ‘Retail / Catering’. And this is set to rise as the number of UK film students has grown by 240% between 2004 and 2012. More...
9. One in four projects on Kickstarter is a film (that's 11,828 films). Having a video on your Kickstarter campaign increases your odds of success by two and half times and once your campaign reaches 40% of your goal, you have a 95% chance of raising your full target amount. More...
10. One in four UK films is a Drama but they make up only 7% of UK box office. We also learned that the highest grossing genre at UK cinemas is Comedy. However, DVD audiences prefer to buy Action films and rent Dramas. More...
11. 2012 UK DVD revenues were half what they were in 2004. Overall, the amount of money in the UK film industry has stayed at the £4bn mark for the past six years. More...
12. Only 35% of UK films are released in UK cinemas within two years of principal photography. The number for films under £500,000 is one in five. More...
13. A third of all films shot in the UK since 1912 were shot after the year 2000. Action films account for 30% of all the money spent on films in the UK and two thirds of the money spent on films in the UK comes from foreign sources. More...
14. Withoutabox have a patent on using the internet to manage film festival entries, which might go some way to explaining why film festival directors dislike Withoutabox so much. More...
15. 2,954 film festivals have run in the past two years, 70% of which are in North America. October is the busiest month, with five times as many festivals as December. More...
16. Only 2% of films screened on Sky Movies were British. There were 3.9 billion viewings of feature films on TV in the UK in 2012. This is 22 times the number of cinema admissions. More...
17. ‘Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa‘ received £500,000 in BFI Lottery funding and ‘The Invisible Woman‘ was awarded £1.6m. More...
18. Female cinema-goers favour films made by female filmmakers. More...
19. Screening a film at 4k resolution can lead to better reviews. More...
20. Films budgeted under £500,000 cost £40,000 to distribute theatrically, films budgeted under £2m cost £200,000 and films with budgets over £10m cost an average of £2,400,000 to bring to the cinema. More...
Epilogue
Thank you to everyone who has supported this blog during 2013. I've had a huge amount of feedback, thanks and tips from readers and friends alike, for which I'm very grateful. Enjoy the New Year!
