The high cost of tickets and a perceived lack of appealing releases are the main barriers to cinema attendance for UK audiences, who watch films predominantly on streaming platforms, according to a BFI report.
More than a third (34%) of the 5,000 respondents surveyed between February and March 2023 said the price of a cinema ticket was the main reason they didn’t go to the cinema either at all or more frequently in the preceding 12-month period.
Second to ticket price, the strongest barrier to cinema attendance was the perception of a lack of appealing films on release at the cinema. This was a stronger barrier for multiplex audiences (30%) than for either independent non-chain cinema audiences (23%) and independent chain audiences (24%).
Published today, (October 1), The Wider World of Film report discovered that while 95% of UK adults have watched at least one film over a 12-month period and 23% viewed a film on most days, if not daily, film streaming through free and paid-for digital services is the dominant choice for film viewing audiences.
Forty-three percent of adults watched at least one film a week on a SVoD platform. One in 10 reported seeing a film at the cinema in the past week.
The two strongest drivers for people viewing films at the cinema are experience-based: Some 35% cite going to the cinema ‘as a special treat’ followed by 34% citing seeing a film that ‘needed to be seen’ on the big screen.
Netflix, Amazon Prime and YouTube were the most used digital streamers for watching films. BBC iPlayer was the fourth most popular service on which to watch a film on a weekly basis, and 44% of film viewers said they were willing to wait for a film to become available on a streaming service rather than go to the cinema when it is first released.
Further findings showed 86% of UK adults watched films monthly and 59% watched at least one film a week.
Some 60% of respondents reported having been to a cinema in the past 12 months, a significant increase on 41% reported in the BFI/YouGov Screen Engagement tracker in July 2022 and 31% in November 2020.
For UK films, 42% of film viewers watched a UK film at home compared with 31% at the cinema, while 23% watched an independent film (UK or international) at home versus 16% at the cinema.
Cinemagoers: who are they?
Compared to a UK population benchmark percentage, cinema audiences for independent and foreign films in the study were more likely to be male (59% versus 49%), of AB socio-economic grade (40% versus 26%), aged 16-34 (48% versus 34%), have a university degree or equivalent qualification (62% versus 36%) and live in London (22% versus 12%).
The average number of times cinemagoers visited a cinema in the 12 months prior to the research being undertaken was 4.5 times. Younger audiences, males, and those in the AB (higher and intermediate managerial, administrative and professional occupations) and DE socio-economic groups (semi-skilled and unskilled manual occupations) reported a slightly higher frequency of visits compared to the average cinema-goer.
The heaviest consumers of film watched an average 65 films a year.
The study was commissioned by the BFI’s Research and Statistics Unit in partnership with market research company GfK, and included insights on viewing choices made from viewing diaries. It looked at all of the ways that people watch films, the factors that influence how and why they watch films and the key challenges for people being able to watch films at the cinema.
“The insights from our latest study are a barometer in understanding shifts in audience attitudes towards how they choose to watch films and what drives different audiences in making their choices,” said Rishi Coupland, BFI director of innovation and research.
“What is evident overall is that no matter what films audiences choose to watch, or where they choose to watch them, film-watching remains an immensely popular activity for the UK public, and even in an age of ever-increasing options. The growth in streaming services has opened wider opportunities for people to see more films at home, yet our audience research tells us that a majority of adults have returned to the cinema since the pandemic. At the same time the challenges for cinemas are clear given cost-of-living pressures.”
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