audiences - bfi.org.uk

AUDIENCESCredit: The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox. All rights reserved.

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AUDIENCESThe audience lies at the heart of a vibrant and successful film economy and culture, yet current insight still provides a limited perspective on audience engagement. While data on cinema-going audiences is robust, new research is needed to show the full picture of the audience on all platforms.

FACTS IN FOCUS Television remains the most popular platform for watching film in the UK, followed by

DVD/Blu-ray and cinema.

In 2015, 15-24 year olds made up the largest proportion of the UK cinema audience, at 29%.

UK films were popular across all demographic groups, with a particularly strong appeal for those aged 45 and over. UK independent films were most popular among cinema-goers in this demographic.

Pitch Perfect 2 had the largest above-average audience share among the 15-24 age group, while The Lady in the Van had the largest share among cinema-goers aged 55 and above.

A wide range of genres appealed to women, whereas men were drawn to films with a strong action element.

UK films attracted above-average audiences across all nations and regions, except the North West.

Black and minority ethnic groups were over-represented among the cinema audience; disabled audiences were over-represented amongst physical video and digital consumers.

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AUDIENCES

AUDIENCES FOR FILM IN THE UK

In earlier editions of the Yearbook, we have been able to estimate the total size of the film audience in the UK based on data from a range of sources. In the last few years, however, while we have been able to track a significant growth in revenues for online services (see the Film on digital video report) we have been unable to define viewing figures for films accessed online via streaming or download-to-own.

In an era where a multitude of platforms and devices for accessing film are now available to audiences, a recent survey conducted by Morris Hargreaves McIntyre provides a snapshot of how current audiences engage with film (Figure 1). Linear television was the most popular platform for accessing film, with 86% of respondents stating they had watched a film on television in the previous 12 months. DVD or Blu-ray was the next most popular, with 70% of respondents saying they had used this platform in the previous 12 months, followed by cinema-going, with 55%.

Figure 1 Engagement with film by platform/device, 2015

In the remainder of this report, we look at UK cinema admissions by age, cinema-goers’ film preferences by age, gender, geographical location and socio-economic status, and film consumption by ethnicity and disability.

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Platform/device 85.6 69.5 55.0 45.3 40.7 27.9 19.9 6.1

Source: Morris Hargreaves McIntyre Note: From Measuring Your Reach – a market study report for the British Film Institute. Survey conducted June 2015, survey population 3,000 adults (16+).

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AUDIENCES CINEMA AUDIENCE BY AGE

Figure 2 shows the age trends of cinema admissions from 2003 to 2015. The relative proportion of admissions for each category has been broadly similar throughout the time period, with fluctuations based on the release of a small number of successful titles with a strong appeal to particular age groups. However, between 2005 and 2011, there was an upward trend in the percentage of the audience drawn from 15-24 year olds, with an increase from 26% to a peak of 35%. From 2012 the share for this group decreased, with 2015 recording a 10-year low of 29%. As a counter to this decline, the share of the audience associated with the older age groups (45 and over) has increased, most notably for cinema-goers aged 55 and over, due in part to the increased availability of films appealing to this demographic and their comparatively higher disposable income and leisure time.

Interestingly, for most of the period the shares of admissions for 7-14 and 35-44 year olds have been very similar, which may be due to parents and carers taking their children to the cinema, a finding reflected in the next section showing films with above-average audiences for the different age groups.

Figure 2 Age distribution of admissions, 2003-2015%

7-14 12.4 17.8 15.1 17.2 18.1 15.8 17.9 13.6 14.6 14.4 12.9 14.4 13.6

15-24 30.2 26.0 26.5 31.6 29.6 31.7 30.7 31.8 34.8 33.5 32.5 30.8 29.4

25-34 21.7 20.1 19.9 19.0 17.0 18.5 19.0 23.3 19.3 18.1 19.4 18.0 18.7

35-44 14.9 18.2 17.4 16.0 17.0 15.6 16.1 14.0 14.8 15.8 16.1 15.9 16.3

45+ 20.8 17.9 21.1 16.1 18.3 - - - - - - - -

45-54 - - - - - 9.0 8.8 8.7 8.0 8.7 8.8 9.3 9.5

55+ - - - - - 9.4 7.5 8.7 8.3 9.4 10.4 11.5 12.5

Source: CAA, Film Monitor

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FILM PREFERENCES BY AGE

Tables 1-6 outline films with a statistically significant above-average audience share across different age groups to show the range of films that appealed most to each group in 2015. That is to say, highlighting films where the difference between the average audience attendance and each age group attendance for a particular film is greater than a standard statistical threshold. UK films had a significant appeal across all age groups, particularly the older age groups.

Animated features appealed most to the 7-14 age group with Home, Big Hero 6 and Minions having the highest significant above-average audiences. Family films and fantasies such as Pan and Cinderella also appealed strongly to this group (Table 1). While action and adventure films such as Fast & Furious 7, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 and Kingsman: The Secret Service dominated the list of films with the strongest appeal to 15-24 year olds, the music-based comedy Pitch Perfect 2 had the highest significant above-average audience. The ‘18’ certified Fifty Shades of Grey also had a high appeal with 30% of its audience comprised of young adults from this group (Table 2). Fifty Shades of Grey also appealed strongly to 25-34 year olds alongside many of the other titles that were popular with audiences from the 15-24 year old age group. (These groups were the only two to have above-average audiences for the Kray twins biopic, Legend, the top earning UK independent release of the year.) The film with the highest significant above-average audience share among 25-34 year olds was the action title Mad Max: Fury Road (Table 3).

Family-friendly titles always feature highly among the most popular films with audiences from the 35-44 year old age group, which is made up of a high percentage of parents and carers. Releases with the most significant appeal to cinema-goers in this category in 2015 were Home, Hotel Transylvania 2 and Cinderella (Table 4). The only non-family film to achieve a significant above-average audience in this age category was Fifty Shades of Grey. A variety of genres were popular with cinema-goers in the two older age groups, both of which showed a strong preference for UK films. Releases attracting above-average audiences from both age groups included the latest James Bond outing, SPECTRE, as well as independent titles Far from the Madding Crowd and The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. The film with the highest single above-average audience across all age groups in 2015 was The Lady in the Van, which generated 74% of its audience from cinema-goers aged 55 and over (Tables 5 and 6).

Table 1 Films with a significant above-average audience in the 7-14 age group, 2015 top 20 films and top UK films Title Age group % of

film’s total audience

Home 42

Big Hero 6 38

Minions 37

Inside Out 32

Hotel Transylvania 2 32

Shaun the Sheep the Movie (UK) 31

Pan (UK) 26

Into the Woods (UK) 26

Cinderella (UK) 24

7-14 age group share of top 20 and top UK audience (%) 16

7-14 age group in total survey population (%) 14

Source: CAA Film Monitor Notes:‘Audience’ in this table and throughout this chapter refers to film-going occasions. That is, if a person went to the cinema to see 10 films in the year, that person would have contributed 10 film-going occasions to the audience figures above, unless otherwise stated. Repeat visits to the same films are not recorded in Cinema Advertising Association (CAA) Film Monitor. CAA Film Monitor included 82 film titles (mostly mainstream) of the 759 theatrical releases in 2015. The Film Monitor survey is carried out via a fortnightly omnibus survey of over 1,000 adults and children aged 7+, of those who had been to the cinema in the last three months. Films are also age-filtered based on the film certificate.

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AUDIENCES Table 2 Films with a significant above-average audience in the 15-24 age group, 2015 top 20 films and top UK films

Title Age group % of


Pitch Perfect 2 46

Fast & Furious 7 44

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 41

Kingsman: The Secret Service (UK) 41

Taken 3 40

Ant-Man (UK) 38

Avengers: Age of Ultron (UK) 37

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (UK) 35

Mad Max: Fury Road 34

Legend (UK) 32

Jurassic World 32

Fifty Shades of Grey 30



Source: CAA Film Monitor See notes to Table 1.





Terminator Genisys (UK) 25

Legend (UK) 23

The Martian (UK) 23

Jurassic World 23


Fast & Furious 7 21




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Home 25


Cinderella (UK) 23

Inside Out 23

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (UK) 22


Minions 21



Source: CAA Film MonitorSee notes to Table 1.



Far from the Madding Crowd (UK) 17

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (UK) 15

SPECTRE (UK) 13


The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (UK) 13




Table 6 Films with a significant above-average audience in the 55+ age group, 2015 top 20 films and top UK films Title Age group % of


The Lady in the Van (UK) 74


Suffragette (UK) 55


The Theory of Everything (UK) 34

SPECTRE (UK) 23

Everest (UK) 20

55+ age group share of top 20 and top UK audience (%) 13

55+ age group in total survey population (%) 13


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AUDIENCES FILM PREFERENCES BY GENDER

The overall audience for the top 20 and top UK films in 2015 had a very slight bias towards males who made up 51% of total cinema-goers for these films. On an individual basis, some films attracted substantially more of one gender than the other. Table 7 shows the top six films with statistically significant above-average male and female audiences, and the three films that had no significant gender appeal. Titles with a strong action element were particularly popular among male audiences, with Terminator Genisys, Mad Max: Fury Road and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. topping the list of films with a greater appeal. Female audiences were drawn to a broader range of films, with Cinderella, Pitch Perfect 2 and Fifty Shades of Grey having the greatest above-average appeal. Unlike in previous years, in 2015 male audiences had a stronger preference for UK films compared to female audiences, with all but one of the top six films with an above-average male audience share being British.

Table 7 Audience gender split, 2015 top 20 films and top UK films

Significant greater male audience share Male % Female %

Terminator Genisys (UK) 73 27

Mad Max: Fury Road 71 29

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (UK) 69 31

Avengers: Age of Ultron (UK) 69 31

Ant-Man (UK) 66 34

The Martian (UK) 63 37

Significant greater female audience share Male % Female %

Cinderella (UK) 21 79

Pitch Perfect 2 25 75

Fifty Shades of Grey 27 73

Suffragette (UK) 31 69

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (UK) 34 66

Inside Out 34 66

Gender difference not significant Male % Female %

Everest (UK)* 58 42

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 50 50

Big Hero 6 49 51

Source: CAA Film Monitor *Based on the methodology used to measure average audiences in this data, Everest, is included here as it does not have a statistically significant above-average audience of either gender. See notes to Table 1.

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FILM PREFERENCES BY SOCIAL GROUP

UK films were popular among all social groups in 2015, in most cases attracting a significant above-average audience share. Tables 8-11 outline the films with the strongest significant appeal to each group in the year.

All of the films that attracted significant above-average audiences from the AB social group were UK qualifying titles, with Far from the Madding Crowd, Suffragette and The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel having the strongest appeal. The top two films of 2015, Star Wars: The Force Awakens and SPECTRE, were also popular with this group (Table 8).

Table 8 Films with significant above-average AB audience share, 2015 top 20 films and top UK films Title AB group % of film’s

total audience


Suffragette (UK) 52




SPECTRE (UK) 38


AB share of top 20 and top UK audience (%) 33

AB in total survey population (%) 31


Four films, two of which were UK titles, attracted significant above-average audiences from the C1 social group (Table 9). The two most popular releases were the non-UK films The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 and Mad Max: Fury Road.

Table 9 Films with significant above-average C1 audience share, 2015 top 20 films and top UK films Title C1 group % of film’s

total audience



Legend (UK) 39


C1 share of top 20 and top UK audience (%) 34

C1 in total survey population (%) 34

Source: CAA Film Monitor. See notes to Table 1.

Animations, comedies and action films, mainly produced by the major Hollywood studios, appealed most to the C2 and DE social groups (Tables 10 and 11). Animated comedy Hotel Transylvania 2 attracted the highest above-average audience for the C2 group, while the French-produced action thriller Taken 3, had the greatest appeal for the DE group. These were the only two social groups to have significant above-average audiences for the adult drama Fifty Shades of Grey. While no UK films had a significant appeal for audiences in the C2 group, two UK studio-backed titles, Terminator Genisys and Cinderella, attracted significant above-average audiences from the DE group.

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AUDIENCES Table 10 Films with significant above-average C2 audience share, 2015 top 20 films and top UK films

Title C2 group % of film’s

total audience


Home 23

Pitch Perfect 2 23

Minions 23

Big Hero 6 23


Fast & Furious 7 21

C2 share of top 20 and top UK audience (%) 18

C2 in total survey population (%) 19


Table 11 Films with significant above-average DE audience share, 2015 top 20 films and top UK films Title DE group % of film’s

total audience

Taken 3 29

Fast & Furious 7 26



Home 19


Cinderella (UK) 18

DE share of top 20 and top UK audience (%) 15

DE in total survey population (%) 16


FILM PREFERENCES BY NATION OR REGION

The national and regional distribution of audiences for the 2015 top 20 films and top UK films focuses on releases that attracted an above-average audience in each ISBA television region as defined by the Cinema Advertising Association (for ease of understanding the data are presented by geographic region). The survey which provides this data does not include Northern Ireland.

Every television region covered by the survey had at least two films which attracted significant above-average audiences, with the exception of Scotland which had only one release from the 2015 top 20 films and top UK films with a significant above-average audience. UK films attracted above-average audiences in each nation or region apart from the North West. Tables 12-19 show the nations or regions which had four or more films with a significant above-average audience (except Wales and Scotland) to give an impression of the range of films that appealed most in each area.

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Yorkshire and The Humber had the highest number of releases with a significant above-average audience in 2015, with seven films including The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Legend (Table 12). Five of the seven titles with significant appeal were UK films. Table 12 Films with significant above-average Yorkshire and The Humber audience share, 2015 top 20 films and top UK films Title Yorkshire and The Humber % of film’s

total audience

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (UK) 17


Legend (UK) 14

Everest (UK) 13

Cinderella (UK) 13


Fast & Furious 7 11

Yorkshire and The Humber share of top 20 and top UK audience (%) 9

Yorkshire and The Humber in total survey population (%) 9

Source: CAA Film Monitor. Yorkshire and The Humber corresponds to the ISBA Yorkshire region. See notes to Table 1.

UK films also made up the majority of releases with significant appeal in the Midlands, although the title with the highest above-average audience was the independent American-German co-production, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (Table 13).

Table 13 Films with a significant above-average Midlands audience share, 2015 top 20 films and top UK films

Title Midlands % of film’s total audience


Pan (UK) 23


SPECTRE (UK) 21

Into the Woods (UK) 20

Midlands share of top 20 and top UK audience (%) 16

Midlands in total survey population (%) 15

Source: CAA Film Monitor. Midlands corresponds to the ISBA Central region. See notes to Table 1.

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AUDIENCES In the North West, all the films with significant above-average audiences were American studio

productions, with Jurassic World and Pitch Perfect 2 having the greatest appeal (Table 14). Table 14 Films with significant above-average North West audience share, 2015 top 20 films and top UK films

Title North West % of film’s total audience

Jurassic World 15

Pitch Perfect 2 15

Fast & Furious 7 14

Minions 14

North West share of top 20 and top UK audience (%) 12

North West in total survey population (%) 12

Source: CAA Film Monitor North West corresponds to the ISBA Granada region. See notes to Table 1.

The action re-boot Mad Max: Fury Road attracted the highest significant above-average audience in London and the home counties in 2015, while The Martian was the only UK film to have a significant appeal (Table 15).

Table 15 Films with significant above-average London and the home counties audience share, 2015 top 20 films and top UK films

Title London/home counties % of film’s total audience


Home 24

The Martian (UK) 24

Fast & Furious 7 23

London share of top 20 and top UK audience (%) 20

London in total survey population (%) 21

Source: CAA Film Monitor London and the home counties corresponds to the ISBA LWT Carlton region. See notes to Table 1.

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All of the releases with significant appeal to audiences in the South East and South West were UK films, with independent titles heading the lists in both regions (Tables 16 and 17). Far from the Madding Crowd had the highest above-average audience in the South East and Suffragette had the highest above-average audience in the South West.

Table 16 Films with significant above-average South East audience share, 2015 top 20 films and top UK films

Title South East % of film’s total audience





South East share of top 20 and top UK audience (%) 11

South East in total survey population (%) 10

Source: CAA Film Monitor South East corresponds to the ISBA Meridian region. See notes to Table 1.

Table 17 Films with significant above-average South West audience share, 2015 top 20 films and top UK films Title South West % of film’s

total audience

Suffragette (UK) 10


SPECTRE (UK) 9


South West share of top 20 and top UK audience (%) 5

South West in total survey population (%) 4

Source: CAA Film Monitor South West corresponds to the ISBA TSW region. See notes to Table 1.

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AUDIENCES The few releases to achieve significant above-average audiences in Wales and Scotland were all UK

films. Terminator Genisys had the greatest appeal in Wales, while The Theory of Everything had the greatest appeal in Scotland (Tables 18 and 19).

Table 18 Films with significant above-average Wales audience share, 2015 top 20 films and top UK films Title Wales % of film’s

total audience


Shaun the Sheep the Movie (UK) 11

Wales share of top 20 and top UK audience (%) 8

Wales in total survey population (%) 8

Source: CAA Film Monitor Wales corresponds to the ISBA HTV region. See notes to Table 1.

Table 19 Films with significant above-average Scotland audience share, 2015 top 20 films and top UK films Title Scotland % of film’s

total audience


Scotland share of top 20 and top UK audience (%) 8

Scotland in total survey population (%) 9

Source: CAA Film Monitor Scotland corresponds to the ISBA Border, STV and Grampian regions. See notes to Table 1.

FILM AUDIENCE BY ETHNICITY

Looking across film platforms, black and minority ethnic groups (Asian, Chinese, mixed and other) were over-represented among theatrical audiences, and under-represented among video and digital buyers and renters (Table 20). White audiences were over-represented among video buyers and under-represented among film consumers on other platforms.

Table 20 Ethnicity of audiences aged 13+ for cinema, retail and rental video and digital, 2015

Black, Asian, Chinese, mixed and

other %

White %

Population aged 13+ 7.9 93.8

Total buyers of cinema, retail, rental and digital film 7.7 92.3

Cinema-goers 9.5 90.6

Video buyers 4.4 95.6

Video renters 6.6 93.4

Digital buyers and renters 7.8 92.2

Source: Kantar Worldpanel Notes: Fieldwork took place in January 2016. Video includes all physical video formats, including DVD, Universal Media Disc, high-definition DVD and Blu-ray. Digital includes subscription VoD services.

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FILM AUDIENCES BY DISABILITY

Unlike in previous years, disabled people were over-represented across all film platforms in 2015 with the exception of theatrical, where they made up 14.5% of the audience (Table 21). Disabled audiences were most over-represented as buyers of video.

Table 21 Disabled audiences aged 13+ for cinema, retail and rental video and digital, 2015

Disabled % Not disabled %

Population aged 13+ 19.8 80.2

Total buyers of cinema, retail, rental and digital film 18.4 81.6

Cinema-goers 14.5 85.5

Video buyers 22.0 78.0

Video renters 20.6 79.9

Digital buyers and renters 21.3 78.7

Source: Kantar Worldpanel See notes to Table 20.

Research & Statistics Unit21 Stephen Street, London W1T 1LN

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