Essay Mock

WHAT FACTORS LED TO THE DECLINE OF TOWN OR CITY CENTRE CINEMAS IN THE LATE 1970s AND EARLY 1980s?

At the beginning of the 1970s, there was a decline in independent cinema's called 'fleapits' as the development of multiplex's increased. This was partly due to the distribution of merchandising and marketing. When film producers spend money on these then the film is longer just a film, but an event. Films then become a spectacle and encourages others to see it, this leads to the rise of the blockbusters. An example of this would be Jaws (1975). Jaws had such an extremely large amount of publicity and hype towards it, to the extent where people started to believe they could see sharks in the water. Similarly to production this also resulted in large volumes of people in which the multiplexes were better equip to dealing with. However, multiplexes were also established around town centres and within shopping centres. This allowed for people to spend the day on other various leisure activities such as bowling and eating, all in one location. This caused Fleapits to suffer even more as less people just wanted to watch a film on its own. 

Production of films from 1970 to 1980 had to deal with legal matters such as what content can be included in the film and contractual agreements with stars. The Godfather (1972) included big names such as Al Pacino and James Caan. This brought in a larger audience and appeal, and also the establishment of sequels, all of which contribute in the generation of a franchise. This benefits multiplexes as they have multiple screens, capable of coping with the volume of people that which to view the movie. This ensures a return on any investments made, resulting on partnerships and deals with multiplexes, whilst Fleapit cinemas miss out on opportunities to screen popular blockbusters. This is partly because the involvement of A-list stars, raises the production cost of a film, meaning the money grossed from the films are required to be significantly higher.

Changing marketing tactics created event movies which started the idea of marketing a film for money using merchandise, advertisement, posters and promotions.The movie that started this formulaic marketing tactic is "Star Wars" (1977), which was the first event movie. It was so big and hyped because it was the first movie that introduced spectacles that was visually big and great for the audience to enjoy. Star wars was the first movie in Milton Keynes. It was shown because the Multiplex had bigger screens (spectacle), better seating arrangements and louder sound. Therefore more blockbuster films were made to make more profit from them.