Firstly, what is the difference between the two?
Arthouse cinemas screen independent films which are aimed at a small niche market as oppose to Multiplex cinemas which screen the latest blockbuster/ Hollywood films that appeal to a mass market audience.
What is the difference between the type of films they screen?
The films shown in Arthouse cinemas are often created by those who are much smaller figures in the film industry and want to put themselves forward to become better known film-makers. They are less concerned about commercial profit and instead make films for aesthetic reasons and the main factors which make independent films what they are include: content which is packed with meaning and is highly symbolic, strong character development which focuses on the characters thoughts and dreams, the embedded sub-genre of social realism and the film-makers will often explore new narrative techniques or film-making conventions.
Examples of independent films:
What Richard Did: This is a good example of an independent film that would be shown at an Arthouse cinema. It was directed by Lenny Abrahamson and produced in 2012 with Element Pictures and the Irish Film Board. It was distributed in the UK by Artificial Eye which is the biggest distributor for Curzon Films, also known for distributing The Selfish Giant, Wuthering Heights and Winter's Bone. What Richard Did explores the life of alpha-male, Richard Karlsen (Jack Reynor) who has to confront the gap between who he thought he was and who he proves to be after making a huge mistake one night. His character is slowly and steadily developed throughout and the audience are given a true insight into his emotions and how the people that surround him affect his life. It made $488,327 in the box office and it targets an audience of both males and females aged 15-35.
Short Term 12: This film was directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and it was produced in 2013 with Animal Kingdom and Traction Media. The film is set in a foster-care facility and the narrative revolves around Grace (Brie Larson), a young councellor who has to manage the troubling and traumatic lives of the children she looks after and at the same time, has to keep her own life on track as she readies for marriage. Every child has their own back story, some more developed than others however, their unique and individual personalities come across clearly in the film and the audience feel a very strong, emotional attachment with some of the characters, especially Jayden (Kaitlyn Dever) who is going through child abuse. These sensitive topics mean Short Term 12 targets a similar audience to What Richard Did, who are mature enough to respect and understand the film. The film has a budget under $1 million and it gained $1.6 million in the box office.
On the contrast, Multiplex cinemas show films that are a lot less deeper in meaning and instead, present a clear goal-driven story. Commonly seen aspects and factors involved in blockbuster/Hollywood films are: large production budgets, expensive special effects, costly celebrity actors and huge advertising campaigns.
Examples of blockbuster/Hollywood films:
Get Hard: Directed by Etan Cohen and produced in 2015 with Warner Bros. and Gary Sanchez Productions, Warner Bros distributed the film in the UK. It is your typical Hollywood movie with well known actors/celebrities such as Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart and a simple, easy to understand narrative: millionaire James King (Will Ferrell) is jailed for fraud so in order to prepare himself for prison, he turns to Darnell Lewis (Kevin Hart) to train him in the promise of money. It was a high budget film of $40 million and has already made over double that in the box office at $86.8 million. It is likely to attract an audience of aspirer's, both male and female from the ages of 15-25 as it is quite immature with a lot of crude humour embedded within it.
Furious 7: Directed by James Wan and produced in 2015 with Universal Pictures and Universal Pictures International distributed the film in the UK. Again, it stars well known actors and actresses such as: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jason Statham and Michelle Rodriguez. It was released on the 3rd April, 2015 in the UK and already it has a box office of $1.001 billion which is absolutely incredible and the film-makers and production companies must have known the film was going to do extremely well because it had a budget of $190 million.
Any other differences or similarities?
Multiplex cinemas first came about in the UK in 1985 when AMC Cinemas opened a ten-screen cinema at The Point in Milton Keynes. This was greatly responsible for the incline of the UK cinema industry after it had previously had a decline and this success led to a further expansion by AMC in the UK to Newcastle, Dudley, Telford, Warrington and by royal appointment to London. Art films are known to have begun between 1910-1920's with films such as Intolerance (directed by D.W Griffith in 1916) and Battleship Potemkin (directed by Sergei Eisenstein in 1925).
Arthouse cinemas tend to be more expensive than Multiplex cinemas with tickets costing about £11 or £12 compared to prices between £6 and £10 at Multiplex cinemas. However, food and drink is very commonly overpriced at Multiplex cinemas, sometimes double the price they would cost at a local supermarket whereas the prices are more fair at Arthouse cinemas and they even have their own bars.
Examples of Arthouse and Multiplex cinemas...
Arthouse:
- The Curzon (25 screens)
- Genesis (5 screens)
- The Prince Charles (2 screens)
- BFI Southbank (4 screens)
- The Rex (1 screen)
Multiplex:
- Odeon (114 screens)
- Cineworld (over 800 screens)
- Vue (755 screens)
- Empire (164)
- Showcase (over 950)
As you can see from these statistics, Multiplex cinemas have an incredibly greater amount of screens when compared to Arthouse cinemas and even when comparing The Curzon and Odeon, there is a difference of 89 screens.
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