Essay multiplexes and blockbusters

What factors led to the decline of town or city centre cinemas in the late 1970s and early 1980s?

The three factors that led to the decline of city centre cinemas are social, technological and economic factors. The social factor is that teens, who have a disposable income are watching films, as they go to shopping centres which have cinemas, so it is seen as a leisure activity. The technological factors are that VHS were a big trend around this time, so people were staying at home instead of going to the cinema. Another is special effects, the experience of watching a film with special effects in is better at the cinema. The economical factor is that piracy was big as people didn't want to spend money on going to the cinema.

The audiences of films in cinemas was mostly teens as they have a disposable income meaning they didn't have to pay for anything, they could just spend it on things that they liked. Also multiplexes are in shopping centres, this is where teens usually go out. This is also because it is seen as a leisure activity, as they would go do some shopping and then go to the cinema. This would be linked to exhibition, as more people would be able to see it because it is in a multiplex cinema, so there is more screens. Another reason why they would go to the cinema, is because blockbusters were shown and they were seen as event movies, this would be because everyone would be talking about that film so other would want to talk about it too as they want to be a part of it, this would link to the distribution and marketing as if it was seen advertised people would want to go see it. The hype of it would spread through word of mouth.

Around this time, VHS was getting bigger and becoming a trend, so people would want to watch their films on their VHS in the comfort of their own home, instead of going to the cinema. This effects the production of the films, because there was a decline in cinema attendance they would put more VFX in them to make it a better experience to go watch it in the cinema instead of at home. Teens would go to watch a film for the special effects. The multiplexes were putting flea pits out of business, because film distributors controlled where the blockbusters were being shown, so to put flea pits out of business, they only allowed blockbusters to be shown in multiplexes. This is because film distributors could sell more of the same film to themas they have multiple screens, this would then make them more money. this would effect the distribution and marketing as they knew selling to multiplexes would make them more money.

The economical factors were that because VHS was becoming a big trend, piracy was becoming a big thing, this was because people did not have the money to go out to the cinema every time there was a new film. An example of this is E.T, in 1982 it was the most pirated film, this is because people couldn't afford to spend money on leisure, as they did not have a disposable income like teenagers did. This had an effect on  the production of the films, because people were not going to the cinema meaning they would put VFX in them, so that it would look better at the cinema on the big screen, making people want to have a better experience if they went to the cinema than if they sat at home watching it on VHS. Because more people were going to the cinema for the experience, this effected the production of films as there was an increase of blockbuster films, making the film producers more money.

I think the main reasons why there was a decline in town and city centre cinemas is because of the VHS trend coming out around the time of this meaning more people were staying at home to watch films and people were able to pirate films instead of paying to the full price to go see it at the cinema.