The Commercial History of British and American Cinema timeline

1) What genre of films was being made?

2) What were the top films of the decade?

3) How has technology impacted the industry each decade?

4) Where did funding come from and what impact did this have?

5) Where were films being made?

6) Profits/box office figures?

7) Awards won?

7) Any other useful relevant facts.


1930s
 

In 1933 J. Arthur Rank, who had started by making religious films, founded British National. In 1935 he went into partnership with Woolf to take over Pinewood Studios. Boom turned to slump in 1937. The year before, the British film industry had over produced, making 220 pictures. During the 1930's two other valuable assets came along; the British Film Institute and the National Film Archives.

1940s 

The Second World War caused a minor miracle to happen to movie making in the Britain. With many of the employees being engaged in war work, available manpower was reduced to one third and half of the studio space was requisitioned, only sixty films were produced annually. he majority was war related, The Stars Look Down; 49th Parallel; Convoy and This Happy Breed. 1949 was a bad year financially partly due to a series of good, but big budget movies. The Red Shoes; Hamlet; Fallen Idol; Great Expectations and Oliver Twist.


1950s 


Television was just beginning to have an effect on the film industry. During the 1950' and early 60's Films had to learn to be more exportable and welcome to foreign audiences. Many achieved both of these criteria among them works by David Lean and Carol Reed. Then in 1947, Ealing's comedy Hue and Cry, was a surprise hit. An entertaining story of a criminal gang foiled by an enthusiastic army of schoolboys, the film met a public desire for relief after years of fighting and continuing hardships. There were important newcomers in the acting field that had international appeal, Jack Hawkins, Kenneth More, Richard Todd, Richard Burton and Peter Finch. ilms like The Lady Killers; Genevieve; The Cruel Sea and The Colditz Story helped to keep the UK's reputation high. Funding was also kept up by well made popular, but erring on schoolboy bathroom humour series. Which included the Doctor and the Carry On series.

1960s 


British New Wave or Free Cinema describes a group of films made between 1959 and 1963 which portray a more gritty realism. They were influenced by the Angry Young Men of the mid-50s along with the documentary films of everyday life commissioned by the Post Office during and after the Second World War, and are often associated with kitchen sink drama. Other significant films in this movement include Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960), A Kind of Loving (1962), and This Sporting Life (1963). Overseas filmmakers began to come to London too, including Roman Polanski and Michelangelo Antonioni. Blacklisted in America Joseph Losey had a significant influence on UK Cinema in the 60s as did Stanley Kubrick, especially in the decade to follow. The sixties were perhaps the ‘holding era’ for British cinema with expansive 50’s directors like Lean really held the reins and the industry charged on. Commercially the bond movies were highly successful and Basil Dearden also directed quality films.

1970s 

With the film industry in both Britain and the United States entering into recession, American studios cut back on domestic production, and in many cases withdrew from financing British films altogether. Major films were still being made at this time, including Anne of the Thousand Days (1969), Battle of Britain (1969), and David Lean's Ryan's Daughter (1970), but as the decade wore on financing became increasingly hard to come by. The British horror boom of the 1960s also finally came to an end by the mid-1970s, with the leading producers Hammer and Amicus leaving the genre altogether in the face of competition from America. Films like ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ (1974) made Hammer's vampire films seem increasingly tame and outdated, despite attempts to spice up the formula with added nudity and gore.




1980s 


The 1980s began with the worst recession the British film industry had ever seen. In 1980 only 31 UK films were made, down 50% on the previous year, and the lowest output since 1914. This decade also started the downward trend in self-financing British movies; the Americans began to take over and really never looked back. 

1990s -