Small Films For Big Cinemas

"In a time when we have lost the UK Film Council we should be championing great British films, instead we are being swamped by the left overs of the summer blockbusters. "

Fancy going to see a great new film this weekend? Well I hope you live in a big city or you may be in for a lengthy car journey, this is what many will face this weekend with the apparent non-release of Kill List and The Skin I Live In. I know there are some great independent cinemas around the country that need out much needed attention, however the this post concentrates on the distribution of films by Odeon Cinemas, this should not be viewed as an attack on them but a question of how one of the largest cinema companies in Europe decides what films to screen.

After the great reviews Kill List has been getting I planned to book tickets for its opening weekend at my local Odeon (Coventry) however I soon discovered the film is not been shown at all. Instead my local Odeon is screening Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 now in its 8th week and dominated by hits such as The Smurfs 3D and new release Friends With Benefits. After searching the Odeon cinemas where I could watch Kill List I found out it is only being shown at only 10 Odeon cinemas. In fact the nearest Odeon showing Kill List is in Manchester roughly 78.29 miles from my house. In a time when we have lost the UK Film Council we should be championing great British films, instead we are being swamped by the left overs of the summer blockbusters. The same applies with The Skin I Live In, although I put its marginalisation down to it being a foreign language film (Spanish) even the stardom of Antonio Banderas could not give it a bigger presence in Odeon cinemas.

Although I am not a professional film critic or do I work in any capacity for the film industry, I do know that the screening and distribution of films works on a supply and demand system and that Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2's long run this summer is a testament to its box office success. The box office takings both Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 and The Smurfs 3D can in my opinion be partly explained by their 3D versions. I urge you people in such "big cities" (Manchester,Liverpool, London, Edinburgh) to go and see the films that are slipping under the Odeon radar.