Film Essay

Throughout history, British and American Cinema have competed with each other to gain the most financial success in the film industry. British Cinema dominated the film industry throughout the 1920s and towards the end of the second world war, because they produced war films as a form of propaganda, in order to boost morale amongst British citizens. However, American cinema had the advantage when The UK film studies were destroyed after the war. In 1941, Hollywood produced the popular mystery drama, Citizen Kane, which made an profitable $1.6 million at the box office. 

In the 1960s, Britain produced many Carry On Films, which boosted the comedy genre and proved to be very popular with British viewers, because it gave them characters and themes that are easy to relate to. The first James Bond film, Dr No was released in 1962 and was a financial success for British Cinema, earning $59.5 million at the box office. However, Alfred Hitchcock, a famous British film director, moved to Hollywood, despite being England's best director. At the time, America was suffering from The Vietnam War and Civil Rights Protests, where inequality was still sadly present all throughout America. In spite of these issues Hollywood were still producing Science Fiction and Spy films. It also produced the exceedingly successful musical drama film 'The Sound Of Music' in 1965, which made an impressive $286.2 million at the box office. By November 1965 it had become the highest-grossing film of all time, and held this position for 5 years.

The 1970s was an important decade for technology, with Britain inventing computers and both Britain and America creating film trailers to be viewed by audiences on televisions. Britain produced drama film 'The Railway Children' which immediately became a financial success, but not in comparison to George Lucas's 'Star Wars' film which made $775.4 million at the box office. It surpassed 'Jaws' to become the highest grossing film of all time until E.T was released in 1982. Today it has been regarded as 'one of the best films of all time' and has since had many sequels, with the latest instalment, Rogue One, being released later last year (2016).

The 1980s began with the bleakest outlook ever seen for British film. Most of the well heeled British companies pulled out of British production all together or were just about to. Competition from TV and video caused damage to the British Box Office, and it plummeted from 101 million admissions in 1980 to 54 million in 1984. Whereas Americas film industry was booming, and continuing to produce financial successes such as Top Gun, Ghostbusters, Return Of The Jedi and The Empire Strikes Back.

Following a disappointing decade, the British Film industry came back with successful comedy drama film 'Trainspotting' in 1996. The film was nominated for an Academy Award and has been ranked 10th by the BFI in its list of Top 100 British Films of all time. The budget for the film was £1.5 million, and it made £48 million at the box office. Whilst this was a financial success, the American box office soared when James Cameron produced 'Titanic' with a budget of $200 million, and was the first film to reach the billion dollar mark in the film industry, making $2.187 billion at the box office. 'Titanic' was nominated for 14 Academy Awards and became the highest grossing film of all time until James Cameron's 'Avatar' in 2009.

In the 2000s the British film industry soared when 'Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone' was produced in 2001 and made $974.8 million at the box office. Because the film was based on a series of books by J.K Rowling, she insisted on the film being completely British, which ensured that it wasn't turned into a Hollywood blockbuster. In America (2007-2008), a Television Writers Strike took place for 100 days/14 weeks and 2 days. A year later 'Avatar' was released, and its new use of technology and filming techniques proved its uniqueness amongst Sci-Fi fantasy films. The film made an outstanding $2.788 billion at the box office, making it the first ever film to gross over $2 billion. It was nominated for 9 Academy Awards and still remains the highest grossing film of all time after surpassing 'Titanic'.

From 2010 - current day Britain and America's film industries are more equal now in comparison to previous decades, but Hollywood has the advantage by having more money, being more well known and popular and having their pick of world famous actors and actresses. Also, their cameras and technology can be used for a range of different Hollywood films, whereas if Britain needed a special type of camera it would need to make, loan or buy one. Britain's film industry has been successful over the financial stability coming from popular films such as 'Skyfall' and the Harry Potter instalments. 'The Kings Speech' was also a big success after it made $414.2 million at the box office and won 7 British Academy Film Awards and 4 Academy Awards. Hollywood is continuing to produce many superhero films such as 'The Avengers' and 'Iron Man' as well as sequels to these films -  'Avengers Assemble' and 'Iron Man 2'.