Finance

As Hanseen (2007) summarised, 'The Hollywood studio system era' of vertical integration that impacted production, distribution and exhibition (because the major companies owned the cinemas) came to an end in 1948; "when the USA Supreme Court issued its famous Paramount decision. The Paramount consent decree required the divestiture of affiliated cinema chains and the abandonment of a number of vertical practices" 

This means that the five major conglomerates (Fox, MGM, Paramount, RKO and Warner Brothers) and the partly integrated companies (Columbia, Universal and United Artists - N.B MGM have now bought out United Artists) had to compete on a more level playing field with other film companies. Companies like Walt Disney weren't allowed to own cinemas, which allowed them to show their own films constantly, which gave independent film companies more of a chance.

In The UK, we don't have major conglomerate production companies that have the resources to internally fund their own films. Instead funding, secured by independent production companies (like Warp who produced This is England), generally comes from a number of investors/sources.

There are three forms of British films differentiated by the amount of non-British funding they receive, they are as follows:
* British - solely funded with British money (an example being Trainspotting)
* Co-funded - a large amount of funding comes from European or US investment (an example being Love Actually)
* Inward funded - the majority of funds or all of the funds come from the USA even though the film is a 'British Production' (key examples being the Harry Potter and James Bond franchises).

Average annual UK Productions:
Under £2 million - 30
£2-£5 million - 30
£5-£10 million - 15
£10+ million - 6


Common sources of British funding include:

• The BFI
• Film 4
• The BBC
• National Lottery Grants
• Government Grants - However the Conservative grants do not offer as many art/film grants as Labour in the past