Alliotts Media Accountants | London
Media and Film Accountants
As the eyes of the film world turn to London for the 63rd BFI London Film Festival, Sam Ampah, one of our media accountants, shares his thoughts on why the film industry in London and the UK remains so attractive. We also hear what he’s looking forward to in this year’s line up.
The atmosphere was positively charged and upbeat at the pre BFI London Film Festival event we hosted last night. Producers, film makers, investors and advisors to the film industry gathered at The Union Club to hear Adrian Wootton, OBE and CEO of Film London and The British Film Commission talk about the success of the film industry in London, and the UK.
Prior to his current role Adrian was acting Director of the British Film Institute (BFI), in addition to having been the Director of the London Film Festival (LFF), the National Film Theatre (NFT), Head of BFI Exhibition and Director of the crime and mystery film festival, Crime Scene. He was awarded an OBE in 2017 for his services to film.
Adrian spoke about London as a hub of great talent, expertise and creativity and the BFI London Film Festival as a platform to celebrate opportunity, collaboration and inclusivity in the film sector; a stage where huge stars and filmmakers merge.
The BFI London Film Festival goes from strength to strength, the exciting film and events programme which was unveiled earlier this month includes this year’s Mayor of London Gala, supported by Film London. The film selected for the gala is Tom Harper’s The Aeronauts. Tom is an alumnus of Film London, having made two shorts Cubs and Cherries with support from Film London. Two Film London Artists’ Moving Image Network Productions features have been selected to screen in the Experimenta strand of the BFI London Film Festival 2019. Roz Mortimer’s The Deathless Woman and Noor Afshan Mirza & Brad Butler’s Ruptures will have their world premieres at BFI Southbank.
This year also sees Film London’s Production Finance Market (PFM) strengthen ties to the LFF Industry programme. PFM facilitates over 800 face-to-face meetings between producers and financiers from the international marketplace, to foster relationships and source financing for new projects. Film London will also host their regular London Calling event at the festival, showcasing a selection of new BFI NETWORK shorts from some of the capital’s most exciting upcoming filmmakers.
At a time of feelings of uncertainty in the economic environment, doom and gloom is misplaced when it comes to film was Adrian’s message, loud and clear.
The UK film industry has never been busier, he confirmed, with talent and crews in the greatest demand they have known. Studios are always busy, but never full thanks to new and exciting studio developments across the UK.
It was reassuring to hear that no matter what happens over the next few months, UK film tax reliefs aren’t going anywhere. The Government has identified the film sector as bigger that pharma and growing faster than any other sector in the economy.
History has shown us that creative by nature, filmmakers and producers will always find a way of working together, no matter what challenges they face. The film sector is resilient.
On a larger scale Disney is at Pinewood, and Netflix is at Shepperton; huge global names expanding into the UK and using UK talent and technology. These are the strongest signals to the UK film industry that the sector is attracting international investment, and endorsement.
by Ian Gibbon
The worldwide box office for 2019 to date has been a story of winners and losers.
Sitting firmly in the winner’s enclosure are the tent pole movies dominated by Disney’s acquisition of the Marvel franchise, Lucas Films and Pixar.
The box office returns are flowing into the Disney coffers.
Five movies have broken the $1bn box office in 2019; four of them are Disney movies, ‘Avengers Endgame’, ‘The Lion King’, ‘Toy Story’, and ‘Aladdin’. The fifth movie that grossed over $1bn box office was Sony’s ‘Spiderman: Far From Home’.
To further drive home Disney’s box office supremacy, it is amazing to note that Disney’s movies account for 44% of all tickets sold globally so far this year. The top 11 movies in terms of box office draw this year are all reboots of earlier franchise films.
Sitting in 12th place is Tarantino’s ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ with $300m takings and the only original major films to break the $100m barrier.
The bad news is when we look at the performance of Indie films. Two years ago the top 10 speciality titles took a combined $130m at the US box office; leading films being ‘The Big Sick’ ($42.9m), and ‘Wild River’ ($33.8m). The equivalent numbers for 2019 is $64m, a substantial drop. Well reviewed films this year such as ‘Late Night’, ‘Brittany Runs a Marathon@, and ‘Blinded by the Light’ gained $27m at the US box office against budgets of $42m.
Going forward it seems to get harder and harder for Indie films to get theatrical releases in a market dominated by Generation X and Millennials who want fast paced, special effects action.
by Ian Gibbon
TIFF is without doubt a great film festival. Whichever way you judge a film festival, Toronto ticks all the boxes and then has a few special add ons to make it unique.
The galaxy of film premiers is stunning, the number of top end, potential award winning films is limitless and included Joker, Judy, Marriage Story, Knives Out, Hustlers, Greed, and Ford v Ferrari.
Ford v. Ferrari will be shown at the London Film Festival with the title Le Mans. After careful consideration it was decided not to use Le Mans as the title of the film in Toronto, believing that the North American Market may not instantly recognise it.
Anyhow, back to the festival. The powers that be, together with the big studio and streaming players, ensure that nearly all the top actors and directors are present to promote the films and meet the huge number of fans hanging around at every performance; waiting for the chance to meet their heroes or heroines and get that all important selfie.
There was an array of actors in attendance this year including Tom Hanks, Leonardo di Caprio and Adam Driver.
However, would you believe that Toronto is not all about glamour and glitz? There is a serious side that provides a platform for producers to secure distribution deals and obtain financing for future projects. Such is the interest in the festival that you could say that anyone who is anyone is there. It’s the golden opportunity for anyone working in film and TV to get the chance to meet and catch up with existing and new contacts.
You may be aware that Canada has a co-production agreement with the UK that permits qualifying productions to take advantage of the UK Tax Credit. We’ve been working with several Canadian producers over the past few years and were able to meet about 25 new film producers at Toronto. Not only are they keen to take advantage of the UK Tax Credit but they are also attracted by the UK’s high calibre technicians, excellent studio location and cultural environment.
by Ian Gibbon
Looking back to the 1970s and 1980s Disney seemed to have lost its way. At best it was treading water. However, since Bob Iger took control of the reins in 2006 Disney has quadrupled its share price through a series of smart acquisitions.
Between 2006 and 2012 Disney acquired Pixar, Marvel Entertainment and Lucas Film for circa $15.5bn. Since then these companies have produced two Toy Story animations, four Avengers superhero movies and four Star Wars films, which in total have grossed over $30bn at the box office. Astonishing!
This year Disney paid $71bn for 21st Century Fox and has obtained a huge library including ‘The Simpsons’ and National Geographic.
And now Disney is entering a new frontier; on 12th November to be precise. It will be named Disney+ and will of course be a rival to Netflix, Amazon Prime and similar offerings in the future from Apple and HBO.
Apart from the appeal of its stable of content, which let’s face it is huge, Disney is pitching its service at $6.99 a month which is competitive compared to Netflix’s $8.99 subscription.
Content is key and now Disney looks well positioned. There are 661 episodes of ‘The Simpsons’ and 600 more of National Geographic, plus once licencing agreements permit, the Marvel, Pixar, Start Wars and classic Disney films.
Streaming is fast becoming a major outlet for content. Disney seems to have identified this and looks to be lined up for a successful immediate future.
by Ian Gibbon
Despite the challenge of streaming and the comfort/convenience of watching content at home or on the run the box office and admissions carry on increasing throughout the world.
Unsurprising the greatest growth is from China. Their gross box office revenue has increased from $4.82 bn in 2014 to $9.24bn in 2018. Admissions in China increased from 830m in 2014 to 1720m in 2018.
The Region with the greatest number of admissions is India – up from 1937m in 2014 to 2021m in 2018 although due to cheaper ticket prices the gross box office revenue in 2018 was $1.5bn – which ranks India 7th worldwide.
As expected the highest gross box office revenue remains USA and Canada – $10.4bn in 2014 up to $11.88bn in 2018.
UK Box Office has remained flat for the past 5 years – $1.74bn in 2014 through to $1.71 bn in 2018 – this ranks the UK market 4th worldwide and 7th in terms of admission in 2018 – 177m.
Only 4 UK productions made the UK top 20 films by Admissions in 2018 – Mamma Mia, Here we go again (jointly produced in USA and Japan). Bohemian Rhapsody, Fantastic Beasts, The Crime Of and Darkest Hour. The big over achiever was Bohemian Rhapsody that has now earnt $1bn at the box office – an outstanding achievement. The move was completed by Dexter Fleming whose new film, Rocketman – based on Elton John amazing life story was premiered at Cannes. We expect this to feature in 2019 top lists and wish it the very best.
by Ian Gibbon
Adrian Wootton, Film London and British Film Commission Chief Executive says that it is the competitive tax relief – available to produce films, high end TV, Animation, Children’s programmes and Video games that qualify as British and spend a minimum of 10% of their budget in the UK that forms the “Anchor” of the industry’s offering. Our tax relief is designed in such a way that it is very flexible, efficient and dependable. It is enshrined in law. It is not affected by political change or Brexit.
A British Film Institute (BFI) Report published in February 2019 shows that in 2018, UK Cinema Admission reached their highest level since 1970 achieving a total box office of $1.8bn (£1.39bn).
The appetite for high quality content shows no sign of slowing down.
The spend on high end TV and film production in the UK in 2018 reached $4bn (£3.1bn), the second highest year on record after 2017’s $4.2bn (£3.28bn). This is broken down $2.49bn (£1.92bn) spent on film production and $1.52bn (£1.17bn) spent on TV production.
The UK Tax Credit regime has indeed given a great boost back to the industry.
by Ian Gibbon
Disney and Comcast have struck a deal to allow Disney to take sole control over Hulu. Comcast will remain a silent partner until 2024, at which time either company can trigger a buyout of the 33% equity stake in the hands of Comcast.
There has been a huge amount of criticism directed at the US subscription video on demand service Hulu. This has been so bad that in industry circles the company has been known as Clown Co.
However, Hulu has now become a major challenger to Netflix. Hulu added twice as many US subscribers than Netflix in the 3 months to 31st March 2019. Hulu added 3.8m subscribers in the US market in this period compared to Netflix’s 1.74m additional subscribers.
The total Hulu subscription base is now 25m – which has grown from 6m in 2014. However, the total Hulu subscription base is less than half the 60m subscription base of Netflix.
Hulu’s terrific growth is attributable to acquiring shows from ABC, Fox and NBC.
Another factor is subscription price – the basic viewing plan of Hulu is now $5.99 per month – down from $7.99. On the other hand Netflix has raised its monthly subscription from $10.99 to $12.99.
The deal shows the monstrous appetite for consolidation in the Media World – not much different really to what we are seeing in the Trade World.
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