CAVIAR Reveals ’96 As “Year Of The Blockbuster”

The latest CAVIAR survey reveals 1996 as “the year of the blockbuster”, with the top 10 films of 1996 amassing gross takings of £175.6m and the top 25 a total of £281.6m. A record six made it over the elusive 5 million admissions barrier – Independence Day, Toy Story, Babe, Jumanji, Mission: Impossible and Goldeneye. This compares with three films in 1995 – The Lion King, Batman Forever and Casper.

A wider audience was also attracted to the cinema in 1996, with the number of 35+ year olds and 7-14 year olds visiting the cinema regularly doubling since 1991. More diverse films such as Sense & Sensibility, Babe and Toy Story helped to achieve this.

500 new screens have opened since 1991, with multiplexes accounting for 40% of all screens in 1996 and 46% of all visits. 94% of all 15-24 year olds and 88% of all 25-34 year olds say they are cinema-goers, compared to 82% and 65% respectively ten years ago.

While the profile demographics of the cinema-going public varies according to product, there is an overall almost equal split between male and female and 66% of audiences are ABC1s.

The CAVIAR data also shows that:

• Independence Day was seen by 1 in 5 of the population and 45% of all 15-24 year olds. It has become the fourth most successful film of recent times after Jurassic Park, ET and Grease. Toy Story was seen by 49% of all 7-11 year olds.
• Sense & Sensibility attracted a wide audience, with 65% over 35 years old.
• There has been a 60% increase over the last ten years in the number of 15-34 year old frequent cinema goers.
• The major cinema-going age group (18-24 year olds) strengthened in 1996 to an average of 11 visits over the year to watch films such as Independence Day, Seven and Trainspotting. The CAVIAR results show that 13% of Trainspotting‘s audience returned to see it more than once.
• Cinema remains a top leisure pursuit with 48% of visits made in groups of three or more.
• Admissions to the top six films measured by CAVIAR accounted for a third of the annual admissions.
• 63% agreed that advertising and publicity are very influential when deciding which film to see. 60% agree that they tend to go and see films on the strength of reviews they have seen. 56% agree that they try to go and see films as soon as they are released.

Adam Poulter, president of the CAA, said: “The latest CAVIAR data proves that cinema as a medium is more than capable of attracting in over 200 million annual admissions by the year 2000.”

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