UK New Film Releases Week 9: 27 February- 5 March 2009

New British Feature Films (Fiction) Released in 2009 – 8  [11% of total film releases]

New British Fictional Feature Films (Released in 2009) Watched in the Cinema in 2009- 5

Total Film Releases in the UK in 2009 – 76

The new releases in the UK from 27 February 2009 are:

• The Class (FR)
• Franklyn (Gerald McMorrow, 2007, UK) #8 British release 2009
• Gun Crazy (USA, re-issue)
• The International (USA/GER/UK)
• New in Town (USA)
• Obscene (USA)
• The Unborn (USA)
• Peter Beard: Scrapbooks From Africa And Beyond (USA)
• The Universe Of Keith Haring (USA)

Hurrah! Hurrah! A new British film release  (Franklyn) – the first one for two weeks – but not available to see in Leicester this week. Drat! (a word that seems to be disappearing from the language – shame). However, it is coming to the Phoenix next week. Franklyn looks the most interesting of all the releases this week because of a rare strangeness that might make it a cult film. We could be on the upturn. Oh. No, The Young Victoria is out on Friday – as you were.

Of the 8 British fiction feature films released in 2009 only 4 have been released in Leicester in their first week of release (Slumdog Millionaire, Clubbed, Revolutionary Road, The Secret of Moonacre). Faintheart had a one-off free screening at the Cinema De Lux, Better Things was delayed, Franklyn is scheduled and The Broken is yet to be scheduled. Thus, so far, a British film has a 1 in 2 chance that it will be showing on its initial release. Except, of course, it is not luck but the kinds of films that are made and the distribution deals and exhibition strategies that provide the system in which. if current patterns persist, only 50% of British releases get into the chains.

Tags: british cinema, Franklyn