British Cinema Case Study: The World's End

The worlds end is a british made Sci-fi/comedy film. The film had a budget of $20 million and made over $46 million worldwide, making $8 million of which on its opening weekend, and almost half of its profit abroad.

The film stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, who have previously been extremely successful with their comedy partnership in other films of the same genre, specifically in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, which although extremely popular, only made half the domestic opening of World's End (hot fuzz) whereas Shaun of the Dead opened to only £3 million, making this movie the most successful of the 'trilogy', indicating a growing audience for these types of films, specifically abroad in the US, where some cinemas even held marathons of all three films in the trilogy, which are estimated to have contributed over $800,000 to the final profits according to the distributers. The movie also appeals to fans of these films who wish to see the two reunited in another film. The film co-stars other british household names, such as Martin Freeman, who has recently become a very popular actor due to his starring role in The Hobbit.

The genre is mostly comedy, a genre that british films typically excel at and proves very popular, even abroad, this along with what is termed the 'monty python effect' the appeal of typically 'british' quirky brand of humour having appeal in the US and other places abroad, could explain the appeal of the film to foreign audiences. The film also has strong messages of counter culture, standing against the consumer driven production of hollywood films, which may also explain some of its success to audiences who want to see a movie with underlying social messages, or films different from the usual hollywood fare.

The film is also of the sci-fi/action genre appealing to the average cinema goer and as the release date of the film was late August, appealing to the dwindling summer blockbuster crowds, who typically covet action films. The production company for the film was 'Working Title films', a british production company who have previously produced other british films of note, including Bridget Jones, Shaun of the Dead and Hot fuzz, as well as costume dramas, another genre of british film that does exceptionally well.

The film was rated a 15 by the bbfc for extremely strong language, as well as frequent strong sex references, by rating the film a 15 the audience is significantly limited as it excludes the family and children market, however the films genre would not be one that typically appeals to children, and the type of comedy used in the film would be limited to adult understanding, which is what the audiences would be expecting, given previous films of the same genre such as shaun of the dead. The appeal of the previous films made with the same actors and production companies work towards ensuring its appeal to 15 and above audiences despite. The film was marketed heavily in the media, with tv spots and adverts as well as conventional billboard advertising, but it was also actively marketed on social networking sites, with the director of the film, Edgar Wright actively advertising the film on his twitter account, where he has a large amount of followers, Simon Pegg also mentioned the film numerous times on his own twitter, where he has over 3 million followers, thanking american and canadian fans for their support in the production of the film. The film was very well received, receiving an 89% rating on rotten tomatoes, and a 7.2 on IMDB. Critics were generally very positive, with most saying that the film stands out on its own above the other two films in the trilogy as chaos driven, hilarious fun.