Despite the UK beating the downward global trend in box office profits. It seems that Production companies are leaving the UK in droves, even though that upward trend has been hugely helped by UK productions. I like the sense in that.
The Guardian have the reasons why, and it’s those bloody useless Politicians again who can’t see further than their own ego inflated, stomachs paid for by UK taxes.
Since the chancellor, Gordon Brown, put film industry tax breaks under review, Hollywood giants have deserted UK studios such as Pinewood, often for eastern Europe. The amount spent on production in the UK last year declined by 31% from 2004 to √Ǭ£559.5m, according to statistics published yesterday by the UK Film Council…
…British films accounted for 34% of UK box office revenues, with Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were Rabbit and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy among them. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the most recent cinema instalment of the fantasy saga, topped the chart with box office receipts of √Ǭ£47.6m in 2005.
However, there might be good news ahead. Since that idiotic Chancellor realised what he’d done with the taxes and changed his stance, there’s the possibility of attracting people back.
However, the British film industry is hopeful that a new tax regime unveiled by the Treasury last month will result in foreign investment swiftly returning to the UK. In his pre-budget report, welcomed by the industry, the chancellor offered producers of films costing more than √Ǭ£20m a rebate of 16% provided they fulfil certain criteria, including a “cultural test”.
I’d like to know who “the British film industry” is and why they believe that companies will come “flooding back”. I doubt that will happen and that fast, if at all. There’s no real reason. Oh, and the cultural test that’s being talked about is a written exam about Britain…how messed up is this country?
