History of Movie Magazines and Cinema Research

British film magazine Empire is published on a monthly basis by Bauer consumer Media. Empire has been producing film magazines for over twenty years with the first ever magazine publication being released in july 1989. Empire film magazine was originally owned by EMAP however, Bauer media purchased Emap in the early part of 2008 and became the new owners of Empire film magazine. Empire is a well known and highly successful movie magazine which is reported as constantly outselling their only rival Total Film magazine. Empire is world wide with magazines been produced in Russia, Turkey and Australia as well as England.

Empire has become such a popular and sucessful magazine that it now hosts its own Empire awards with the winners being chosen by the readers of the magazine. Empire awards was previously sponsered by Sony Ericsson until Jameson took over the sponsership in 2009. Empire magazine is known for reviewing both well-known blockbuster films alongside lesser known artistic films produced by smaller independent companies, in such the same way that NME music magazine features unknown bands to advertise new talent and promote their works. However the main feature articles concentrate on the well-known blockbusters as these are the films which the main bulk of the magazines audience is interested in.

As well as film news, reviews of films and previews of coming soon films, Empire magazine features some unique, regular features.

As well as film news, previews and reviews, Empire has some unique regular features. Each issue (with the exception of issues 108 - 113) features a Classic Scene, a transcript from a notable film scene. The first such classic scene to be featured was the "I could have been a contender" scene from On the Waterfront.
The regular Top 10 feature lists Empire's choice of the top ten examples of something film-related. For example 10 Best Chase Scenes or 10 Best Movie Gags in The Simpsons. Readers are encouraged to write in if they disagree with the choices made.
The At Home section covers DVD news and releases; Empire's editors consider this section to be of sufficient quality to term it a magazine in itself, which is also relevant to the growth and importance of the DVD market, where sales can often outstrip that of box-office.
Pint of Milk presents celebrities' answers to silly or unusual questions, including the question "How much is a pint of milk?" This is intended as a guide to the Chosen Celebrity's contact with reality, and as such can be more informative than a direct interview, often reporting some surprising responses.
Each magazine includes a "Spine Quote", in which a relatively challenging quote is printed on the spine of the magazine. There are usually some obvious and obscure links from the quote to the main features of that month's edition. Readers are invited to identify the film source and the links to win a prize.
Kim Newman's DVD Dungeon is a regular feature in the At Home section, in which critic Kim Newman reviews the most obscure releases, mostly low budget horror movies.
Celebrity Mastermind is another regular in which a celebrity is given questions about the films they were in or they directed. Celebrities range from Quentin Tarantino and Christopher Lee (who are at the top of the scoreboard) to John Carpenter (who is at the bottom of the scoreboard).

Cinema Research

Another area of research which I decided to look into was the typical age of cinema attendees as this is going to affect who I direct my products towards. After looking at the office for National Statistics I discovered that the age group of young people aged 15-24 are the most likely to go to the cinema. In 2002, 50% of these young people reported that they went to the cinema at least once a month or even more in GB, compared with just 17% of those aged over 35. In 2002, over a third of 7 to 14 years olds where also reported as attending the cinema at least once a month of these nearly two thirds had been to the cinema with a friend of their own age. Also over half of 15 to 34 years olds and almost three quarters of those aged 35 and over who went to the cinema once or more went with their partner or spouse.