Europe accounts for the largest share of the outdoor cinema market.
London’s Southbank Centre is hosting a nearly two month long pop-up cinema festival to celebrate the Christmas season.
The temporary cinema at The Circus Bar will be screening movies like Bridget Jones’s Diary, The Lion King and Home Alone, among many others, from 12 pm every day until December 29. While viewers have to pay for some screenings, most are free of charge.
The circus-themed pop-up cinema is one of many in the global market of outdoor cinema. A 2018 release by MarketWatch valued the market at at approximately USD 824 million (£630 million).
Europe accounts for the largest share of the outdoor cinema market “due to the availability of content sources and faster evolution in digital projection expertise and related technologies”, as mentioned in the release. In the UK alone, the pop-up cinema market was valued at £10 million by the end of the last quarter of 2018.
Out of all the European cities, London remains at the heart of the culture of outdoor or pop-up cinema. Last year itself, London hosted more than 650 screenings in make-shift cinemas.
Outdoor cinemas were first popularised in London by the famous street artist, Banksy. Banksy screened his movie, Exit Through The Gift Shop, in a makeshift cinema with a capacity of 150 seats in a tunnel near Waterloo Underground Station. In 2010, the movement grew exponentially with classic movies being screened at setups in more adventurous locations like a derelict petrol pump and under the arches of Deptford Bridge.
This time period defined outdoor cinema as a temporary, affordable set-up, which could help provide an extraordinary ambience and experience to its audience. While the popularity of pop-up cinemas has increased tenfold over the past decade, the motivation behind it remains the same – to screen people’s favourite movies at locations where an “experience” can be sold to the audience.
Evan Ansari, 30, was heading to the Southbank Centre for a screening of Disney’s Monsters University with her nephew. She told Raven News: “When it’s an immersive experience, it makes you focus more. When you’re watching a movie at home, you would pause, just walk around, check your phone or things like that. In certain events like this, where they have made the set up in a circus tent, it is quite interesting and appealing.”
London’s market for outdoor cinema is dominated by 3-4 key players like Backyard Cinema, Luna Cinema, among others, all of whom aim to create an extraordinary experience which increases the appeal of watching a movie that viewers may have already seen before.
“With these kinds of events, we get to go to lovely parts of London that we wouldn’t otherwise see,” said Sultan Khan, 38, who was at the Southbank Centre with his three children and wife for the screening.
Backyard Cinema is one of the biggest competitors in this arena in London. The indoor cinema venture started off as a temporary set-up on the cobbles of Camden market in 2013. Currently, it is selling tickets to its Christmas-themed screenings in two locations. It describes one of them as: “A brand new Christmas adventure, uncover the hidden entrance, navigate the magical ball pit river, find the secret password, discover a cosy Christmas cinema”. With this, the company underscores the “magical” essence of the event to its audience.
Another big player in the market, Luna Cinema, aims to create hype about its events through carefully selected screening venues – Kensington Palace and St George’s Hall. The historical relevance of these places lends a unique appeal to their screenings and adds to the “experience” of watching cinema here. The company owns approximately 25% of the market share in pop-up cinemas market in London. In 2017, the company’s turnover was £3 million with over 175 screenings in the city.
Every year, the Somerset House also hosts an outdoor cinema by Film4. The screenings gather a lot of attention due to the venue and the fact that they are only held in summer (until late August). This year, however, Time Out and City Cruises partnered together to host “Movie on the River” in the month of June and July, giving competition to Film4. Time Out also promoted the experience of the event as “London’s first ever cinema on the Thames.”
With such diverse experiences on offer, pop-up cinemas are definitely a “must do” in London during the holiday seasons.