This weekend was the tale of two Lotteries.
At the European Athletics Championships, Team GB celebrated 9 gold medals, a triumph built on 30 years of long-term investment in infrastructure, coaching, and talent development. Amy Hunt, after winning gold in the 4x100m relay, publicly thanked the National Lottery for giving her the opportunity.
Meanwhile, in UK cinemas, Sunny Dancer, a critically acclaimed, Lottery-funded British film with a 92% Rotten Tomatoes score, failed to crack the top 10. Despite glowing reviews, strong media coverage, and the perfect August slot that once belonged to The Full Monty and The Inbetweeners, it was buried on shared screens while Spider-Man played every 15 minutes.
One Lottery. Two outcomes. One system works. The other has been failing for 30 years.
The Scoreboard: Athletics vs. Film
| UK Athletics (1996) | UK Athletics (2026) | UK Film (1994–2026) | |
| Lottery investment | £50m (just beginning) | £1.8bn (accumulated) | £1.1bn (accumulated) |
| Strategy | Long-term infrastructure | Long-term infrastructure | Short-term project grants |
| Gold medals | 1 (Atlanta) | 9 (European Championships) | 0 (no equivalent metric) |
| Visible success | Minimal | Athletes thank the Lottery | 600+ films most forgotten |
| Legacy | Loughborough, Lee Valley, coaching pathways | World-class system | No UK-owned studios, no distribution, no exhibition |
The contrast is devastating. UK Athletics took a single gold medal in Atlanta 1996 and transformed itself into a medal-winning machine. The film industry took over £1.1 billion of public money and produced 600+ films most of which the public has never heard of.
The Illusion of “British” Success
The industry celebrates “British film success” while systematically strangling genuinely British films.
The Odyssey (Universal), Brand New Day (Sony), and Pressure (Studiocanal) are all celebrated as British films. They are 100% financed and owned by foreign companies. The profits flow to Hollywood and Paris. The UK provides the cast, crew, locations, and tax breaks, and takes the credit while the money leaves.
The BFI’s cultural test allows this. A film needs just 16 out of 35 points to qualify as “British” for UK cast, crew, or locations. It does not matter who owns it. It does not matter where the profits go.
Remove all films made by US and European-owned companies, and the “British film industry” is tiny, fragile, and almost invisible.
The Broken Promises
The UK had chances to build a self-sustaining film industry. Each one was squandered.
Rank Walked Away
In the 1940s to 1970s, the Rank Organisation was the closest the UK ever came to a Hollywood-style studio system. It owned Pinewood Studios, a distribution network, and the Odeon cinema chain. It could make, distribute, and exhibit its own films.
In the 1970s, Rank diversified into bingo halls, Butlins holiday camps, and hotels lower-risk, higher-revenue sectors. It walked away from cinema. Many Rank cinemas became bingo halls. The infrastructure was dismantled, and no one replaced it.
The 1996 Franchises Were Pink Elephants
The National Lottery Film Franchises—DNA Films, Pathe Pictures, and The Film Consortium were meant to be four self-sufficient UK studios. They were supposed to build infrastructure, develop talent, and create a virtuous cycle of reinvestment.
Instead, they were mismanaged into oblivion. The Film Consortium collapsed, leaving £12m of Lottery money unrecovered. DNA survived but became dependent on US financing. Pathe remained French-owned. Entertainment Films, the fourth franchise candidate, was denied because the Arts Council feared “too many films.”
The Digital Screen Network Was Undermined
In 2005, the Digital Screen Network was launched with £11.5m to equip 250 screens with digital projectors at a time when there were only 113 digital screens in the entire world. It was designed to give British films flexible distribution, allowing word-of-mouth hits to grow.
When commercial digital rollout followed, Virtual Print Fees (VPFs) penalised independent releases. Distributors paid around £430 per screen in week one and moving a print to another cinema meant starting the fee cycle from scratch. Independent distributors effectively paid for the renovation of cinemas.
The Hollowing Out of UK Distribution
The UK no longer has a robust, home-grown distribution sector. This did not happen by accident it happened through a series of corporate decisions that stripped the country of its commercial film infrastructure.
Rank Film Distributors: Sold Off and Closed Down
In the late 1990s, Rank Film Distributors a company that had been making and distributing British films since the 1930s was sold to Carlton TV. The promise was that film distribution would continue.
Within months, Carlton closed the distribution arm. They were only interested in the library.
A company that had sustained British cinema for over sixty years was dismantled because its new owners saw more value in selling off the past than building the future.
Polygram: The Studio That Almost Was
In the early 1990s, Polygram was building UK assets with serious ambition. Through Working Title and other acquisitions, it was creating the first British studio that could compete directly with US studios.
At its peak, Polygram was on the verge of acquiring MGM a move that would have created a genuinely global, UK-backed studio.
Then a new boss arrived at Philips (Polygram’s parent company). Within months, the ambition was abandoned. Polygram was sold off for parts:
- Working Title was acquired by Universal Pictures (US).
- MGM (US) acquired the library.
Over the last 28 years, Universal Pictures has had huge success with British films made by Working Title. Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Love Actually, Billy Elliot, Les Misérables all “British” successes. All owned by a US studio. All profits flowing to America.
The 25-Year Clean Sweep
The few British distributors that launched in the last 25 years have all been sold to US or European studios:
- Redbus Films – Acquired by Helkon, then acquired by Lionsgate (US).
- Optimum Releasing – Acquired by Studiocanal (France).
- Contender Films – Acquired by eOne (Canada), which then acquired Alliance Films (who had acquired Electric Pictures), and was ultimately sold to Lionsgate (US).
Entertainment Film Distributors is the last major, consistently active, UK-owned independent distributor standing. Founded in 1978, it has survived by distributing a mix of US indie hits and British films—but even it has to fight for screens against the blockbuster machine.
The Exhibition Chain: From British Ownership to Foreign Control
The story of UK cinema chains mirrors the wider pattern: British-owned companies were sold off, broken up, or swallowed by foreign investors. The result is an exhibition sector that answers to private equity and US corporations, not British culture.
Odeon: From Rank to AMC
Odeon was founded by Oscar Deutsch in the 1930s and sold to J. Arthur Rank in 1941, giving Rank control of both Odeon and the rival Gaumont-British chain. For decades, Odeon was the crown jewel of Rank’s vertically integrated empire production, distribution, and exhibition all under one British roof.
Then the dismantling began:
- 2000: Rank sold Odeon to Cinven for £280 million, which merged it with ABC Cinemas.
- 2004: The chain was purchased by Terra Firma (Guy Hands’ private equity firm) and merged with United Cinemas International (UCI) to create Europe’s largest cinema chain. This is when Hands made his famous remark about being in the “popcorn-selling business, not the movie business.”
- 2016: Odeon was sold to AMC Theatres (US) for $921 million. AMC itself is owned by the Chinese conglomerate Wanda Group.
A British institution, built by Rank, is now owned by a US company controlled by Chinese capital.
Vue: Born from Warner Bros.
Vue’s origins are rooted in US ownership. The company was formed in May 2003 when SBC International Cinemas (a start-up backed by US private equity) acquired Warner Village Cinemas a chain owned by Warner Bros. (US) and Village Roadshow (Australia). The deal was valued at around $400 million.
SBC was renamed Vue Entertainment, and the Warner Village sites were rebranded. Today, Vue is owned by OMERS Private Equity (the pension fund of Ontario, Canada) and Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo).
Vue was never British owned. It was built from the bones of a Warner Bros. chain and is now owned by Canadian pension funds.
Cineworld: The “British” Chain Owned by Private Equity
Cineworld opened its first cinema in Stevenage in July 1996. It grew through acquisition:
- 2004: Cineworld’s parent company was acquired by The Blackstone Group (US private equity). Blackstone then acquired UGC Cinemas Holdings, the UK arm of a French cinema chain, and merged the two operations.
- UGC had previously acquired Virgin Cinemas in 1999, bringing with it the “Unlimited” pass that became the Cineworld Unlimited Card. The pass was originally Virgin’s innovation a subscription model that changed how UK audiences went to the cinema.
- The merger with UGC created the UK’s second-largest cinema chain, but the Office of Fair Trading required Cineworld to sell six locations to Empire Cinemas to address competition concerns.
Cineworld is British in name and brand, but it has been owned by US private equity for over 20 years.
The Vertical Integration That Was Lost
This is the full picture:
| Level | British-Owned Then | British-Owned Now |
| Production | Rank, Polygram, Working Title (briefly) | Mostly US/Euro-owned studios |
| Distribution | Rank Film Distributors, Redbus, Optimum, Contender | Entertainment Films (last survivor) |
| Exhibition | Rank’s Odeon chain | Odeon (AMC/US), Vue (Canadian), Cineworld (US private equity) |
In the 1940s to 1970s, Rank controlled all three levels. It could make a film, distribute it, and show it in its own cinemas. That vertical integration was the foundation of a self-sustaining British film industry.
Today, the UK has no vertically integrated British-owned studio. US and European companies dominate production. Distribution is almost entirely foreign controlled. Exhibition is owned by US, Canadian, and private equity investors.
The industry is a production base for others not a film industry in its own right.
Exhibitors: The Popcorn Sellers
When Guy Hands bought Odeon, he famously said: “We’re in the popcorn-selling business, not the movie business.”
Exhibitors today are retail operators who happen to show films. They optimise for footfall per screen, concession revenue, and predictable returns. AI booking algorithms are the logical endpoint of this philosophy they “learn” that tentpoles sell and allocate screens accordingly.
- Spider-Man plays on 5 screens, every 15 minutes.
- Sunny Dancer opens on 344 shared screens, with one or two shows a day.
The multiplex promised choice. AI delivered a tentpole factory.
The Slow-Burn Hit Is Extinct
If The Full Monty opened today, it would:
- Open on 344 shared screens (not the slow-burn release it had)
- Get a 50% drop in week two (not the nine-week run it enjoyed)
- Be replaced by the next tentpole.
- Never build the word-of-mouth that made it a phenomenon.
The slow-burn hit is extinct. And with it, the model that made British feel-good films the lifeblood of UK cinemas.
The French Contrast
In France, local films regularly dominate the box office.
| Year | French Film Market Share |
| 2023 | 40%+ |
| 2024 | Strong, with local hits outselling Hollywood |
| 2025 | Continued success for local productions |
In the first half of 2026, French domestic productions captured 42.5% market share, nearly matching US studio films at 47.5%. Marsupilami a family comedy took over 6.1 million admissions, generating around £50m at the box office.
Why? France has:
- A quota system ensuring French films get screen time.
- Public funding for distribution and exhibition
- A cultural commitment to supporting local cinema.
The UK has none of this. The result? A country that treats its own films as foreign imports while celebrating US-owned productions as “British.”
The BFI’s Impossible Job
The BFI is expected to be:
- An archive (preserving film heritage)
- An educational body (teaching film in schools)
- An arts funder (supporting “good cause” projects)
- A commercial investor (helping UK films compete)
- An industry regulator (setting standards, collecting data)
No single organisation can do all of these well.
When the BFI tries to act commercially, it faces pushback: “That’s not what Lottery money is for.” When it focuses on cultural work, it is accused of ignoring commercial reality. The result is a halfway house—not fully commercial, not fully cultural, not fully effective.
Ben Roberts, the BFI’s CEO, admits: “You can make a lot of enemies… You turn most people down… Everyone has to fill out a form. Get over it!”
He inherited this mess. But the system itself is broken.
The Definition of “British” Is a Fraud
The industry has twisted the definition of “British film” to make itself look successful.
The BFI’s cultural test allows films that are 100% foreign owned to qualify as “British.” This is not spin it is a systemic misrepresentation that has shaped policy, funding, and public perception for decades.
The public funded 600+ films through the Lottery. Most have no idea they exist.
The 51st US State
The UK has become Hollywood’s production backlot:
- US studios finance and own the films.
- UK tax breaks subsidise the production.
- UK talent makes them.
- UK cinemas show them.
- UK audiences pay to see them.
- US studios take the profits.
In 2025, 91% of the £2.78 billion spent on UK film production came from inward investment—studios and streamers based outside the UK. Over £2.5 billion of that came from US companies alone.
The UK is a world-class production base—but it does not own its film industry.
The Final Truth
1 gold in 1996. 9 golds in 2026.
UK Athletics proved that long-term investment in infrastructure works. The film industry refused to learn that lesson.
Sunny Dancer is the latest casualty a genuinely British, Lottery-funded, critically acclaimed film that could not find an audience because the system was never built to support it.
The industry celebrates “British film success” while systematically strangling real British films. The public, who paid for it all, does not even know what they have funded.
That is not a failure of the films. That is a 30-year failure of industrial strategy.
What Needs to Change
- Reclaim the definition of “British film.” Remove films made by US and European-owned companies from the count. Be honest about the scale of the genuine UK film industry.
- Build infrastructure, not projects. Use Lottery funding for studios, distribution arms, and exhibition support—not just individual films.
- Learn from France. Introduce quotas, screen support, and a genuine cultural commitment to local cinema.
- Reinvest profits. Create a virtuous cycle where successful British films fund future British films.
- Think in decades, not years. A 30-year plan—like UK Athletics had—is the only way to build a self-sustaining industry.
The blueprint for success has been there all along. The film industry simply refused to follow it. And until that changes, Sunny Dancer will not be the last casualty.
The industry has not learned. And the public is still paying the price.
