The British film industry has a complex attitude to Hollywood. It has been argued that the size of the domestic British cinema market makes it impossible for the British film industry to successfully produce Hollywood-style
blockbusters over a sustained period without U.S. involvement. American subsidiary
Miramax took over
Anthony Minghella's
The English Patient (1996) when the production ran into difficulties during filming. Technically an American production, the film won 9
Oscars. Conversely, many films credited as American have been shot largely in the UK such as
Prometheus,
Star Wars: The Force Awakens and
Guardians of the Galaxy. "In film as in society at large, America’s influence has now reached levels and depths previously unimaginable," said critic Geoff Brown, referring to the Americanisation of British film culture in the 1990s. He cites as examples Hollywood coverage and the use of language in publications like
Empire magazine, as well as dominance of big-budget American films in multiplexes, but he also notes that this is an industrial matter:
The Full Monty was entirely financed and distributed by one of the American majors,
Twentieth Century Fox, […] The praise went to Britain, but all the film’s profits went to America." Conversely, BBC critic
Mark Kermode believes that "the movie industries of Britain and America are inextricably intertwined", citing numerous examples of how Hollywood provides work to British production staff and studios, whilst Britain enables Hollywood to base their prestigious productions at British studios. He refers to British director
Christopher Nolan’s
The Dark Knight and
Inception as British rather than as American films, and yet "when a movie which looks quintessentially ‘British’, such as ''
The King's Speech'', achieves equivalent success, everyone suddenly starts writing articles about the state of our national cinema as if it somehow exists in isolation." He agrees, nevertheless, that ‘the real problem’ is distribution rather than funding: "only a scant few secure the width of distribution that allows an extensive audience." ==See also==