Pride Success

Successes

To decide how successful Pride was, many factors must be taken into consideration, rather than just weighing up the box office money that the film ok in. The Box Office draw for Pride was actually disappointing, grossing only £15.6m internationally, compared to a £6.8m budget, which is still a £10m profit, however in the film industry, this is quite low for a film that featured some of the UK’s top actors, like Bill Nighy and Imelda Staunton. The audience will determine if they believe the film was good enough, because even though they paid for the film, which contributes to the Box Office draw, they may not have necessarily enjoyed watching the film, or read the film in the way Beresford intended. There are three ways that that an audience can read and interpret a film, the preferred, oppositional and negotiated reading. This is a really important point, and vital to determine how successful the film is. 

The film was labelled as “Wonderful, indescribably good” on the posters of the film in the UK, so it isn’t a surprise that the most common reading of the film was the Preferred reading, meaning that the film was successful in that way. However, a reviewer from Slant Magazine, named Elise, claimed that he film “Is as formulaically cheery, didactically 'uplifting,' and fundamentally false as a Disney sports movie”. Elise is incredibly negative for the film, but explains that she believes this as everything in the film happens “unnaturally”, meaning that the film, although based on a true story, created false storylines in an attempt to keep the storyline going. Another reviewer, Smith, said similar to Elise, but focused more on the comedy spectrum of the film, claiming that the jokes were unfunny, overused, and spoilt the film. Despite these negative reviews, which is typical of any film, even The Godfather, the greatest film of all time, the film was a huge success by plaudits and the audience. On Rotten Tomatoes, Top critics rated the film 93%, one of the highest in the clanday year of 2014, and the audience gave it a similar score of 89%, meaning that 9 in 10 people enjoyed the film, out of 325,000 reviews given! On IMDb, the film received a 7.9 rating too, a website known to be much more critical than Rotten Tomatoes, so a 7.9 is actually very good for a film that targets a niche audience! In this aspect, the film was a massive success, and probably deserved to gross much more than £15.6m. It only grossed £3.5 in DVD sales, quite surprising given how good of a reception it Good by the audience, however possibly understandable, as the people interested in the film likely would have went to the cinemas to watch it, rather than buying it as a DVD, and watching at home. 

Another factor at determining whether the film was a success was the amount of awards it was nominated for, and the ones that they won. Unfortunately for Pride, the film didn’t receive as much attention as the directors would have liked, meaning that the huge awards ceremonies, like the Oscars, didn’t consider them for an award. However, British awards, like the BAFTA’s, and the BIFA’s did recognise their work, particularly Stephen Beresford, and he won a BIFA and a BAFTA, a huge reward for him, and a very prestigious one to win. Imelda Staunton and Andrew Scott also won a BIFA for their supporting roles, and the film overall actually won a BIFA too, illustrating that although the film wasn’t a massive mainstream appeal, it still won awards in the UK. For a film that had a budget of 5m, they probably only accepted to win a small number of awards (if they were to win any that is!) and as the film was targeted to a niche audience, they didn’t expect to win huge awards like the Oscars. The film won several awards at festivals aimed towards the LGBT Community, meaning that they recognised their work and awarded them. Away from the awards, the film was successful at telling the story of how the LGSM community struggled so much in the 1980’s. Many people, were aware of the miners, however oblivious to the LGBT community and the struggles they had I=at that same time period, so while not winning many awards, they were incredibly successful at telling the audience of these problems, many that they would not have been aware of. Considering the directors were so new to the film industry, they did a magnificent job at directing the film, and quite rightfully were rewarded with a BAFTA, and nominated for a Golden Globe.

There are no known sales of the merchandise for Pride, so it is presumed that the sales were either low, or they didn’t choose to kept track of the sales. So the final way of determining Pride’s success is the cast, and their future work. Ben Schnetzer did get more roles in the future, however his role in Warcraft was received very positively, and the film received more than quadruple its budget, grossing £400m at the Box Office. A less successful film, Snowden, based on whistle-blower Edward Snowden, did not turn over a profit, however his role in the film was huge. George MacKay only did two more films after Pride, both unsuccessful, and considering his potential, he definitely could have amounted more than what he did. Director Beresford also did not do much after the film neither, he never directed another film and went back into theatre, a bit bizarre, as he won/was nominated for so many awards. 

Overall, despite the film receiving such a good rating at the two critic websites, Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb, the film did not gross as much as it possibly should have. They won 4 ‘major’ awards and several more ‘minor’ awards, which is fantastic for a film with a niche target audience, and they did make a £10m profit, but the film had the potential to gross much more than it should have. The film was more successful at telling the audience of the struggles the LGBT community had, so although it was a ‘small’ success in the box office, the encoders possibly wonder whether they should have received more. The audience loved the film, and it’s surprising that ‘word of mouth’ marketing didn’t make the film more successful.