Chapter 8 develops a new theory of film audiences in particular – which is that the contemporary audience is a process that results in five types of audiences and audience experiences. The audience as a process involves the ways people develop relationships with film and the level and types of provision open to them. This process is realised through key relations with: screens; venues and places; audience types; and other people, socially and culturally, in lived film culture and through interactions with: friends, family and wider communities; screens and venues; film throughout the lifecourse; film stories through interpretive work; and the practices of audiences. These relations and interactions form audiences as a process. Film audiences’ relations and interactions are interwoven and come together in varying ways, depending on: audience members’ personal life experiences; life stage and circumstance; access and engagement with culture; the media (broadly defined) and screens; and with place-based film culture at the local level. These relations and interactions are composed of: personal film journeys; geographies of film provision; a mixed economy of film provision and policy; types of audience experience; lived film culture; and the social and cultural value of film. Together, these aspects coalesce to form a process that underpins and characterises audience formation.

Chapter 4 compares UK film policy with the research data to set out five modes of place in relation to film provision across the four English regions studied in Beyond the Multiplex (BtM). It argues that a small number of cities and towns have a diverse film offer, but most are dominated by mainstream types of film, and there are areas with very limited or no level of specialised film provision. The chapter adds that this unevenness is not necessarily linked to the socio-cultural profiles of people living there but, rather, it reflects cultural inequalities between different places which are especially prominent within the regions. Using the BtM audience interviews enables insights to be drawn out about how the diversity of film provision in different places shapes people’s sense of place. Together, the chapter demonstrates that the uneven distribution of specialised film exhibition provision across England shapes how people view where they live, but that people are reflexive and often creative in finding ways to overcome limitations, by seeking out film online or in other ways.

Chapter 7 identifies five distinct types of film audience experiences in which people engage with, and participate in, film audiences. These comprise: individualised, group, venue-specific, global, and digital audiences. It notes that each type of film audience and the experience it offers revolves around a particular set of relationships and interactions around film watching. Also, it explains that participation in each type of audience may relate to particular life stages, to the ways in which individuals develop a relationship with film and how film viewing is embedded into their personal, social and cultural lives. Another feature of film audience experiences is that individuals may – and do – engage in all five audience types and experiences, and in more than one type at once. They choose what type of audience and audience experience they want to participate in at any given time and place that will meet a desired set of film choices, social and cultural criteria. These are embedded in patterns of relationships people have with film and in how they creatively craft their personal journeys with film within wider film provision. As a result of this, individuals move between audience types and experience a range of film audiences.

Chapter 5 turns to audience member experiences and develops a new concept of personal film journeys. It characterises these as the relationships a person has with film over their lifecourse. Although people pass through the same lifecourse stages, from childhood through early adulthood and midlife into old age, there are dimensions of their personal biographies which can affect their relationship with film at each stage. For example, one dimension involves being actively introduced to particular types of film. Although this is often associated with childhood and adolescence, the chapter shows that it can occur at any point in a person’s life. Other dimensions include: education and learning, and their impact on a person’s ongoing relationship with film; creative exploration, personal discovery and taking risks on new types of film; socio-cultural profile and social environment in terms of who people are connected to through their linked lives, where they live and how that shapes their relationship with film. The chapter also discusses changes within people’s lives that can disrupt their relationship with film, e.g. periods of illness, relocation or changes to the configuration of their relationships with others, such as leaving home, starting a new personal relationship or going through a break-up or divorce. Cumulatively, these dimensions lead people towards developing a relationship with film over their lifecourse that is personal, in that it both feels unique to a particular individual and is also something that is a shared intersubjective and cultural experience. All these factors combine in the concept of personal film journeys.

Chapter 2 describes and discusses the novel methodology for studying how audiences form that was used in the Beyond the Multiplex (BtM) research. The innovation combined mixed-methods research with a computational ontology. The chapter describes how the methodology was developed, by outlining the aims of BtM and its research themes before introducing the particular English regions under study – the North East, North West, South West, and Yorkshire and the Humber – in terms of demographics, geographic profile and film provision. The BtM project research themes are then outlined, including the practices of specialised and mainstream film consumption, the social aspects of audiences and how audiences value film in cultural terms; the meaning of film and audiences’ interpretive resources; the significance of place, venue and film events for audiences; and the role of film policy and distribution in shaping regional film provision.

Chapter 3 presents Beyond the Multiplex’s analysis of the policy and industry documents listed in Appendix 1. It shows that film provision, distribution and exhibition interact to create various opportunities for audiences to engage with film, set against how commercial and cultural values materialise in different types of film exhibition. The chapter explains that UK film policy discourse and funding distribution has shifted over time and that, throughout its history, there has been a spectrum of organisations which are focused on increasing the commercial and economic value of film for profitability, on the one hand, and those that generate cultural value, on the other. As a result, the policy landscape and industry practices have maintained these differences, while funding and support for specialised film has continued but not dramatically changed the scale of the non-mainstream film exhibition sector over recent years.

Chapter 1 reviews the current literature about audiences more generally, and film audiences in particular, and assesses the strength and limitations of existing conceptualisations of audiences. It discusses how the research undertaken in Beyond the Multiplex deepens and extends the concept of audiences as a process that is both relational and interactive, by exploring audience members’ personal film journeys, examining what types of audiences people participate in, and how these feature in specific film geographies. In doing so the chapter sets out the overall framework of analysis that was used to consider how audiences form and what types of audiences form in relation to patterns of film provision.

The Conclusion summarises the argument made in the monograph. It draws together the theoretical discussion in Chapter 8 with the key concepts and findings of the Beyond the Multiplex (BtM) project to show how audiences form, discussing the value of film from audience perspectives. It also provides a set of recommendations for film exhibitors, funders and policy makers seeking to develop specialised film audiences in the UK, as well as a guide to the open access BtM dataset, search and visualisation tools, and suggested areas for further research.

Chapter 6 examines the ways in which audiences interpret and make sense of film content, by focusing on a range of contemporary British and foreign-language films released in 2016, 2017 and 2018. It explores how films capture, captivate, engross, absorb, shock, challenge and occupy people and audiences. It does so through exploring how individuals respond to formal aspects of film such as narrative, visuals and sound, in their comprehension and interpretation of film. It argues that people draw on various resources, acquired through their informal and formal education and personal life experience to make sense of film narratives and stories.