The differences between the American and British film industries between 1930 - 2000 grew as time passed but they were originally quite similar, doing primarily thrillers and comedies, as they could be done on the small budgets allotted. The 30's was the early days of cinema in both Britain and the US and so there was much intrigue from the public but little investment from companies, due to its recent nascence. Comedies such as Charlie Chaplain's and thrillers such as
Scarface were among the most popular. Britain's film industry was being critically acclaimed for the director Alfred Hitchcock, who was famed for his thrillers, a poplar genre of the time.
In the 40's the film industries began to part when World War II was happening, the British Film Institute began making war propaganda films such as
49th Parallel and
The Lamp Still Burns. This was widely considered Britain's golden era of film and was the all-time high for viewing numbers. Thrillers and dramas were still very popular due to their prior success and for making easy viewing experiences but was lacking slightly in quality due to the recent departure of Alfred Hitchcock for America's film industry in Hollywood.
Through the 50's, America had a much easier time competing with Britain's film industry due a great number of the studios in Britain being destroyed by the bombings of London during World War II. This was also the decade where many sic-fi films began to be produced, such as
War of the Worlds and
Invasion of the Body Snatchers, especially by Hollywood as they generally had a much larger budget than other film industries. While Britain's industry was rebuilding, they were creating social-realist films such as
Look Back in Anger and
Room at the Top where the focus was on the hardships of the working class. To audiences outside of the UK, these were received poorly as they could not understand the cultural references and so did not sell well.
During the 60's sci-fi was still a nascent genre but potent nonetheless with the greatly successful
2001: A Space Odyssey. Alfred Hitchcock was still an incredibly successful director, creating a great deal of viewership for America with
The Crows and especially with
Psycho. The UK were still making social-realist films and as a result, began slipping further behind the American film industry even more dramatically. Near the late 60's there was a cultural revolution of sorts that ushered in a more free-spirited cinema that gave much more attention to Britain's film industry but unable to bring it back to the viewing numbers of the 40's.
The decade following, the 60's, was a slow down for both American and British film industries as neither had the financial status to create consistent blockbusters. The British film industry had its funding cut substantially by the Conservative government of the time and the US industry was fairing poorly due to the on going Vietnam War becoming a costly priority. The primary genre of the 70's for Britain was Crime dramas. Films such as
A Clockwork Orange and
Get Carter topped charts in views as they often gave light to and a serious portrayal of what working class in large cities may have had to deal with, but appropriated into a film. Two notable exceptions to this were the
Monty Python films of 79 & 75.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail and
Monty Python's Life of Brian, respectively, were clear juxtapositions from the grit of Crime dramas and also showed how even low budget films can be wildly successful. America, at the time, was somewhat similarly creating many dramas such as
Jaws and
Apocalypse Now, the latter being highly relevant to that period as the film portrayed elements of the Vietnam War that America was involved in. The US also found success in certain science fiction films such as
Alien and
Star Wars, both being considered classics and sprouting numerous sequels each despite the poor economic state of the Hollywood industry.
In the 80's there was somewhat of a struggle for the British film industry due to the introduction and growth of the home television as well as the government subsidising a percentage of all ticket sales. The 101 million annual admissions to 54 million in 1980 and 1984 respectively.
