A Glittering Landmark for A 21st Century Entertainment Centre: The Story Of The Point Multiplex Cinema In Milton Keynes

Abstract

By the early 1980s Britain was viewed as a market in which the domestic exhibition sector was in terminal decline, whilst at the same time being a market in which films from the United States were both popular and dominant. By 1984 audiences had sank to their lowest figure ever and in the face of steadily falling audience numbers many Hollywood distributors were on the verge of pulling out of Britain altogether. However, just a year later, in 1985, American Multi-Cinema (AMC), in collaboration with the leisure company Bass, opened Britain’s first multiplex cinema, The Point, in Milton Keynes. The period from 1985 has been one of strong growth in new cinema building; however, it took a US company to introduce the multiplex concept to Britain. In the light of the announcement in May 2012 that The Point would be demolished to make way for an extension to the adjacent shopping centre; this paper examines why Milton Keynes was selected and what economic and cultural conditions allowed for the development of this new form of cinema precisely at the point at which audiences reached their nadir.