Escapes campaign draws over 68,000 cinema-goers in its first year

Escapes, the ambitious campaign set up to bring new audiences to UK independent cinemas has seen in excess of 68,000 tickets claimed for free preview screenings since it launched in February 2024. Supported by the BFI, awarding National Lottery funding, Escapes has presented nine new independent films at over 170 independent UK cinemas nationwide.

Created and managed by entertainment specialists elevenfiftyfive, with ticketing, scheduling and digital marketing via Cinematik, Escapes is designed to encourage new audiences to UK cinemas to discover independent films, and has created national moments this year with preview screenings of nine incredible films including the 2024 BIFA Best British Independent Film, Irish language comedy Kneecap, acclaimed wrestling drama The Iron Claw, gripping Western The Dead Don’t Hurt and British comedy Seize Them!

Following an open call to the BFI’s Open Cinema Fund, announced as part of the BFI’s 10-year strategy Screen Culture 2033, the campaign ended 2024 with preview screenings of the award-winning documentary Grand Theft Hamlet at 89 independent cinemas nationwide on 2 December. It is set to kick off in 2025 with Blue Monday screenings of the classic surf movie Point Break on 20 January 2025.

To maximise the impact of the BFI National Lottery funding, elevenfiftyfive continues to seek to grow the number of partner cinemas, plus secure media and brand partners to support the campaign and engage with new audiences for cinema.

David Kapur, co-founder of elevenfiftyfive, said: “This project is like no other before it and we are thrilled with the results so far this year. Our aim has been to create a national conversation around the escapism of cinema at scale, while also creating regular, accessible opportunities for people to experience it, particularly those who have previously not engaged or felt like the cinema is a place for them.

On average, almost 50% of these audiences are new to the independent cinemas they are attending and 80% have said they will return again, and these numbers are only set to increase as new screenings are added to the slate for 2025. The prospects for the Escapes campaign, independent cinema and film in 2025 are strong, and we’ll continue to maintain the momentum among audiences, and partners, into next year.”

Ben Luxford, Director of UK Audiences at the BFI, said: “Cinemas enrich people’s lives, both the films on screen but also as vital and accessible cultural spaces in their local communities. In response to independent cinemas telling us they are struggling to build new audiences in large numbers, particularly to non-mainstream films, we wanted to help create a campaign that targeted people who don’t generally go to cinemas. Escapes has also worked with a range of distributors to successfully amplify releases of new indie films released this year. The fact that over 40% of Escapes’ audiences are new is hugely encouraging, and we hope elevenfiftyfive can build on that success and cinemas can capitalise on it in the long term.”

Charlotte Saluard, Head of Film Sales at Curzon, added: As a distributor, we’ve worked with Escapes on three titles this year, Sleep, Kneecap and Layla. Escapes gets a strong engagement from cinemas meaning the films get the opportunity to be screened in locations that wouldn’t necessarily play the film. We also gain incremental marketing alongside our own marketing strategy helping to reach audiences beyond our targeted campaign. Thanks to the support we were also able to offer accessible materials (AD/HOH subs) on our films which has benefited the venues who were playing the films on release.

Showroom Cinema, Sheffield, said: “We’ve been on board with this audience development scheme since it started back in February and I couldn’t be more thrilled to see the new faces it has brought to our cinema, and with the excitement it generates with both customers and staff. It’s a delight each month to see people really enjoy the cinema, particularly those that haven’t been here before, or for a long time.”