The BFI have condemned the amount of films released in British cinemas, saying the saturation leads to a short shelf-live for many top movies, stunting their box office proficiency.

BoyhoodBoyhood enjoyed a strong start in the U.K, but was dwarfed by other releases

A total of 698 films were released at the cinema in 2013, which averages out at around 13-a-week. This, according to Britain’s leading advocate for domestic cinema, makes it difficult for films to enjoy a screen long enough to build an audience.

Ben Roberts, director of the BFI Film Fund said: “There are too many films being released. That number is ridiculous, and the fact it keeps going up is not sustainable. There’s just too much stuff out there.”

More: 'Boyhood' has 99% on Rotten Tomatoes. It Is Almost the Perfect Movie

According to Roberts, the industry should “rally around really great films so films like Boyhood can open well, build a strong foundation, and grow. Rather than immediately fade.” Boyhood, Richard Linklater’s innovative coming of age movie, featuring a core cast of actors filmed over a period of 12 years, has fizzled out following a promising financial start. Its critical integrity, though, has never been in question. 

According to Roberts, there is no ideal number of releases per year, but numbers approaching 700 are “too much for the audience. If admissions are level, it’s too much for the market to bear,” he explained. The conversion from analogue to digital, enabling the quick turnaround of data and faster production times has certainly played a part, creating “more opportunity to take films off and on". (Via The Independent)

British films made $4.1 billion at the global box office in 2013, according to The BFI, which represents an 11% share of the world market. But this figure is down from 15 percent a year earlier. The share of U.K. independent films globally also fell slightly, to 1.6% from a 2.8% high in 2011 – a percentile jump attributed to the success of the Oscar-winning The King’s Speech.