At the start of the 1970s the British film industry was faced with a crisis more acute than at any time since the end of the Second World War. A perfect storm of factors – the failure of a number of expensive films in the late 1960s, the withdrawal of large amounts of American capital, the continuing contraction of the market, and a deteriorating economic outlook for the country as a whole – combined to create especially challenging conditions for the film business. The statistics paint a grim picture. The market for films contracted severely during the 1970s. Annual cinema attendances fell from 193 million in 1970 to 103 million in 1977, and while the closure of cinemas abated, the total seating capacity of Britain's cinemas fell by around half from 1,446,000 in 1970 to 738,000 by 1978. A particular feature of the 1970s was the conversion of some larger cinemas into multiples of two or three screens: this was meant to offer more choice for audiences and to provide a space for alternative films, though in practice it only further strengthened the position of the two major circuits who owned the larger cinemas best suited to conversion and who consequently controlled more screens. The exhibition industry attempted to compensate for declining admissions by increasing ticket prices: this had worked in the past but there came a point at which it became counterproductive. As The Financial Times remarked in 1971: ‘The argument currently raging in the film business is whether or not the rising prices are responsible for the declining audience. In the past two years, cinema admission prices have risen twice as fast as the cost of living.’

To read the trade press in 1970–1 reveals a narrative of crisis and uncertainty: studio closures, rumours of studio closures, the laying off of studio workers and the cancellation of film projects through lack of finance.