The new magazines, the first weekly film titles in the UK, would sit alongside both publishers' monthly offerings. Emap produces the market-leading film monthly, Empire magazine, which saw a 7.5 per cent rise in circulation to 195,410 this year. IPC's music and film title, Uncut, also surged ahead with a 6.7 per cent rise to 112,816.
Future Publishing's Total Film is the third major player in this market, with a circulation figure of 90,749.
Ian Tournes, the press director at Starcom Mediavest, said there was room in the cinema market for weeklies.
"Empire does a good job but all the big film distributors are always looking for places they can place low-wastage ads for a cinema-going audience," he claimed. Film distributors spend around £150 million a year on advertising.
At the same time, UK cinema attendance is increasing: in 2003, 167 million people visited the cinema, attracted by blockbusters such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the adaptations of the Harry Potter books.
The momentum continued during 2004. And 2005 is also predicted to be a bumper year, with the launch of blockbusters such as the latest instalment in the Star Wars series, Ocean's Twelve and Alexander.
An Emap spokeswoman said: "We are always looking at new launches, but our priority next year is the successful launch of Grazia."
IPC declined to comment as ±±¾©Èü³µpk10 went to press.
- Comment, p44.
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