A Swindon film producer believes the Covid pandemic will mean a rapid change in the industry for blockbuster films.

Mark Kenna and Swindon-based studio Bad Blood Films launched their first feature-length movie, Sacrilege, in March last year.

Since the release, the world has seen the coronavirus pandemic dominate the UK, leading to three national lockdowns and a Covid Tier system.

One of the casualties of the pandemic has been the cinema industry. Swindon’s own cinema chains, Empire and Cineworld, closing in October and November with no re-opening date.

Sacrilege launched on March 9 but even the red carpet premier was looking uncertain at the time.

Mark said: “It’s been a challenging year, for us personally and as a company.

“We’re a company that worked really hard to make our first feature film and we had our big launch at Leicester Square.

“Even the day before that launch there were worries that Covid might stop that.

“And on the Friday it was released everything started to escalate.

“We had a successful opening weekend and were lucky to get our film out there because a lot of independent studios weren’t able to.”

And Mark believes the industry has been forced to change a lot quicker than it would have liked to.

He said: “Looking at the future of cinema, the industry has gone through an accelerated process of forcing people to change the way movies are distributed, the way the films are watched.

“Cinemas have really struggled. They’ve probably been struggling leading up to this, but the bigger films have been bringing in massive amounts of money and that was a really important part of the industry.

“Especially the films, like Marvel and Star Wars. Part of the revenue for them is the box office then the rest comes from streaming, TV deals and merchandise.

“They’ve had to pull their movies and they’ll be trying to recoup their money by releasing on demand.”

But Mark is hopeful that cinemas will turn to more independent films if the blockbuster turns to streaming.

He added: “Independently of Covid, it’s time cinemas utilise their spaces more.

“Studios need to commit to releasing some content so cinemas can open up again and then going forwards it’ll be the rise of the independent movies.

“There should be more space and opportunities for smaller stories.”