Mock Exam - Why did the 1980s see the decline of Fleapit cinemas and emergence of the Multiplex?

Why did the 1980s see the decline of Fleapit cinemas and emergence of the Multiplex? Give reasons linking to the Production, Distribution & Exhibition of Blockbusters and their popularity."
During the 1980s the world of cinemas began changing. Films began using various exclusive forms of technology like visual effects and surround sound and effects, this saw the smaller Fleapit cinemas unable to afford putting these technological advances in place.  Distribution of films required bigger budgets being spent sending films to various cinemas nationwide/worldwide.  The exhibition of films changed in with Multiplexes showing multiple screenings of the same film, compared to Fleapits only showing one screening of a film. This meant that Multiplexes through screening a film more guaranteed a higher profit compared to Fleapit's.  

The production of films had a major impact on both Multiplexes and Fleapit cinemas. Through the use of new visual and sound effects in films, only Multiplexes were able to afford the new technological aspects to put these effects into cinema screenings. The larger Multiplex cinemas were able to showcase the visual effects and surround sound & effects and this helped draw in audiences. This meant that Fleapit cinemas were unable to afford the new technological advances in cinemas and therefore they could not screen much of these new films; and if they did the films would not be near the higher quality of visuals and sounds Multiplexes were offering. Star Wars: A New Hope is a good example, being the first major film to use special effects meant that it went to be screened at many Multiplexes but Fleapit cinemas could not show it due to the technological advances used in the films production.

Distribution of films saw films acquiring budgets that had to be followed, as a result films were being distributed nationwide and sometimes worldwide to the biggest cinemas - Multiplexes. Film distributors could not take the risk of sending films to Fleapit cinemas as unlike Multiplexes they did not bring in large audiences and multiple daily screenings of a film, and therefore Multiplexes offered a larger profit to film distributors. This meant distributors wanted to guarantee a profit through their films. As a result films were distributed to the larger Multiplex cinemas as they offered a larger amount of films attendance due to their bigger capacity, space and popularity. Films were also now able to be distributed digitally and as a result, more were being sent to the larger Multiplexes rather than the smaller Fleapit cinemas. An example of this is The Godfather in which Frank Yablan got the film distributed to many multiplexes in America as they would bring in the most profit.

Regarding exhibition, fleapit cinemas could not match the screening experience of films as they did not have any additional aspects to them, rather its just a cinema and the smaller capacity, and lack of funds to show visual and sound effects from films also resulted in a decline of Fleapit cinemas. Multiplexes were able to offer additional aspects like food and shopping and other forms of entertainment for audiences to indulge in, also their large capacity and multiple screenings meant that a film could be viewed much more efficiently and also could bring in a larger amount of money from audiences. An example is Jaws in which the film when screened in Multiplexes resulted in the film breaking box office records, partly due to it being screened very often in Multiplexes several times a day due to its popularity.