HC Deb 20 July 2001 vol 372 cc739-40W
Mr. Peter Ainsworth

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to her answer of 2 July 2001,Official Report, column 72W, on lottery funding of films, what the net income is from all sources to date, in each case, of films in receipt of lottery funding; and on how many screens each opened. [2815]

Tessa Jowell

[holding answer 9 July 2001]: This information changes constantly as a film is released at cinemas and on video or DVD in different countries at different times. The shelf life of films is long, which means there is no simple answer to the question. That is not to say that revenues are not known for films in which lottery money has been invested (in relation to territories and media where the distributor was entitled under the terms of the deal to a share of the revenues) but those revenues increase constantly and reflect changing market value and are therefore difficult to interpret.