Total Film Magazine closing

[BudBaxter]

Not sure if this is a suitable place to post this. If not, Mods please feel free to move.

Just got this email about my subscription:

It is with regret that as of the date of this email we are having to make a difficult decision regarding the future of Total Film magazine. We will be closing as a print title as it is no longer viable for us to publish Total Film magazine. This was a very tough decision to make and we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your loyalty and support of Total Film magazine.

It doesn't mention anything about a Digital Version. Did they already do that? I know Empire does.

They'll be sending me copies of SFX magazine for the remainder of my sub, though a refund is also available on the remaining balance.

Too bad. I've been there since issue 1 & it's often a better read than Empire (it's also printed on better quality paper - probably part of its downfall - & doesn't go quite so OTT on the coloured pages/text as that mag does).

[Ben_C]

Hotdog was my movie magazine of choice back in the day, but that disappeared ages ago.
Surprised it’s taken this long for some publications to shut up shop.

[RossyG]

I think for the immediate future there’ll still be a demand for the more highbrow film magazines such as Sight & Sound and Cahiers du Cinema, but I think a myriad of YouTube channels have replaced much of the need for the more populist periodicals.

Shame for the mags and their staff and (dwindling number of) readers, but things have moved on.

[chip75]

I stopped getting EMPIRE during Crisis, haven't really missed it much. It became a bit political and anti-fan (yes, there are terrible fans, but I don't want to hear about it).

Still have my back issues, if anyone's interested...

[DTSBOY]

There goes another one. Been there since issue one also. This and Home Cinema Choice closing is not good news.

Both ending on number 356. There's a strange coincidence.

[Faustus]

That's sad news, but not unexpected. I was a TF subscriber for about 15 years. It was my favourite movie magazine in the pre-Marvel days and I looked forward to every issue, but when the MCU exploded in popularity the magazine's editorial leaned heavily into it, and over time it felt like I was subscribed to some kind of Marvel Monthly, so I cancelled it.

[Tam Mullen]

Final print issue out next week.

[Nitroes]

I don't think I've ever bought Total Film except to frame the Mank cover. Never even opened it up. Done all my reading online for the film and my eyesight is poor for magazine reading.

Last century I must have been £40.00 a month on film magazines. Empire, Uncut, Screen Entertainment and of course Sight and Sound.

Sight and Sound has BFI funding through the National Lottery so hopefully it'll be around for a few years.

I still have 100s of home video rental magazines from the early 80s that was the great period for me.

[Markgway]

I remember buying the first issue of Total Film.

Back then I also bought Empire, Impact, and Neon.

Those were the days.

[Jackie Scanlon]

Originally Posted by Markgway

I remember buying the first issue of Total Film.

Back then I also bought Empire, Impact, and Neon.

Those were the days.

Neon was and always will be the best of the bunch. The first few issues of Hotdog were basically Neon by another name - same writers, similar features, same format, same layout. Even the paper and binding were identical. Then something happened and everything changed and it turned into the worst of the lot.

Total Film was a good antidote to Empire's more mainstream/populist leanings and a middle ground between that and Neon's outsider edge for a while, but it just ended up following Empire's footsteps eventually, even overtaking it in terms of how mainstream it got. I stopped buying TF then and I stopped buying Empire when the price of it went up, the number of pages reduced and the number of ads increased. The last time I picked up a copy of Empire in the wild it was £6 or something and like a pamphlet.

Is Sight & Sound still going? Not that I ever really liked it. Shite & Sound we used to call it. Any others left?


I also REALLY miss the Empire forum, which was fantastic. Hardly anyone on there actually bought the mag, which was a regular source of amusement (and one of the reasons the Empire bods closed it).

[FollowTheBear]

Originally Posted by Markgway

I remember buying the first issue of Total Film.

Back then I also bought Empire, Impact, and Neon.

Those were the days.

Neon was fantastic. It was like Empire's snotty little brother. Brought every issue. Was gutted when it finished. 'What's your favourite Chevy Chase Movie?'
Brought Total Film as well for the first year, but it was never a favourite of mine. Uncut was great in it's first five/six years or so, when it focused on film as well as music, with a unique affection for hard-bitten '70's cinema and the grizzled likes of Peckinpah, Aldrich, Walter Hill, etc. By 2006 though it had switched focus to exclusively music.
Still, always sad when another print-publication goes tits-up. I wonder how Empire's sales are these days? Back in the '90's it was unbeatable, but I stopped buying it years ago when it sold it's soul to Marvel (though I will occasionally flick through it on the supermarket shelves)

[Jackie Scanlon]

Originally Posted by FollowTheBear

I wonder how Empire's sales are these days?)

I know someone who does on-and-off freelance work for them (tellingly he never buys it either) and they typically hover around 65-70K per issue. I'm amazed they're still going cos that figure can't be sustainable. Unless there's even more ad pages in it now compared to when I last flicked through it.

Having said that, Viz is still going strong (and I still enjoy it as a 46 year old child, although I limit myself to the christmas annuals which can be had for nothing in the Works usually) and they barely manage 30K per issue.

[chip75]

Originally Posted by Jackie Scanlon

I also REALLY miss the Empire forum, which was fantastic. Hardly anyone on there actually bought the mag, which was a regular source of amusement (and one of the reasons the Empire bods closed it).

I remember one thread where EMPIRE were accused of allegedly soft softballing ratings to movies for perks and they went ballistic.

_________________________________________________

Sad that any print outfit closes.

[FollowTheBear]

Originally Posted by Jackie Scanlon

I know someone who does on-and-off freelance work for them (tellingly he never buys it either) and they typically hover around 65-70K per issue. I'm amazed they're still going cos that figure can't be sustainable. Unless there's even more ad pages in it now compared to when I last flicked through it.

Having said that, Viz is still going strong (and I still enjoy it as a 46 year old child, although I limit myself to the christmas annuals which can be had for nothing in the Works usually) and they barely manage 30K per issue.

Empire Magazine is undoubtedly responsible for turning me onto film. As a teenager I would eagerly await the next issue to see how they had rated the latest releases (pre-internet, remember), what videos were coming out that month, what films were scheduled for broadcast, etc. Used to have a good roster of writers on board as well. I think only Kim Newman is left out of the old guard . . and I tend to think of him as being like Noel Fielding's character, Richmond, in the I.T. Crowd, dwelling in the basement of the company, scuttling around in his ghoulish cape and waistcoat, occasionally emerging once in a blue moon to file his.copy.

[Jackie Scanlon]

Originally Posted by FollowTheBear

Empire Magazine is undoubtedly responsible for turning me onto film. As a teenager I would eagerly await the next issue to see how they had rated the latest releases (pre-internet, remember), what videos were coming out that month, what films were scheduled for broadcast, etc. Used to have a good roster of writers on board as well. I think only Kim Newman is left out of the old guard . . and I tend to think of him as being like Noel Fielding's character, Richmond, in the I.T. Crowd, dwelling in the basement of the company, scuttling around in his ghoulish cape and waistcoat, occasionally emerging once in a blue moon to file his.copy.

Sat in front of all those books he's blatantly never going to read.

[CinemaScope]

Originally Posted by chip75

I remember one thread where EMPIRE were accused of allegedly soft softballing ratings to movies for perks and they went ballistic.

I’m inclined to believe that, seeing as the latest issue gives 5 glowing red stars to The Rings Of Power TV series, when it’s getting comprehensively bashed everywhere else. I used to read Total Film decades ago, I’d forgot that it was still going. I do get Empire, but that’s because I have a subscription as a Christmas present, otherwise I wouldn’t buy it, it only takes me five minutes to flick through it (that must be something to do with my lack of interest in nearly all the films they make these days). All a world away from me looking forwards to the next issue of Films & Filming back in the 60s & 70s (I still re-read the old issues now).

[FollowTheBear]

Originally Posted by Jackie Scanlon

Sat in front of all those books he's blatantly never going to read.

Of course. 😄
I remember that for a while, upon seeing the aforementioned Kim Newman's name at the end of a review, conjuring up an image in my head of some gorgeous, Basinger-like blonde, sat in the darkness of the cinema, provocatively chewing the end of her biro as she took down notes. Needless to say I was in for a rude awakening. 😄

[Markgway]

I bought Empire until the end of the 90s/early 00s which is when I started to lose interest in contemporary films. Total Film I bought for a couple of years, stopped about the same time as Empire. Neon, which was the best written, didn't last that long as I recall. Typical. Empire was pretty great throughout the 90s before it became a Star Wars fanzine. I don't buy any mags now. Video Watchdog was the last of the old breed to die. I liked it because it was different and covered films no one else ever would.

[Simon Lewis]

Originally Posted by CinemaScope

... All a world away from me looking forwards to the next issue of Films & Filming back in the 60s & 70s (I still re-read the old issues now).

A few years ago I acquired a large number of Films And Filming from the fifties and sixties. A very good magazine and very interesting to read about what people thought about films from this time. I started buying film magazines in the early eighties, mainly Photoplay. When Empire came along it was much better than Photoplay, but not much good these days. I really don't like the layout but I've kept my subscription going to keep update with the new films. Seems increasingly pointless now, most of the new films are rubbish.

[Grenseal]

Subscribed Total film for at least 10 years, sad to see it go. Always took longer to read tan Empire, and they had a lot more reviews for Blu-Rays and DVDs. I'll take a few issues of SFX but likely will cancel at the end and get Sight and Sound instead.