Film exhibition and the American movie audience
Lead Research Organisation:
London Metropolitan University
Department Name: Applied Social Science
Abstract
The project is an investigation of movie exhibition in the USA during the 1940s and 1950s. The research involves examining Film Billing Sheets and other similar ledgers and documents which indicate which movies were playing in which locations and how much revenue was generated by each show.
The data thus obtained will make it possible to reconstruct a detailed picture of cinema exhibition practices in key locations. Because the record is incomplete, the project takes the form of a series of case studies based on locations for which relatively complete records exist. These records are supplemented by the use of contemporary exhibitors' reviews published in the trade press, which provide qualitative data relating to the reception of individual films by their original audiences.
The research tests two hypotheses:
1. That film consumption in the USA during the '40s and '50s displayed a more complicated pattern than either textual or empirical approaches to film study have previously allowed
2. That the complexity of this pattern signals a pressing need to revise some of the key assumptions about the historical importance of particular films and genres made by film scholars.
The data thus obtained will make it possible to reconstruct a detailed picture of cinema exhibition practices in key locations. Because the record is incomplete, the project takes the form of a series of case studies based on locations for which relatively complete records exist. These records are supplemented by the use of contemporary exhibitors' reviews published in the trade press, which provide qualitative data relating to the reception of individual films by their original audiences.
The research tests two hypotheses:
1. That film consumption in the USA during the '40s and '50s displayed a more complicated pattern than either textual or empirical approaches to film study have previously allowed
2. That the complexity of this pattern signals a pressing need to revise some of the key assumptions about the historical importance of particular films and genres made by film scholars.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Mike Chopra-Gant (Principal Investigator) |