Description
Book SynopsisLooks at how the commercial movie industry has altered conceptions of movie going both within the industry and among audiences. This title shows how studios, in their increasing reliance on revenues from audiences around the world, have cultivated a global understanding of their products over the years.
Trade Review“Drawing upon economic data, promotional material, fandom, and the trade press, Charles R. Acland takes his study of contemporary cinema culture into the busy intersection of debates about post-national and post-cinematic audiences. Acland assesses the cross-marketed media landscape—megaplexes, television, videotapes, DVDs, fast-food, music, and the web—and deftly maps the global consequences of traffic across these new forms of mobilized visuality.”—Anne Friedberg, University of Southern California
“We need a book about global audiences that is smart about theory and chock-full of facts. Charles R. Acland has delivered one, an incisive blend of cultural and cinema studies. Buy it, get it, plunder it!”—Toby Miller, coauthor of
Global HollywoodTable of ContentsList of Tables and Figures vii
Acknowledgments ix
I. Theorizing Contemporary Cinemagoing
1. Global Alliances and the Current Cinema 3
2. Traveling Cultures, Mutating Commodities 23
3. Matinees, Summers, and the Practice of Cinemagoing 45
II. Structures of Cinematic Experience
4. Crisis and Settlement in Exhibition and Distribution 85
5. "Here Come the Megaplexes" 107
6. Zones and Speeds of International Cinematic Life 130
7. Northern Screens 163
8. The Miniaturization of the Theme Park, or After the "Death" of Cinema 196
9. Cinemagoing as "Felt Internationalism" 229
Appendices
1. Screens per Million Population 247
2. World Screen Count 250
3. National Average Cinema Admissions per Person (annual) 253
4. Multiplexing in Europe 256
5. MPAA's Goals for Digital Cinema 257
6. Existing Digital Cinemas, 2000 259
7. Digital Movies Released for DLP Projectors 261
Notes 263
Bibliography 299
Index 325