The Decline of the Cinema: An Economist?s Report (Routledge Library Editions: Cinema)

Spraos, John

ISBN 10: 0415726751 / ISBN 13: 9780415726757

Published by Routledge, 2013

About this Item

Dispatched, from the UK, within 48 hours of ordering. This book is in mint condition. Both the pages and the cover are completely intact, without zero sign of previous usage.

Seller Inventory # CHL10420785

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Decline of the Cinema: An Economist?s Report (Routledge Library Editions: Cinema)
• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication Date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0415726751
• ISBN 13: 9780415726757
• Binding: hardcover
• Condition: Used; Like New

About this title

Synopsis

Between 1952 and 1962, when this book was originally published, the number of people visiting British cinemas had fallen by nearly two thirds and was little more than half the pre-war total. Nearly 1500 of the 4500 cinemas functioning in 1955 had closed five years later, and the author here predicts a further substantial fall.

The causes of this drastic decline are traced to the competition of television but also to the dramatic halving of the number of new American films and to the difficulty of transferring a cinema’s ‘congregation’ when it is closed. This decline has few parallels in recent times and in conjunction with a disproportionate and unexpected increase in the price of seats presents a fascinating study for the economist, which the author fully exploits. But the film industry is of general interest so that the author’s conclusions and his social recommendations will appeal to the general reader as well as those in the industry.

About the Author

This study looks at how the movie industry organisation functioned between the late '40s and 1983 when it was originally published. It describes the changing role of domestic exhibition through this time and analyses the wider film industry to provide a model of the exhibition structure in relation to production, distribution and outside factors. It addresses the growing issues of the cable and video markets as competition to the film exhibition business at that time and looks forward into a highly turbulent environment. With particular interest now as the film industry address a new range of threats and adaptations of its working structure, this book offers and integral understanding of a key stage in cinema history.