ABSTRACT
Popular film was a most important twentieth century commodity. It is worthy of study by the economic historian, not because it employed many people, which it did not, or because it contributed greatly to national income, which it did not, but because it attracted extremely large numbers of consumers to spend time voluntarily, in preference to other activities, experiencing some measure of well-being derived from sequences of moving images and their associated aesthetics.2 Audiences across the globe now consume films through a variety of media, but in the years immediately following the end of the Second World War consumption was confined to cinemas alone. At that time US audiences, when counted by ticket admissions, were at an all time high with an annual count of four-and-a-half-billion (thirty-three visits per capita), dwarfing those attracted by other paid-for leisure activities.3 After 1946, admissions fell continuously to a low point of 0.82 billion in 1972, followed by a gentle recovery. During this period, the mode of film consumption diversified from the cinema alone to home viewing on television sets, through the TV networks at first, and then video, cable and more recently satellite (Vogel 2001: chapter 2). Computer screens now constitute a third medium. Remarkably, during these changes, as before them, Hollywood has continued to dominate the global market for film (Aksoy and Robins 1992; Hoskins et al. 1997; Jarvie 1992; Storper 1994; Thompson 1985).
