Screen Traffic: Movies, Multiplexes, and Global Culture

In Screen Traffic Charles R. Acland looks at how the commercial movie industry has altered conceptions of movie going both within the industry and among audiences. He shows how studios, in their increasing reliance on revenues from audiences around the world, have cultivated a global understanding of their products over the past fifteen to twenty years. In doing so, Acland argues, they have significantly changed the cultural practice of movie going. He explores this transformation by investigating the generation and dissemination of knowledge about studio movies. Integrating film and cultural theory with promotional materials, entertainment news, trade publications, and economic commentary, Acland examines an array of sites where a new understanding of movies and movie going has developed within popular culture and the entertainment industry. One way a diverse audience is united, he contends, is through a growing Hollywood "insiderism," which conveys to the public not only news about stars and features, but also industry financial information, most notably the box office "numbers." Another key site shaping contemporary movie going, he argues, is the modern megaplex. Acland traces the history of the megaplex--characterized by its large auditoriums, large number of screens, and the activities it sold in addition to film spectatorship--from its genesis in the re-entry of studios into the movie exhibition business in 1986 through to 1998, when reports of the economic "failure" of the multiplex began to surface--just as the rise of digital technologies seemed to signal another wave of change in the movie industry.

Table of Contents:
List 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

About the Author :
Charles R. Acland is Associate Professor of Communications Studies at Concordia University, Montreal. He is the author of Youth, Murder, Spectacle: The Cultural Politics of “Youth in Crisis” and coeditor of Harold Innis in the New Century: Reflections and Refractions.

Review :
" ... this is a worthwhile, and in many ways, ground-breaking study."--The Times Higher Education Supplement, 2 July 2004 "Screen Traffic is a creative blend of both fact and theory. It begins from a current observable transformation of the film industry: moviegoing and megaplexes--to which it adds both policy reflection and cultural studies. Acland is to be commended for his innovative and engaging scholarship, which not only provides insight to the cultural practices and commercial realities of cinema culture, but also stands as an excellent resource for communication scholars interested in work on global products and the global audience. Rather than merely draw upon the work of other authors, Acland's book will itself become an inspiration to other authors."--2004 Robinson Book Prize Committee "Acland's work in Screen Traffic is representative of truly impressive research combined with a number of original theoretical ideas that provide a fresh perspective on the binary arguments that normally characterize discussions of globalization."--Nancy Fallen, Velvet Light Trap "[R]efreshing... Acland's deliberate merging of popular culture, industry discourse and economic data mark Screen Traffic as a fascinating contribution to cinema theory... Screen Traffic provides a much needed amount of accelerated media culture at the end of the twentieth century... [A]n insightful and thought provoking analysis of the globalized and cross-marketed media landscape."--Leanne Downing, Screening the Past "[A]n impressive feat. Charles Acland's Screen Traffic deserves to reach a broad, international audience."--Ted Magder, Canadian Journal of Communication "Screen Traffic addresses the recent, fundamental shifts in cinema, yet it also is about nothing less than the spatial, temporal, and 'intermedial' reorganization of everyday life. Indeed, what's remarkable about this book is its relevance to--and / resonance with--recent changes in other media industries, including book and music publishing."--Ted Striphas, Cultural Studies