I AM BIG. IT'S THE PICTURES THAT GOT SMALL: In 1946, movies dominated the pop-culture landscape. Nearly 100 million Americans -- roughly two-thirds of the nation's population -- went to the movies every week at one of the country's twenty thousand movie theaters. By the mid-1950s, weekly attendance had collapsed to 36 million, over five thousand theaters had closed, and many of the remaining movie houses were either losing money or getting by only on concessions. Wha' happened?
Well, first and foremost, of course, television happened. But the movie business itself also changed dramatically, thanks in part to the Supreme Court's 1948 Paramount decision, which forced the major Hollywood studios to give up their movie theaters and abandon anti-competitive booking practices. Although some observers thought this "free market" would actually stimulate the movie biz, it instead fostered an increase in rental fees for popular first-run movies, which theaters then passed on to their patrons with higher ticket prices, which in turn discouraged many potential moviegoers. In addition, suburbanization and the baby boom both prompted one-time movie fans to seek their entertainment closer to home -- where the tube was happily waiting for them.
So, what's a movie mogul to do? Some studios turned to spectacle, focusing on the "A" pictures and making them memorable events, worthy of a night out. MGM became a fabulous factory for musicals, such as Singin' in the Rain (1952) and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), featuring splashy costumes, extravagant sets, and vivid color. Other producers poured millions into sprawling epics like The Ten Commandments (1956) and Ben Hur (1959), often filmed in new wide-screen formats like CinemaScope, the better to capture their casts of thousands. And some filmmakers catered to the youth audience, those teens who were beginning to chafe at the conformist culture of the 'fifties. Perhaps drawing courage from 1952's "Miracle decision," which guaranteed First Amendment protection to movies, writers and directors featured more rebellious, volatile, antisocial heroes, like Johnny Stabler (Marlon Brando) in The Wild One (1953) and Jim Stark (James Dean) in Rebel without a Cause (1955). Whatever the genre, movies of the 1950s tried to offer audiences something that they couldn't get on a black-and-white TV.
For a time, these efforts were successful, as movie attendance briefly rebounded in the mid-fifties. But box office figures soon declined again, leveling out in the 1960s, and since then, weekly attendance has remained stuck at around ten percent of the population. Clearly, for many folks on this blog, the movies still hold a sense of wonder. But can the movie industry ever regain that prominent pop-culture position it once enjoyed? Or is it destined to survive primarily as an adjunct to the small screen, sustained by DVD sales, on-demand rentals, and downloads?
Well, first and foremost, of course, television happened. But the movie business itself also changed dramatically, thanks in part to the Supreme Court's 1948 Paramount decision, which forced the major Hollywood studios to give up their movie theaters and abandon anti-competitive booking practices. Although some observers thought this "free market" would actually stimulate the movie biz, it instead fostered an increase in rental fees for popular first-run movies, which theaters then passed on to their patrons with higher ticket prices, which in turn discouraged many potential moviegoers. In addition, suburbanization and the baby boom both prompted one-time movie fans to seek their entertainment closer to home -- where the tube was happily waiting for them.
So, what's a movie mogul to do? Some studios turned to spectacle, focusing on the "A" pictures and making them memorable events, worthy of a night out. MGM became a fabulous factory for musicals, such as Singin' in the Rain (1952) and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), featuring splashy costumes, extravagant sets, and vivid color. Other producers poured millions into sprawling epics like The Ten Commandments (1956) and Ben Hur (1959), often filmed in new wide-screen formats like CinemaScope, the better to capture their casts of thousands. And some filmmakers catered to the youth audience, those teens who were beginning to chafe at the conformist culture of the 'fifties. Perhaps drawing courage from 1952's "Miracle decision," which guaranteed First Amendment protection to movies, writers and directors featured more rebellious, volatile, antisocial heroes, like Johnny Stabler (Marlon Brando) in The Wild One (1953) and Jim Stark (James Dean) in Rebel without a Cause (1955). Whatever the genre, movies of the 1950s tried to offer audiences something that they couldn't get on a black-and-white TV.
For a time, these efforts were successful, as movie attendance briefly rebounded in the mid-fifties. But box office figures soon declined again, leveling out in the 1960s, and since then, weekly attendance has remained stuck at around ten percent of the population. Clearly, for many folks on this blog, the movies still hold a sense of wonder. But can the movie industry ever regain that prominent pop-culture position it once enjoyed? Or is it destined to survive primarily as an adjunct to the small screen, sustained by DVD sales, on-demand rentals, and downloads?
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