Films were also shown in other kinds of theatrical spaces—vaudeville theaters and opera houses, for example—particularly but not exclusively prior to 1910. Movies were also shown in high schools, churches, amusement parks, YMCAs, tents, vacant lots, and fraternal and social clubs.
Technological limitations only allowed films to be about thirty seconds long, limiting the ability of film to tell a story, and they contained no sound. Early films were thus novelties, and they were often shown along with live entertainment, as in a vaudeville show.
As the popularity of “moving pictures” grew in the early part of the decade, movie "palaces" capable of seating thousands sprang up in major cities. A ticket for a double feature and a live show cost 25 cents.
Before VHS, the only way to watch a movie or TV show was to watch it when it was available. For a movie, that meant seeing it in the theater when it was released – and maybe once more when it got a TV showing. If you wanted to see it again, well, tough: Buy the movie novelization. VHS changed all of this.
The VCR was still a popular appliance in most households (about three quarters of them in 1991) and rentals and purchase of videotapes were big business - much larger than sales of movie theater tickets.
“When the movie production companies started selling movies on tape, we could buy them to watch at home, on our VCRs. We could also rent movies at Blockbuster (yes, they went out of business) to watch at home. It was a little bit like borrowing a book from the library, but we had to pay to borrow them.
Betamax (also known as Beta, as in its logo) is a consumer-level analog recording and cassette format of magnetic tape for video, commonly known as a video cassette recorder. It was developed by Sony and was released in Japan on May 10, 1975, followed by the US in November of the same year.
Their primary equipment was the silent 16mm film projector, made by either Eastman Kodak or Filmo. In the 1930s, 8 mm and 16 mm with sound were introduced. In the 1950s, Kodak 8 mm film projector equipment became more affordable, resulting in the increased popularity of home movies.
If we look back at the history of home movies, most people didn't even have the ability to make them until around the 1980s--that is, until a magical device called the VHS tape made recording home videos easy, fun, and basically foolproof. That doesn't mean there weren't video formats before the VHS.
Drive-ins gained immense popularity 20 years later during the 1950s and '60s with the Baby Boomer generation. There were over 4,000 drive-ins throughout the U.S., and most were in rural areas.
By 1910 the motion picture industry had run through a series of experimental terms and words. However, all those names turned out to be awkward misfits, and simpler terms like “moving picture” and “picture show” had crept into common usage.
The first movie houses were dubbed "nickelodeons," combining the price of admission with the Greek word for theater. By 1908, there were nearly 8,000 nickelodeon theaters in the U.S. and in two years the number had grown to 10,000.
The thing about movies up until 1972 was that someone else dictated where and when you could watch them. You either had to go to the movie theater or wait for the film to show on TV. That was a major bummer, so production studios decided to do something revolutionary: they released films on VHS.
With feature films and added attractions, show times were running two to three hours long. With the added time, features, and theater accommodations ticket prices justifiably increased to at least 25 cents a head. A well-run small movie palace could expect to draw 4,000 patrons a week.
They would sometimes show movies on TV. Also, some old movies would come back and make the rounds of theaters again. Clubs could rent out movies and show them if they were willing to sign the appropriate agreements and pay the fees and had a theater to show it.
Sound films – the so-called "talkies" – were a global phenomenon by the early 1930s. Advances in color film included Technicolor and Kodachrome. 1930 marks the start of what is considered to be the 'golden age' of Hollywood, a period which lasted through at least the 1940s.
The last VCR was manufactured in 2016 by Funai Electric, the last remaining VHS player manufacturer after all the other major tech companies had stopped making them. They announced they were ceasing production that year due to poor sales, and there have been no new VCRs on the market since.
That nearly $1,500 top retail price had fallen to an average of $200 – $400, a fraction of the college tuition it once costed families. But why such the price plummet? Well, it seems that brand-name marketers and suppliers everywhere wanted to cash in on the VHS boom.
Affordability: When VCRs were introduced in 1975, the average machine cost between $1,000 and $1,400. By 1985, you could buy a much better VCR for $200 to $400 with a remote control, freeze frame, search, and other nifty features.
How did people watch movies before streaming services?
Another way people were able to watch movies at home was through their cable or satellite television provider. Pay-per-view was available as early as the 1960s when you could call in and pay to watch a sports program on a private channel.
How did people entertain themselves before movies?
People found entertainment and information through various means such as reading, listening to the radio, attending live performances, and spending quality time with friends and family.
