After experiencing boom years from 1939 to 1946, the film industry began a long period of decline. Within just seven years, attendance and box receipts fell to half their 1946 levels. Part of the reason was external to the industry.
What caused movie attendance to rapidly decline after 1946?
Many scholars of the film industry point to two major events that occurred shortly after World War II's end that caused cinema attendance to decrease dramatically œ anti-trust action and the birth of television (Bohn 236).
Movie theaters have been shutting down more frequently since the start of the 2020 lockdown, however the pandemic was the final straw for many struggling theaters as ticket sales had already been on the decline due to the rise of streaming services.
Why did movie attendance drop substantially in the 1950s?
The combination of social and economic changes meant there were significantly fewer couples dating at the movies. Then, when television exploded in the late 1950s, there was even less discretionary income—and less reason to go to the movies. In the late 1940s, radio's popularity had a strong impact on film.
For post-World War II Americans, television largely took the movies' place as a dominant cultural influence. The new medium reached audiences far larger than those attracted by motion pictures, and it projected images right into family's living rooms. Internal troubles also contributed to Hollywood's decline.
Was there a general decline in movie attendance after ww2?
After its post-war success, attendance rates dropped rapidly. The film industry introduced 3-D films to gain popularity over television programs which were stealing audiences away from theatres.
How many people did go to the movies a week in 1940 in the US?
At motion pictures' height of popularity in the mid-1940s, the studios were cranking out a total of about 400 movies a year, seen by an audience of 90 million Americans per week.
While cinemas had some success in fighting the competition of television, they never regained the position and influence they held in the 1930s and 40s, and over the next 30 years audiences dwindled. By 1984 cinema attendances in Britain had declined to one million a week.
Even at the Depression's depths 60 to 80 million Americans attended the movies each week, and, in the face of doubt and despair, films helped sustain national morale. Although the movie industry considered itself Depression- proof, Hollywood was no more immune from the Depression's effects than any other industry.
Like the country itself, the film industry has changed with the times. In 1940, a movie ticket cost a quarter. Now, some theaters charge upwards of $10 for admission.
How often were Americans going to the movies in the 1940s?
Back in the Golden Age of the cinema (1930-1945), most Americans went to the movie theater every week. In the early 1940s households averaged over two trips to the movie theater per week. Things have changed drastically since then.
Within U.S. film history, 1946 holds the distinction of being the peak year of movie attendance, impressively claiming more than 90 million weekly admissions (or 60 percent of the population).
How many people attended the movies each week in 1940?
According to the Film Daily Year Book, weekly ticket sales in the United States totaled 80 million in 1940, and 55-60 million Americans went to the movies every week.
Even in comparison to major releases seen today, hundreds of more films were made and released in the 1930s. Genre films were big hits, especially westerns, gangster and crime movies, and musicals. The Golden Age of Hollywood began to falter by 1948 and fully came to an end by the 1960s.
Recognized by the Guinness World Records as the oldest continuously operating movie theater in the world, the State Theatre in Washington, Iowa, has been screening films since May 14 1897. The venue was handed the award in 2016 and remains open to this day.
In an average week in 1947, 90 million Americans, out of a total population of only 151 million, went to a movie, paying on the average forty cents for a ticket. Nor was this massive outpouring, about two thirds of the ambulatory population, the product of expensive national marketing campaigns.
With the addition of sound, movies became increasingly popular. Comedies, gangster movies, and musicals helped people forget their troubles. In the early 1940s, some of the great dramas of American film reached theaters. Radio was also wildly popular, offering many kinds of programs, from sermons to soap operas.
Why did so many Americans go to the movies in the 1930s?
In fact, the years of the 1930s are considered the golden era of Hollywood cinema. Eighty-five million people a week crowded movie theaters across America to escape their sometimes desperate financial situations.
Conscientious objectors had to appear before a tribunal to argue their reasons for refusing to join-up. If their cases were not dismissed, they were granted one of several categories of exemption, and were given non-combatant jobs.
Wayne never enlisted and even filed for a 3-A draft deferment, which meant that if the sole provider for a family of four were drafted, it would cause his family undue hardship. The closest he ever came to World War II service was portraying the actions of others on the silver screen.
As economic conditions rapidly deteriorated in 1947-1948, the film industry suffered three crucial setbacks: a motion picture trade war with Britain severely undercut Hollywood's most important overseas market; a congressional investigation of Communist infiltration of the movie industry led to the infamous Hollywood ...
