A lower middle-class taste-community in the 1930s: Admissions figures at the Regent cinema, Portsmouth, UK

From POPSTAT to RelPOP: A Methodological Journey in Investigating Comparative Film Popularity

“…The intention was that of capturing the life and death dynamics of films in each locality. In response to the discovery of cinema box-office ledgers by Sue Harper 7 , the programming history of a third small city, Portsmouth, also on the South Coast of England, was later conducted. 8 All three cities screened comparable numbers of films among comparable populations of cinemas.…”

Exploiting local controversy: regional British censorship of Last Tango in Paris (1972)

“…Sue Harper's work on the Regent cinema in 1930s Portsmouth focuses on the financial records of this specific cinema and explores how the data can be used to indicate patterns of taste within cinema-going concluding that this particular cinema catered to the needs of a 'lower middle-class taste community.' 3 However, Harper also cautions against typifying the findings; she instead draws attention to the exceptional nature of the evidence stating 'in order to get the full picture of Portsmouth's film going habits, we would need comparable admissions figures for all the cinemas and these do not exist.' 4 Therefore the Regent cinema and its films are indicative of particular local tastes, but they in no way represent the tastes of the city and community as a whole and the full local picture is far more complex.…”