Identifying Cinema Cultures and Audience Preferences

Abstract

For this study we have adopted a comparative approach to better understand the regularities and differences of cinema markets and cultures. Our subject is the film preferences and choices of audiences in the cities of Ghent (Belgium), Utrecht (Netherlands) and Bolton (United Kingdom) in 1934 and 1935. Saturday, January 5th, 1935 serves as a pivotal date and the starting point for analysis of the film programming data of these three cities. Our findings show that by adopting a comparative approach it is possible to detect ‘unique’ titles that reflect the peculiarities of the local film culture. The data confirms that audiences in Bolton, Ghent, and Utrecht were attracted strongly to films originating in their own or neighbouring countries, particularly if they contained elements of song and dance.

Moving Pictures in Motion: Methods of Geographical Analysis and Visualisation in Comparative Research on Local Film Exhibition Using a Case Study of Brno and Ghent in 1952

“…23 Meanwhile, Economist John Sedgwick has developed a digital tool specifically for film business research, a formula called POPSTAT, for the precise quantitative analysis of the commercial status of films in a given city, which can work as good at the local level as in international comparison. 24 A digital visual representation of comparative cinema history is also considerably rare. We find it mostly in the form of a more general overview or comparison on the level of one or more countries.…”