1. MOVIES
Chapter 7

2. A Long, Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far Away…
Star Wars: most successful marketing campaign in history of films (ancillary rights)
Sold to Disney in 2012 for $4.06 billion
Disney made new trilogy and was very successful at box office
Will also continue success of Star Wars on the business side, cross platforming across many of Disney’s media (TV, Gaming, Theme Parks, Consumer Products)

3. Movies Mirror Culture
Movies mirror society that creates them (political messages, social agendas)
Like other media, must adapt to changing technology
Movies were nation’s primary form of visual entertainment before TV

4. Forming Motion Pictures
Eadweard Muybridge: first to demonstrate moving picture
1884: George Eastman (Eastman Kodak) developed the first roll film
Louis LePrince: invented the first motion picture using roll film -1888: Roundhay Garden Scene
1889: Hannibel Goodwin improved roll film by using celluloid, which was transparent and ideal for projection, moved quickly through a camera (allowing for a series of pictures)

5. The Kinetoscope
Thomas Edison directed his assistant William Kennedy Dickson to combine Goodwin’s celluloid film with his incandescent light bulb and Le Prince’s camera to create the kinetograph and the single-person viewing system called the Kinetoscope
April 11, 1894: America’s 1st kinetoscope parlor opened on Broadway in NYC
Edison's Films

6. The Lumiere bros and cinematography
In France (1895), Louis and Auguste Lumiere brothers developed the cinematograph (combined camera, film developer and projection system), which allowed for more than one person to view moving images on a large screen
Dec. 28, The Lumiere Brothers debuted 10 short films in a Paris Café with their device
Lumiere Show

7. Edison Launches American Movies
Edison, inspired by the Lumiere brothers and motion picture interest, created the Vitascope (a large-screen system enabling longer strips of film to be projected without interruption), which hinted of movies as a possible mass medium
April 23, 1896: First American premiere of a motion picture at Koster and Bial’s Theater in NYC.
Motion pictures were just a sideshow in arcades but quickly became main
attraction

8. Introducing Narratives
Movies moved to the mass medium stage with the introduction of the narrative (telling stories)
George Méliés (France): added fantasy to film
film “Cinderella”
film “A Trip to the Moon”
(1st outer-space movie adventure)
Edwin S. Porter (USA):
1902: The Life of an American Fireman
1903: The Great American Train Robbery
(1st Western genre film) The Great Train Robbery

9. Nickelodeons
Small movie theaters that cost a nickel to see; showed short films for about one hour
Major development in the evolution of film as a mass medium
Transcended language barriers with many immigrants to America
Popped up in store-fronts, featured white sheet and secondhand projector and a piano player to provide background music
: the number of Nickelodeons grew from 5,000 to 10,000
*Peaked in 1910, when industry became a mass medium

10. Controlling the Industry
Motion Pictures Patents Company, 1908, founded by Thomas Edison in New Jersey
Also known as The Trust
Formed with a group of US and French producers and pooled patents to control the industry
Made a deal with George Eastman to provide film only to companies approved by The Trust
Adolph Zukor and William Fox and indie film companies were upset with Edison’s bullying tactics and led the demise of The Trust
Many producers moved west to Hollywood

11. Three Levels of the Movie Business
Production: Making movies (Securing the script, actors, raising money, filming)
II. Distribution: Getting films into theaters
III. Exhibition: Playing films in theaters
Vertical Integration—controlling all three
Adoph Zukor had his own plans to control the industry by controlling all three levels of the movie business.
Zukor ironically implemented tactics to control the industry himself by controlling all three levels of the biz.

12. Production : The Star System
Film executives did not realize viewers were not only fans of genres, but actors as well
Adolph Zukor hired popular actors and formed the Players Company in 1912 (wanted to control movie production through exclusive contracts with actors)
Mary Pickford was known as “America’s Sweetheart”;
Her fame and salary grew to $15000/wk in 1917
In 1919, she broke away from Zukor and formed United Artists
1920s: The studio system prevailed, which
provided a pool of talent for major studios

13. Distribution
1904: A film exchange system existed between Vaudeville theaters and movie producers (Producers received a portion of ticket gate receipts in exchange for short films)
Edison attempted to control distribution by withholding equipment from companies not paying The Trust’s patent- use fees
Block booking: developed by Adolph Zukor; forced exhibitors to rent films that had no stars to gain access to the ones that did (eventually outlawed as monopolistic)
WWI allowed the U.S. film industry to shine, and the U.S. became the leader in worldwide commercial movie business
**Hollywood continues to dominate the world market**

14. Exhibition
Thomas Edison controlled industry with patents and Adolph Zukor bought up theaters to gain control of exhibition
Studios built movie palaces to attract middle and upper class
--1914: Strand Theatre (first movie palace) opened in NYC on Broadway, could seat 3,000
Mid-city theaters: Attracted the urban and suburban middle class

15. Major Studios Thrive…with Vertical Integration
By the 1920s, the major studios had established vertical
integration in the industry:
The Big Five: Paramount, MGM, Warner Brothers, Twentieth Century Fox, and RKO
The Little Three (didn’t own theaters): Columbia, Universal and United Artists
These 8 studios make it very difficult for independent studios to survive in any aspect of the film industry

16. Big Five….and Disney
Walt Disney was only successful newcomer in the 1930s; released Steamboat Willie—1st animated sound cartoon
1937: Disney released the first narrative length animated film— instant success (Snow White and the Seven Dwarves)

17. Film Industry’s Golden Age
1915-Early 1940s
Began with feature-length narrative film in and Silent Era
Peaked with the introduction of sound and the development of Hollywood Style
Ended with the transformation of the Hollywood Studio System -post WWII

18. The Narrative
D.W. Griffith was known as a pioneer in Hollywood
Used previous narrative techniques all in one film, including varied camera distances, close-up shots, multiple story lines, fast-paced editing and symbolic imagery
Created the first feature-length (more than one hour) film produced in America—
1915: The Birth of A Nation
The Birth of A Nation was also the first blockbuster (popular movie) and set the standard in Hollywood for narrative films

19. Sound in Film Sound in Film
1927: Warner Brothers’ The Jazz Singer, first incorporated sound in the silent film (musical numbers and brief diaglogue)
1927: Fox Studios featured newsreels before film began; recorded sound directly on to film, which became the standard sound system for the industry
1928: Warner Bros. The Singing Fool with Al Jolson was the breakthrough film for sound
Set the standard for sound in movies
By 1935, “talkies” were the standard in film

20. The Development of Hollywood Style
Three main components: the narrative, the genre, and the author (or director)
1. Narratives: Includes the story (what happens to whom) and the discourse (how it is told)
2. Genres: Categories (most familiar: comedy, romantic comedies, drama, action, adventure, mystery/suspense, western, horror, gangster, fantasy-science fiction)
Film Noir (black film): developed in the U.S in the late 1920s until after WWII (ex. Sin City—2005)
3. Authors/Directors: develop a particular recognizable style or interest in a category
(ex. Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Tyler Perry, Quentin Tarantino, Gary Marshall)

21. Alternatives to Hollywood
Global Cinema: American films are 90% of global market, yet less than 2% of films seen in the U.S. today
largest foreign film industry is in India— Bollywood (1000 films/year are produced)
II. Documentaries: Records actual people and settings and controversial or unpopular subject matter
III. Indie Films: Small budget films; festivals like Sundance help indie films generate industry buzz, as do streaming services like Netflix

22. Hollywood Adapts to Television
Movies focused on subject matter TV would not condone (alcoholism, anti-Semitism, mental illness, racism, adult-teen relationships, drug abuse and sexuality)
Many technological improvements, such as Technicolor, Cinerama, CinemaScope, and VistaVision (featuring wide-screen images, multiple synchronized projectors, and stereophonic sound)…and then the introduction of 3-D movies and Panavision

23. Governing the Industry
The movie industry is governed by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which adopted a Motion Picture Production Code in the 1930s and enacted a ratings system in 1967 (R, PG, PG-13…)

24. Hollywood and Home Entertainment
1970s: Cable and the videocassette transformed movie exhibition; Hollywood tried to stall the arrival of the VCR— filing lawsuits to prevent customers from copying movies from TV
The DVD helped invigorate the flat sales of the home video market as people began to acquire new movie collections on DVD
The rental business has been going downhill with the Internet (Hollywood Video closed in 2010 and Blockbuster in 2013)
The rental business has only seen minimal profits recently, thanks to Redbox, but even the kiosk rental business began to flatline by 2013.

25. The Future of Home Entertainment
Future of video rental business is in Internet distribution (Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Google Play, and iTunes) through devices like Roku, Apple TV, TiVo Premiere, video game consoles and Internet- ready TVS
With wide-screen, HD, 3-D TVs and surround- sound systems, home entertainment is growing and keeping up with the movie theater business
Also, home entertainment is getting SMALLER (can stream movies on iPads, tablets, laptops, and smart phones)

26. Economics of Movie Biz
Blockbusters: studios release one or two big hits /year to make up for all of the failures
Revenue from six major sources:
1. Box office revenue (about 40%)
2. Home video market, including VOD( (iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu, Hulu Plus, and Netflix and cable subscription) and subscription streaming, and then DVD sales and rentals,
3. Premium cable (HBO and Showtime), then network, cable, and finally syndication
4. Foreign market and distribution (25%)
5. Independent producers/filmmakers distribution (studios get % of profits)
6. Merchandise licensing and product placement in films

27. Top 10 Box Office Champions of All Time
Star Wars: The Force Awakens BV
$936,662,225
2015 2
Avatar
Fox
$760,507,625
2009^ 3
Titanic
Par.
$659,363,944
1997^ 4
Jurassic World
Uni.
$652,270,625 5
Black Panther
$650,923,549
2018 6
Marvel's The Avengers
$623,357,910
2012 7
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
$620,097,892
2017 8
The Dark Knight WB
$534,858,444
2008^ 9
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
$532,177,324
2016 10
Beauty and the Beast (2017)
$504,014,165

28. Studio Expenses and Revenue…
---Studios rely on heavy advance promotion and synergy (sale of a product throughout the various subsidiaries of the media conglomerate)
---Companies promote the movie and then the book form, soundtrack, calendar, T-shirts, Web site and toy action figures, as well as the “behind-the scenes, making of” story on TV and the Internet.
--Disney has been very successful with synergy promotion

29. Major Studios Six major studios: Warner Brothers Paramount
Twentieth Century Fox Universal
Columbia Pictures Disney
Account for more than 86% of revenue generated by commercial films and control half of the movie market in Europe and Asia

30. Movies and the Digital Turn
Biggest challenge of movie industry today----Internet
Movie industry has more quickly embraced Internet than the recording industry with illegal file-sharing
Services like Netflix and Hulu have become very popular for movie fans
Movies are also in quality formats for tablet and mobile phone viewing
In 2012, movie fans accessed more movies through digital online media than through physical copies, such as DVDs and BluRay discs

31. Alternate Voices: Digital Video
Digital Video: (replacing celluloid film) cheaper, more accessible than standard film equipment, is replacing bulky cameras with less-expensive, lightweight digital video cameras, also helps see product instantly and allows for additional footage without concern for high-cost of film stock and processing.
With digital video and computer-based editing programs, movies can be made for just a few thousand dollars---excellent for indie filmmakers
Preservation of digital content is an issue filmmakers have to contend
Vimeo, YouTube and Netflix have grown into leading Internet sites for the screening and distribution of low-budget short indie films

32. Cultural experiences and final thoughts…
Culturally, movies serve as consensus narratives (a term describing cultural products that become popular and provide shared cultural experiences) No other mass media is so fragmented: today’s movies are created by one group (writers/producers), funded by one group (investors), sold by a third party (distributors), and shown by another group (exhibitors).