Screen Traffic: Movies, Multiplexes, and Global Culture

by Charles R. Acland

In Screen Traffic , Charles R. Acland examines how, since the mid-1980s, the U.S. commercial movie business has altered conceptions of moviegoing both within the industry and among audiences. He shows how studios, in their increasing reliance on revenues from international audiences and from the ancillary markets of television, videotape, DVD, and pay-per-view, have cultivated an understanding of their commodities as mutating global products. Consequently, the cultural practice of moviegoing has changed significantly, as has the place of the cinema in relation to other sites of leisure. Integrating film and cultural theory with close analysis of promotional materials, entertainment news, trade publications, and economic reports, Acland presents an array of evidence for the new understanding of movies and moviegoing that has developed within popular culture and the entertainment industry. In particular, he dissects a key the rise of the megaplex, characterized by large auditoriums, plentiful screens, and consumer activities other than film viewing. He traces its genesis from the re-entry of studios into the movie exhibition business in 1986 through 1998, when reports of the economic destabilization of exhibition began to surface, just as the rise of so-called e-cinema signaled another wave of change. Documenting the current tendency toward an accelerated cinema culture, one that appears to arrive simultaneously for everyone, everywhere, Screen Traffic unearths and critiques the corporate and cultural forces contributing to the “felt internationalism” of our global era.

Genres: Film

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Charles R. Acland is Associate Professor of Communications Studies at Concordia University, Montreal.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A magnificent study of material changes in cinema culture by one of the greatest scholars in the field – though I will admit that did mostly skip the chapters that offered detailed analysis of the specific situation in Canada.

[B Panther · Rating 3 out of 5]

Contains gems of knowledge and rhetoric that really puts todays cinemagoing in historical perspective yet are nestled in a noisy crowd of dense phrases which make the book a slog to read at times.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part II had a fascinating discussion of how the process of going to the movies changed in the 1980's-- in particular in reaction to the general climate of deregulation. The changing environment of the movie theater is used as a way to discuss space as a way to think of cultural consumption.

I thought that the chapter on Canadian Film was a bit long and repeated a lot of the information the author had already covered, but in general it was an informative and easy to read book.