The document provides an overview of key facts and figures about the global film industry. It discusses that in 2018, US box office revenue was $10.7 billion with 417,000 people employed in motion picture and sound recording industries. The average hourly wage in the motion picture industry was $33 in 2017. It also summarizes the history and development of the film industry from its origins with Edison and the Lumiere brothers to the present day where 6 major companies dominate the industry. Digital technology has significantly impacted production, distribution and exhibition of films globally.

1. Movies: Lecture Notes
COM 130

2. Key Film Industry Figures
 U. S. box office revenue in 2018 was $10.7 billion
 Total employment in U.S. motion picture and sound recording industries in 2018 was 417,000.
 Hourly wage in motion picture industry in 2017 was $33.00
 Motion picture video production and distribution industry in 2016 was $12.8 billion
 The number of cinemas in the United States has declined steadily since 1995 to fewer than 6,000 in 2017
down from 8,000 in 1995
 There are 99,639 3-D screens worldwide in 2017, up from 258 3-D screens in 2006!
 In 2017, there were 720 movies released
 The cost of movie tickets is the number one reason in 2018 that people don’t go to the movie theater

3. Top Filming
Locations

4. Global Film
Markets

5. Birth of
Motion
Pictures
Persistence of vision: an aspect of human vision in which the brain retains images for a
fraction of a second AFTER they leave the field of sight.
1872 California governor Leland Stanford asked English photographer Eadweard
Muybridge to try to photograph a running horse to win a bet that at some points when
running, all four feet would be off the ground.
1873 Muybridge displayed the pictures in NewYork, and Edison saw them and realized
still pictures made to move could make movement seem real.
Edison created a kinetograph: a camera to take motion pictures
and a kinetoscope; a device to show the pictures.
Edwin Porter produced The GreatTrain Robbery, a 12-minute film first using editing
to tell a silent motion picture story.

6. Movies
Develop
 Edison had not filed for an international patent on his camera—
so……people overseas copied him.
 The French brothers Louis and Aufuste Lumiere improved Edison’s
camera and began first public showings of movies they created.
 1896 Edison invents a theater projector he called aVitascope
 Edison founds the Motion Picture Patents Company --aka “theTrust.”
Edison controlled the motion picture technology and bought any
patent that was related.Would-be movie producers fled Edison’s
dominance in NewYork and moved to California.

7. WhyCalifornia?
 Perfect lighting
 Endless land for filming action scenes
 Perfect weather all year, so production costs
were low
 It’s near Mexico to flee legal action by
Edison
 In time, a lawsuit by Fox led to the breakup
of theTrust.

8. Actors
Originally actors were anonymous
Then the “star system” developed—publicizing info about
the actors to attract a fan base for a movie.
First star actors: Mary Pickford –calledAmerica’s
sweetheart---andCharlieChaplin.
Pickford helped elevate the financial status of actors.
Pickford left the studio to form United Artists because the
studio system controlled creative talent in the industry.

9. Early Distribution of Films
Showing movies was
controlled by Edison.
Edison’sTrust required
theaters to purchase licenses
or be locked out
Zukor (created Paramount)
bought up theaters and later
built movie palaces.
Block Booking: Producers
forced the independent
exhibitors to show small
films in order to get the right
to show the big block
busters.
Paramount decision 1948
The SupremeCourt forced
the studios to sell their
theaters.
Meant to increase competition, but
never changed the oligopoly structure
of the Hollywood film industry
Created opportunities for exhibition
Art houses and drive-in theaters
developed

10. Hollywood Narrative and theSilent Era
1
D.W. Griffith: Single most important director in
Hollywood’s early days
•The Birth of a Nation
•First feature-length film
•First blockbuster
2
Popular silent era films
•Napoleon, Ben-Hur, and The Ten
Commandments
3
Early attempts at “talkies” failed

11. MoviesGetSound
Movietone newsreels
Premiered sound film five months before
The Jazz Singer
First film footage with sound
•Lindbergh’s takeoff and return
The first movie with sound was
The Jazz singer—released in
1927 by Warner Brothers.
In 1929—the average weekly
movie attendance was 80
million!
Next advance was
Technicolor—a process
developed in 1935. The color
film was showcased with Gone
With theWind in 1939.

12. The “studio
years” 1930 to
1950, then
Television
Disrupts
 So called because it was the heyday for MGM, 20th
Century Fox, RKO,Warner Brothers, Paramount,
Universal,Columbia, and UnitedArtists
 TV ended the golden years of movies.TV became
the primary family entertainment by the mid-1950s.
 Filmmakers foughtTV in the 1940s by:
 use of special effects
 creation of big-budget, spectacle movies
 using adult themes for content
 refusing to supply movies forTV
 The first movie blockbuster—made more than $250
million in 1975 was JAWS directed by Spielberg.

13. Ratings,Cable,
Technology
In 1968 the Motion Picture Association of America began
the rating system G-PG-R-X to tell audience about
content.
In the late 1990s and early 2000, the industry switched to
digital and saved more than $1 billion each year in
production costs.
The introduction of cable and videocassettes in the 1970s
changed movie exhibition.
Video market was a financial bonanza for the movie
industry.

14. Follow the
Money
Movie production is expensive—movies today
cost more than $100 million.
Between 1914 and 1924, the cost of making a
film increased 1,500 percent. In 1927 the
average costs of a film was $200,000.

15. Most
Expensive
Films in 2018

16. MoviesbyGenrein2018

17. Today—thebiggestissuefacingthefilmindustry—ispiracy

18. TheCost
of Piracy

19. 6CompaniesDominateFilmMaking:
Sony/MGM,NBCUniversal,Disney(BuenaVista),Fox,WarnerBrothers,andParamount(Viacom).

20. Stages of Movie Making
Preproduction:Treatment,
scripts, contracts, finding the
money
Production:Assemble cast to
location, shoot scenes.
Shooting even a moderate
budget film costs $400,000
PER DAY!The average
shooting schedule is 70 days.
Postproduction: Film editor
goes to work—adds sound
track and special effects. A
release print is made.
Vertical integration of all three
levels of the movie business
Production
Distribution
Exhibition

21. Sources of Income forStudios
Movie studios have six major
sources of income.
Box-office receipts
DVD sales, rentals, and downloads
Pay-per-view, premium cable, etc.
Foreign markets
Distributing indie films
Licensing and product placement
Five companies operate more
than 50 percent of U.S. screens.
Development of megaplexes in
the 1990s
Addition of IMAX screens and digital projectors
in the 2000s
Also screen nonmovie events
• Live sporting events, concerts, and classicTV
show marathons

22. MoviesWent
Digital
Movie industry embraced
Internet distribution.
Service companies include Netflix, Hulu, Amazon,
Google, Apple, Redbox and Blockbuster.
Increasingly available on smartphones and tablets
2012: first year digital outpaced physical DVDs
Internet essential for marketing
Digital video is cheaper and more accessible than standard film
equipment
Camera work can be seen instantly without film processing.
Adopted by major directors
Same format as DVDs and Internet video, so films can be distributed
online easily

23. Digital
Screens

24. GlobalFilmMarkets

25. References
 Campbell, Martin, and Fabos. (2014). Media & Culture: Mass Communication in a
DigitalAge. 10th edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.
 Media Use in the U. S. (2018). Study ID10950. Stitsta Dossier.
 Nielsen (2018). MPA; GfK Entertainment Report. Retrieved from Statist Database
Online: the Digital Reader.
 U. S. Census Bureau (2018). Retrieved from Proquest Stista