Cinema’s Need for Spectacle

Abstract

For the film industry, cinema is the first channel of distribution and it is the single one dedicated, almost exclusively, to films. It is so much linked to the artistry of this industry that it borrowed its name after the art itself: cinematography.

The importance of this distribution channel is indisputable. Economically, it still brings the most revenue for an average movie. Artistically, it’s the most controllable environment in which an artist can showcase their work. Since the beginning, the existence of this distribution channel was threatened by various natural or man driven disasters or technological advancements and, in spite of all this, cinema managed to become the favourite source of entertainment only a couple of decades after its birth.

Cinema attendance reached its peak in the 1940’s, after that came the downfall. Although the attendance rate seems to be on a descending pattern, in times of crisis, the industry manages to find ways to slow down the descent rate. The problem is obvious, the people are reluctant to go to the cinema, but why and how it can be mended, that’s another problem altogether.
In this article I will analyze the solutions that were tested by the industry during the crises and their focus on enhancing one of the aspects of the spectacle of the cinema show. Each solution focused on either making the cinema show more entertaining, worth remembering, unusual, exclusive or live.