The Film Industry and Hedonic Value

Since the eras of the culturally rich Greek and Roman empires, everyday citizens have valued theatrical productions as a means of recreation and as an escape from the monotony and struggle of real life, if only for a few hours at a time. The business of theatre has evolved greatly during the 2,000-plus years since, but perhaps has never undergone as rapid and immense a transformation as it has in the past 100-or-so years. Such developments are rooted in the supplementation and enhancing of the hedonic value offered by theatrical productions, which serve as the primary focus of this series of blogs. In this, the first of the three blogs, I will chronicle the changes and trends the film industry has undergone since the beginning of the 20^th century and how they relate to the concept of consumer value.

There are many opinions as to what officially constitutes the first motion picture, but consensuses holds that it was produced in the last few years before the 20^th century; the first feature film, meanwhile, was Cecil B. Demille’s The Squaw Man in 1914, per The Guardian’s fascinating 2010 historical analysis of Hollywood. (French, 2010) The motion picture represented a natural progression of the theatre industry, as dictated by technology: the stories typically reserved for plays, musicals, etc. for centuries upon centuries could now be permanently captured on film and distributed to masses of audiences in droves that live theatrical productions could never possibly reach.

What began as a modest business at the turn of the 1900s soon ballooned into one of the biggest hedonic-value-bestowing institutions in Western culture. Hedonic value, as defined on page 29 of CB, is the “value derived from the immediate gratification that comes from some activity” (Babin & Harris, 2016); ironically, going to the movies is the example CB uses as seeking hedonic value. The University of Houston’s Digital History department published an article in 2016 detailing the early days of Hollywood – which had become shorthand for the American film industry in general – and how it became a central cultural institution. “By the end of the [1920s], Hollywood claimed to be the nation’s fifth largest industry, attracting 83 cents out of every dollar Americans spent on amusement.” Additionally, by the middle of the 1920s, 50 million Americans – roughly half of the nation’s population at the time – went to a movie theatre at least once a week. (“The Rise of Hollywood and the Arrival of Sound”, 2016) During these early days of its robust growth, Hollywood concentrated on ways to augment the hedonic value it was capable of offering to consumers. At the time, this meant incorporating new technologies like sound and color into the films in attempts to grab even larger shares of the entertainment industry; eventually, this would manifest itself in animation, special effects, etc. Judging by the statistics cited by the University of Houston, this strategy of emphasizing building up hedonic value paid off handsomely for the industry during this era.

Ann Arbor's historic Michigan Theater on East Liberty, pictured here in 1938.
Stanger, E. (1938). Wheaties Children Program, Michigan Theater, 1938 [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://oldnews.aadl.org/N018_0063_001 

The unprecedented prosperity and popularity Hollywood enjoyed during the first half of the 1900s would prove unsustainable, though. The advent of television programming in the middle of the 20^th century (and the convenience it offered) precipitated a decline in per capita movie theatre attendance, a trend that persists today. Considering The Value Equation, this trend makes sense. According to this equation, found on page 28 of CB, consumer value is derived from what one “gets” from a good or service minus what one “gives” to receive this good or service. (Babin & Harris, 2016) A consumer gives up less time and money to watch a program, movie, event, etc. from the comfort of his/her own home than if he/she were to decide to go to the movies. Technology has replicated the experience once unique to movie theatres and has made it available in living rooms – and American consumers have responded predictably and rationally by choosing to stay home. In light of this phenomenon, the American film industry has been forced to look outside of movie theatres for revenue and has attempted to adapt to 21^st-century viewing habits.

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog! I hope it provided insight into how the film industry has adapted over time in order to meet consumer demands. In the third blog, I will dig deeper into the implications these trends have on the future of the film industry, but in the next blog I will cover television’s parallel evolution up to modern day.

Citations:

Babin, B. J., & Harris, E. G. (2016). CB (Vol. 7), 28 – 29.

French, P. (2010, February 27). How 100 years of Hollywood have charted the history of America. Retrieved from The Guardian website: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/feb/28/philip-french-best-hollywood-films

The Rise of Hollywood and the Arrival of Sound. (2016). Retrieved from UH - Digital History website: http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/topic_display.cfm?tcid=124