IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/eme/aaeczz/s1529-2134(07)10005-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

The Evolution of Entertainment Consumption and the Emergence of Cinema, 1890–1940

In: The Evolution of Consumption: Theories and Practices

Author

Listed:
  • Gerben Bakker

Abstract

At the end of the nineteenth century, in the era of the second industrial revolution, falling working hours, rising disposable income, increasing urbanisation, rapidly expanding transport networks and strong population growth resulted in a sharp rise in the demand for entertainment. Initially, the expenditure was spread across different categories, such as live entertainment, sports, music, bowling alleys or skating rinks. One of these categories was cinematographic entertainment, a new service, based on a new technology. Initially it seemed not more than a fad, a novelty shown at fairs, but it quickly emerged as the dominant form of popular entertainment. This paper argues that the take-off of cinema was largely demand-driven, and that, in an evolutionary process, consumers allocated more and more expenditure to cinema. It will analyse how consumer habits and practices evolved with the new cinema technology and led to the formation of a new product/service.

Suggested Citation

  • Gerben Bakker, 2007. "The Evolution of Entertainment Consumption and the Emergence of Cinema, 1890–1940," Advances in Austrian Economics, in: The Evolution of Consumption: Theories and Practices, pages 93-137, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    • Handle: RePEc:eme:aaeczz:s1529-2134(07)10005-3
    DOI: 10.1016/S1529-2134(07)10005-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1016/S1529-2134(07)10005-3/full/html?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1016/S1529-2134(07)10005-3/full/pdf?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/S1529-2134(07)10005-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Horrell, Sara, 1996. "Home Demand and British Industrialization," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 56(3), pages 561-604, September.
    2. Bakker, Gerben, 2001. "Stars and Stories: How Films Became Branded Products," Enterprise & Society, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(3), pages 461-502, September.
    3. Gerben Bakker, 2003. "Building Knowledge about the Consumer: The Emergence of Market Research in the Motion Picture Industry," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(1), pages 101-127.
    4. Gerben Bakker, 2005. "The decline and fall of the European film industry: sunk costs, market size, and market structure, 1890–1927," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 58(2), pages 310-351, May.
    5. Bakker,Gerben, 2011. "Entertainment Industrialised," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107403499, January.
    6. Feinstein,Charles H. & Thomas,Mark, 2002. "Making History Count," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521001373, January.
    7. Bakker, Gerben, 2006. "The Making of a Music Multinational: PolyGram's International Businesses, 1945–1998," Business History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 80(1), pages 81-123, April.
    8. Bakker, Gerben, 2004. "At the origins of increased productivity growth in services. Productivity, social savings and the consumer surplus of the film industry, 1900-1938," Economic History Working Papers 22348, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Allègre L. Hadida & Joseph Lampel & W. David Walls & Amit Joshi, 2021. "Hollywood studio filmmaking in the age of Netflix: a tale of two institutional logics," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 45(2), pages 213-238, June.
    2. Gerben Bakker, 2011. "Leisure Time, Cinema and the Structure of Household Entertainment Expenditure, 1890–1940," Chapters, in: Samuel Cameron (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Leisure, chapter 16, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gerben Bakker, 2005. "The decline and fall of the European film industry: sunk costs, market size, and market structure, 1890–1927," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 58(2), pages 310-351, May.
    2. Bakker, Gerben, 2012. "Adopting the rights-based model: music multinationals and local music industries since 1945," Economic History Working Papers 47507, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    3. Bakker, Gerben, 2004. "At the origins of increased productivity growth in services. Productivity, social savings and the consumer surplus of the film industry, 1900-1938," Economic History Working Papers 22348, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    4. Bakker, Gerben, 2012. "Sunk costs and the dynamics of creative industries," Economic History Working Papers 49081, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    5. Bakker, Gerben, 2014. "How they made news pay: news traders’ quest for crisis-resistant business models," Economic History Working Papers 59304, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    6. Gerben Bakker, 2011. "Leisure Time, Cinema and the Structure of Household Entertainment Expenditure, 1890–1940," Chapters, in: Samuel Cameron (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Leisure, chapter 16, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Bakker, Gerben, 2007. "Structural change and the growth contribution of services: how motion pictures industrialized US spectator entertainment," Economic History Working Papers 22314, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    8. John Sedgwick & Michael Pokorny, 2010. "Consumers as risk takers: Evidence from the film industry during the 1930s," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(1), pages 74-99.
    9. Bakker, Gerben, 2013. "Money for nothing: How firms have financed R&D-projects since the Industrial Revolution," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(10), pages 1793-1814.
    10. John Sedgwick & Michael Pokorny, 2005. "The film business in the United States and Britain during the 1930s," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 58(1), pages 79-112, February.
    11. Bakker, Gerben, 2014. "Soft power: the media industries in Britain since 1870," Economic History Working Papers 56333, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    12. Michael Pokorny & John Sedgwick, 2010. "Profitability trends in Hollywood, 1929 to 1999: somebody must know something1," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 63(1), pages 56-84, February.
    13. Renato P. Colistete, 2021. "Predicting Skills of Runaway Slaves in São Paulo, 1854-1887," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2021_15, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP), revised 23 Apr 2021.
    14. Guangchao Charles Feng, 2017. "The dynamics of the Chinese film industry: factors affecting Chinese audiences’ intentions to see movies," Asia Pacific Business Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(5), pages 658-676, October.
    15. Robert C. Allen, 2005. "Capital Accumulation, Technological Change, and the Distribution of Income during the British Industrial Revolution," Economics Series Working Papers 239, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    16. Gregory Clark, 2005. "The Condition of the Working Class in England, 1209-2004," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(6), pages 1307-1340, December.
    17. Hersh, Jonathan & Voth, Hans-Joachim, 2022. "Sweet diversity: Colonial goods and the welfare gains from global trade after 1492," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    18. Robert Allen & Robert C. Allen, 2007. "Pessimism Preserved: Real Wages in the British Industrial Revolution," Economics Series Working Papers 314, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    19. Crafts, Nicholas & Knick Harley, C., 2002. "Precocious British industrialization: a general equilibrium perspective," Economic History Working Papers 22368, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    20. Borowiecki, Karol Jan, 2019. "The Origins of Creativity: The Case of the Arts in the United States since 1850," Discussion Papers on Economics 11/2019, University of Southern Denmark, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • N0 - Economic History - - General
    • O52 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Europe
    • O51 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - U.S.; Canada
    • B1 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925
    • L82 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Entertainment; Media

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eme:aaeczz:s1529-2134(07)10005-3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Emerald Support (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.