Papers presented by Shawna Kidman since 2019
2023 Detroit, MI, United States
"Writing the History of Hollywood Using Contemporary Hollywood's Biggest Databases"
Shawna Kidman, University of California, San Diego
Abstract:
This paper considers how the use of large datasets may help reinvent a business history more relevant to practitioners and more grounded in quantitative evidence. Specifically, I look at three data services designed for and targeted to contemporary decisionmakers in the media sector (i.e. investors, talent agents, marketers, and upper management): Refinitiv (a major software system for financiers), Luminate (the data arm of Variety, a prominent industry trade), and Opus (behind the publicly available box office tracking on TheNumbers.com). While the intended use of these tools is explicitly utilitarian (tracking current projects and companies, finding contacts) and predictive (forecasting market trends, choosing winning projects to back), these services have vast amounts of data, much of which goes back six decades. They are thus excellent—and virtually untapped—resources for media historians interested in tracking how changing economic conditions led to new business models and new cultural formations. Their use is nonetheless fraught: some of the data is incomplete and requires cleaning; the organization and formatting of the databases is not conducive to historical work; and both the data and the services are generated by monopolistic companies active in the sectors they monitor. To better illustrate some of the benefits and challenges these tools pose, I use a case study that draws from the above databases as well as additional primary and secondary sources. It examines Hollywood from 2008 to 2013, during a tumultuous transition from the Blockbuster Era of Cinema to the Franchise Era. Although the narrative focus is on a relatively short five-year window, I look at forty years (1980-2020) of box office revenue, theatrical release numbers, data on individual movie titles, and financials from the major studios to better understand how rapid structural change was able to upend long established practices and trends.
Keywords:
2022 Mexico City
"The Failure of Entrepreneurial Exhibition: Independent Movie Theatres in the Age of Digital Media Conglomerates"
Shawna Kidman, University of California, San Diego
Abstract:
Independent exhibitors—movie theatres that typically have only one or two screens and/or are located in small towns or underserved neighborhoods—were a mainstay of U.S. cinema culture throughout the 20th century. Even as multiplex theatre chains swept the nation during the 1980s and 1990s, these small businesses continued to serve their communities by providing jobs, anchoring other retail establishments, and providing the public with a shared cultural space. In the 21st century, however, independent theatres began to hemorrhage. Intensified competition from debt-financed chains, supply problems, and a consumer shift to streaming forced many to shutter. In 2019, after two decades of struggle, only 3,000 remained in operation. Grounded in exhibition studies, this paper uses case studies of failing independent theatres. Eschewing an analysis of big media companies (which dominate the literature in both media studies and business history), the focus here is on small businesses outside of media hubs in L.A. and New York. I examine a handful of theatres that fought hard to stay alive by embracing an entrepreneurial spirit hawked by trade groups like NATO, promoted at conventions like Cinema Con, and detailed by the trade magazine Boxoffice. These exhibitors designed dynamic pricing strategies through new technology and innovated new theatrical-dining experiences for new kinds of moviegoers. They also turned to their communities for support, adopting nonprofit models, seeking donations and grants, or marketing community ownership. Unfortunately, their efforts largely failed. I consider what factors prevented entrepreneurial success in this sector by examining the broader social and economic context, and by analyzing the everyday actions of these firms in response to heavily capitalized competitors and conglomerated suppliers. I argue that even though local communities responded positively, the duress of monopoly capitalism put independents in an untenable position.