Film Exhibition in Crisis

Abstract

The COVID-19 (SARS‑CoV‑2) pandemic has led to a generational crisis for film exhibition around the world. Since the pandemic began in 2019, movie theaters have been forced to close their doors temporarily or permanently, alter their modes of presentation and the parameters of the theatrical experience, and transform their operations in countless other ways. But COVID-19 is certainly not the first crisis in film exhibition, nor the only one in process locally and globally. The introduction to this special section examines the concept of crisis in the study of film exhibition and the historic and contemporary crises that have altered cinemagoing practice. It argues that these crises open opportunities for scholars to analyze a broad array of social, political, and industrial impacts that influence film exhibition and related areas of cultural and creative practice across time and space, introducing new research that employs this analytical lens.