Hollywood’s Muddle East: political change in Egypt and Israel and the consequences for Hollywood’s Middle Eastern Movie Theaters

Abstract

This article examines how politically inspired attacks on cinemas owned and operated by MGM and 20th Century-Fox in Egypt, and the concurrent efforts of Fox and other US film executives to support and open cinemas in the new state of Israel, had a profound impact on Hollywood’s Middle Eastern cinemas during the 1940s and 1950s. The construction of US-owned cinemas in Egypt in the 1940s followed Hollywood’s global expansion, but the growth of anti-British and anti-Israeli sentiment in the country, coupled with US support for and Hollywood-backed cinema construction in Israel, exacerbated a growing list of political and cultural grievances against US-owned cinemas in Cairo and Alexandria. This article examines Egyptian boycotts against US films and cinemas in the 1930s and 1940s, the geopolitical conditions that led to attacks on MGM and Fox’s cinemas in Cairo during the 1940s and 1950s, and the economic development issues that delayed both companies’ efforts to expand exhibition in Israel. Forces both within and out of its control would ultimately muddle Hollywood’s Middle Eastern exhibition strategy.