Cinema Theatres Research Articles

Online Streaming: A Paradigm Shift for Nollywood Movie Distribution

The Nigerian movie distribution and exhibition business has undergone major transformation in the last few years due to technological innovation. The study is about Nollywood paradigm shift from hard copy movie distribution to online streaming services. The aim is to ascertain why producers are moving to soft screening through online pay-to-view platforms. The objectives were to find out if this new trend is financially beneficial to the producers and whether it will likely continue in the future. The study adopted qualitative methods to interrogate existing data on some of the most popular Nollywood films released online by Netflix. This is based on a snap-shot of Netflix’s popularity chart in the month of October, 2020 and news of cinema theatre films release around the same period. The findings are that the online distribution deals must have been profitable for the producers, judging by repeated use by some of them and others enlisting in the business. The expanding scope of Nollywood producers using these online streaming platforms for distributions of their work suggests the likelihood of a continuing process. The study concludes that this is a mutually beneficial relationship between local producers and online business global entities. It, therefore, recommends that Nollywood producers avoid signing exclusive deals with online distributors only. This will allow home-grown cinema theatres to be financially rewarding to prevent the nation’s cinema theatre chains from collapsing due to redundancy.

Розвиток кінематографа та діяльність кінотеатрів у Кам’янці-Подільському на початку ХХ ст.: за матеріалами газети «Подолянин» (1910-1911 рр.)

The purpose of the study is to use the existing source base to cover the proces- ses of formation and development of cinematographic art and the functioning of cinemas in Kamianets-Podilskyi in the early twentieth century on the pages of the local Podolianyn newspa- per. Th e research methodology is based on the principles of a specifi c historical approach, ob- jectivity, comprehensiveness and integrity, as well as the use of methods of analysis and synthe- sis, historical-comparative, and problematic-chronological. Th e scientifi c novelty is the fact that for the fi rst time in historiography it was shown how cinemas developed in Kamianets-Podilskyi; the sources we identifi ed, namely, publications in the Podolianyn newspaper, made it possible to study the social history of cinematography on the basis of the provincial case, to consider cinema as a phenomenon of culture and history, and to analyze the number and functioning of cinemas in the city in the early twentieth century. Conclusions. Th e emergence of cinema in Kamianets- Podilskyi dates back to 1901, and the popularization of Kamianets cinema was facilitated by the publication of the local Podolianyn newspaper, the fi rst issues of which were published in September 1910. In addition to publishing advertisements with dates and schedules of movie shows, the newspaper also popularized the Humanitarian Society cinema, stating that part of the collected money would be used for charity. In early March 1911, Kamianets-Podilskyi was visited by an authorized representative of a cinematographic company in Russia, who noted that Kamianets-Podilskyi cinema theatres were maintained at a decent level and all worked on elect- ricity. It is also worth mentioning that local photographers produced their own fi lms. Thus, we can conclude that cinematography appeared in Podillia, quite soon aft er its appearance, due to the proximity of the borders with European countries. At the same time, there were several cin- emas in the city, which generated competitiveness. Photographers became interested in the new business, mastered new technologies, bought movie projectors, and created fi lms. In general, the issue of the development of cinematographic art in Kamianets-Podilskyi has not been the subject of in-depth studies by Ukrainian researchers, which requires a detailed study in the future.

The Influence of Public Service Announcements from the Film Division of India in Cinema Theatres

The Influence of Public Service Announcements from the Film Division of India in Cinema Theatres

Unveiling the Drivers of Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty in Cinema Theatres: Integrating Sufficiency and Necessity Perspectives

Unveiling the Drivers of Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty in Cinema Theatres: Integrating Sufficiency and Necessity Perspectives

Room Response Equalization of Non-Minimum Phase Systems Using Kautz Filter and Sparse Autoencoder: A Hybrid Approach

Room Response Equalization (RRE) systems play a vital role in enhancing the hearing experience in different real-time application areas such as cinema theatres, home theatres, hearing aid implementation, car hi-fi systems, etc. Thenceforth, RRE using digital signal processing techniques has been a matter of great interest to researchers for a long time. RRE is intended to provide a listener with a profound audio experience alike the original audio signal. Conventional filtering approaches have been used by several researchers to perform room equalization. However, this article presents a novel technique by cascading a Kautz filter and a sparse autoencoder in performing room equalization. Kautz filters belong to a category of fixed pole IIR filters that use least-square (LS) minimization to generate orthonormal tap-output impulse responses. This LS approximated signal is further trained by a sparse autoencoder, which provides filter coefficients, iteratively optimized, to minimize a cost function. The cost function is considered here in terms of the reconstruction error function. The performance of this hybrid network of equalization is evaluated in terms of mean square error and spectral deviation measures. Computational results show that this hybrid approach yields better results both qualitatively and quantitatively in comparison with the other filtering techniques.

Cinema theatres for the “new man”: leisure and cinema in the USSR in the 1920s

Cinema theatres for the “new man”: leisure and cinema in the USSR in the 1920s

Cinema memories in 3D modelling and virtual reality storytelling

This paper focuses on the project VR and AR in the valorisation of cultural and artistic heritage within the New Cinema History framework, aims to combine microhistory related to local cinema theatres and Cinema Heritage, and to investigate the possibilities that digital media – in this case Augmented and Virtual Reality – have in the valorisation and preservation of cultural heritage. The final output of the project is the Virtual Reality reconstruction of the Odeon cinema’s architecture and habits of cinemagoing that, thanks to an immersive experience via the Oculus Rift headset, could evoke and simulate historical spectatorship that dealt both with the moment of watching a movie and its peripheral practice. the development of the project, at least four different perspectives on the Odeon cinema converged to form the basis of the VR reconstruction: the literature on the topic, the consultation of public and private archives, the oral sources, and photographs taken on site. This paper focuses mostly on the documents and sources used in the VR project and it aims to investigate how various and heterogeneous documents can be woven together into a philologically reliable historical reconstruction, and how they can be used in 3D modelling and VR storytelling related to Cinema Heritage.

The Variation of Pre-movement Time in Building Evacuation

In order to provide a reliable evacuation design assessment, data showing the variation in pre-movement time is of vital importance. The pre-movement time is in many cases regarded as the main time period during an evacuation assessment. Therefore, forty unannounced evacuation experiments for six different occupancies were analysed to quantify pre-movement time during building evacuation, i.e., the time taken between receiving the first cue and initiation of movement towards an exit during evacuation. The occupancies were office, cinema theatres, restaurants, department stores and night clubs. The occupancies were equipped with different types of evacuation alarm systems. The study resulted in 2486 data points for the pre-movement time. The pre-movement times were matched to statistical distributions to describe the variation. It was found that the pre-movement times in most cases could be represented with a lognormal or loglogistic distribution typically having a rapid initial increase representing the phase when people start reacting, which is followed by a less steep decrease representing the phase when some people linger before evacuating. Most reliable data are provided for the cinema theatre experiments which included 1954 data points from 30 experiments. The paper also presents a structure for performing an assessment of video recorded evacuation experiment determining actions, relevant time data and fitting a statistical distribution to the data. The new information provided in the paper can help fire safety professionals to more accurately predict the time to evacuate different premises.

Cinema-going in Lagos: three locations, one film, one weekend

ABSTRACT Nollywood audiences are under-researched. Understanding audiences’ sites of spectatorship has contributed to how and why Nollywood is consumed, and with what cultural implications for these audiences, and for producers, distributors and exhibitors. With the re-emergence of cinema theatres in Lagos, scholars are yet to articulate how the cinema-going audiences engage with Nollywood films in specific cine-plexes. This paper addresses the nature of a subset of Lagos-based audiences and ways in which they convene at cinema centres, experience a Nollywood film, The CEO (2016), and disperse from the spaces made possible by Lagos cinema operators. A commercially-vibrant city, Lagos is not only the birth place of Nollywood but also the location of a majority of the cinemas in Nigeria. The paper throws up insights on the demographic nature of Lagos cinema-going audiences and their meaning-making habits.

Factors affecting financial leveraging for BSE listed real estate development companies in India

Purpose The real estate sector in India has assumed growing importance with the liberalisation of the economy. Developments in the real estate sector are being influenced by the developments in the retail, hospitality and entertainment (e.g. hotels, resorts and cinema theatres) segment, economic services (e.g. hospitals, schools) and information technology-enabled services (such as call centres), and vice versa. This paper aims to study the determinants of capital structure by taking into account 125 major Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) listed real estate companies selected on the basis of their market capitalisation. Design/methodology/approach To discover what determines capital structure, nine firm level explanatory variables (profitability-EBIT margin, return on assets, earnings volatility, non-debt tax shield, tangibility, size, growth, age debt service ratio and tax shield) were selected and regressed against the appropriate capital structure measures, namely, total debt to total assets, long-term debts to total assets, short-term debts to total assets, total liabilities to total liabilities plus equity, total debt to capital used and total debt to total liabilities plus equity. A sample of 125 real estate companies was taken and secondary data were collected. Consequently, multivariate regression analysis was made based on financial statement data of the selected companies over the study period of 2009-2015. Findings The major findings of the study indicated that profitability, size, age, debt service capacity growth and tax shield variables are the significant firm-level determinants. Research limitations/implications The present study is carried out by taking data of only 25 companies listed on the BSE and time period covered from 2009 from 2015. Time period and sample size may be limitations of the current study. Practical implications The present study is an empirical analysis of the determinants of leverage of real estate sector in India with most recent available data. Different regression equations have been formed to develop the models using firm-specific determinants and different measures of leverage or capital structure. Data were regressed using SPSS application software, and the resulting (or obtained) regression outputs are analysed. This study will help the Indian real estate companies to the know the impact of different variables while raising short-term and long-term loans. Social implications The current study will benefit all stakeholders of society who are fascinated to be acquainted with the financing of real estate companies and the factors affecting long-term and short-term financing of this sector. Specifically, public engrossed in different modes of investment and financial institution will be the prime gainers. Originality/value The present study has been completed using authentic data from the annual reports and database. This study uses explanatory variables and different measures of leverage which were limited in use in previous studies. Moreover, this research is a comprehensive study that deals with developing different regression models by using diverse measures of leverage.

Contours of Cinema Theatres and Bombay City

Bombay cannot be divorced from Bollywood, its medusa-like industry. While the relationship between the city of Bombay and the cinema it produces has been much talked about, this article seeks to look at the history of single-screen cinema theatres that are testimony to the urban history of Bombay. They are the receptacle in which cinema meets its audience. Within the darkened space of the theatre, a heterogeneous audience meets for a homogenous activity—to consume cinema. On the outside, their façades bear the marks of a city’s growth—be it Art-Deco theatres like Liberty, or warehouse structures like Chandan. Their unique style also becomes a geographical marker for the city’s public to navigate their way—countless bus stops and lanes are named after theatres, and a quick chat with the city’s slightly older residents will reveal how they identify neighbourhoods with theatres. This article traces the history of theatres and entertainment in Bombay (from the 1850s) vis-à-vis the city’s urban history. The contention is that as the city grew upwards from its southern tip, expanding in girth, so did the cinema theatres multiply situating themselves along the south-north running railway lines. Thus, to understand the urban growth of Bombay, a unique lens is exploring the history of cinema theatres. In understanding this, the article will highlight the importance of single-screen cinema theatres, and the reason why their sites and spaces need to be preserved.

The changing cinema spaces of Accra: Fragmented spectatorship and the loss of empathy

Abstract Cinema theatres are designed to foster collective emotional responses. Ghana’s capital Accra, like many other African cities, used to be full of such spaces. Urban infrastructures no longer support cinema theatres, and subsequently, television, video and small screens, in general, have replaced the dark room. This study explores some key aspects of how film spectatorship is embedded in the historical and current geography of Accra. It traces the undoing of cinema and its spaces, as well as the possible consequences of this development. The article retells an artistic research process that took place in a video parlour in Accra. The findings of the artistic research are supported in part by theories on space and apparatus. In Accra, collective spectatorship has turned into a mostly random event. Passers-by watch short glimpses of narratives without a pre-existing understanding of, nor commitment to, the narrative. Fragmented spectatorship can ultimately lead to a loss of shared feeling – empathy – between audience members and film characters, and as a consequence, between members of broader societal and even global contexts.

The Soundscape of the Cinema Theatre

This article explores the history of the cinema auditorium’s acoustics and its role in the construction of dominant models of cinematic listening from the 1930s through the present. Focusing on how contemplation was achieved and noise was reduced via the development of acoustical engineering and its later application to the cinema context, it argues that these acoustical treatments and designs worked to cultivate a dominant form of listening that favoured aesthetic absorption. Analysing the more creative and prominent methods of acoustical design that were active in cinema theatres from the rise of amplified sound in film through the emergence of THX, it also traces models of aural absorption that were encouraged by these technologies. Drawing upon evidence from art history and the history of previous public entertainments that then appear powerfully in cinema, it argues that the acoustical engineering of the cinema auditorium has always worked to encourage absorption through the reduction of noise and the de-emphasis of the surrounding social context of cinema. It ends with an analysis of how certain sounds–specifically, those of the spectator’s body and breath–emerge in accounts of the moviegoing experience and dispel the carefully cultivated myth of perfect absorption.

Cinema Parisien 3D

In this article we evaluate the relevance of 3D visualisation as a research tool for the history of cinemagoing. How does the process of building a 3D model of cinema theatres relate to what we already know about this history? In which ways does the modelling process allow for the synthesis of different types of archived cinema heritage assets? To what extent does this presentation of “content in context” helps us to better understand the history of film consumption? We will address these questions via a discussion of a specific case study, our visualisation of Jean Desmet’s Amsterdam Cinema Parisien theatre, one of the first permanent cinemas of the Dutch capital. First, we reflect on 3D as a research tool, outlining its technology and methodological principles and its usefulness for research into the historiography of moviegoing. Then we describe our 3D visualisation of Cinema Parisien, discussing the process of researching and building the model. Finally, we evaluate the result against the existing knowledge about the history of cinemagoing in Amsterdam and of this cinema theatre in particular, and answer the question to what extent 3D as a research tool can aid our understanding of the history of cinema consumption.

Target Audience of Live Opera Transmissions to Cinema Theatres from the Marketing Point of View

Opera has a famous history and even the present-day repertoire in opera houses mostly consists of classical and well-known works. Marketers are trying to find new ways that would enable opera lovers all over the world to enjoy top quality performances. One of the most successful models is real-time transmissions of operas to geographically remote cinemas. Cinemas from all around the world participate in the project. In this paper, the authors analyze the spectators' profile and point out differences between North America and the Czech Republic, focusing on transmissions of performances by the Metropolitan Opera in New York. The authors submit a detailed analysis of the socio-demographic characteristics of the spectators and the attendance frequency. Special attention is paid to the marketing profile of Czech spectators, based on primary data gathered in the research. The paper is a combination of research report and business case study. The study reveals that female visitors prevail. Elderly people are also represented in high percentages. The spectators are characterized by refined taste in their lifestyles and familiarity with modern technology.

The Sequel, Building reuse in Lisbon: the case of Modern Cinema Theatres [1904-1957

As a consequence of technical evolution, consumerism and mobility, a number of buildings were abandoned despite their location, function or building condition. A prominent example is the cinema theatre, a Modern programme par excellence that had already lost its raison d’être by the end of the 20th century. This paper concerns a sample of 40 cinemas in Lisbon which were built until the start of regular television broadcasting in 1957. After the essential characterization of the venues, based on recent studies, the reuse of these cinemas is analysed from a purely functional point of view. This essay presents some answers and opens a discussion about the reuse of these buildings.The reuse of buildings is a prominent urban problem, in particular in European cities. Reuse is a common and useful word that names a wide range of situations: conversions, adaptive reuse, and rehabilitation, even occupation (Tostões 2014, Tostões 2015a).The relevance of the study of cinema reuse is due to the innovative contribution for the development of Architecture (Alves 2014). Moreover, cinemas were the background of important cultural and social events and therefore part of our collective memory and urban heritage. In Lisbon, as in many other European capital cities, cinemas became paradigmatic urban places of great social value due to the educative role in particular for the illiterate, as a gathering leisure space in the city and the political role as a propaganda medium. The specificities of Portuguese cinema theatres are related to the dictatorship politics and backwardness: the greatest theatres were built by the end of the 1950s, while in central Europe this happened by the end of the 1930s. Only in the 21st century the first studies concerning cinema architecture in Portugal have been published, but none really investigates what happened after their closure.Visits, classification of the building condition and organization of the information into tables allow to have a panorama of the situation, characterized by a wide number of gutting and disrespectful interventions. After this quantitative analysis, the Cinema Ideal case, as the only to be maintained as a regular cinema, as well as some representative case-studies namely the Monumental, the Capitólio, Eden and Cinearte are highlighted in this paper.

Femininity, ageing and performativity in the work of Amy Heckerling

In this article we evaluate the relevance of 3D visualisation as a research tool for the history of cinemagoing. How does the process of building a 3D model of cinema theatres relate to what we already know about this history? In which ways does the modelling process allow for the synthesis of different types of archived cinema heritage assets? To what extent does this presentation of “content in context” helps us to better understand the history of film consumption? We will address these questions via a discussion of a specific case study, our visualisation of Jean Desmet’s Amsterdam Cinema Parisien theatre, one of the first permanent cinemas of the Dutch capital. First, we reflect on 3D as a research tool, outlining its technology and methodological principles and its usefulness for research into the historiography of moviegoing. Then we describe our 3D visualisation of Cinema Parisien, discussing the process of researching and building the model. Finally, we evaluate the result against the existing knowledge about the history of cinemagoing in Amsterdam and of this cinema theatre in particular, and answer the question to what extent 3D as a research tool can aid our understanding of the history of cinema consumption.

Putting the moral into morale: YMCA cinemas on the Western Front, 1914–1918

This article will focus on the wartime cinema facilities provided by the philanthropic association the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA). At the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, the YMCA turned its attention to supporting troops fighting for Britain and her Empire. YMCA huts were built to provide soldiers with food and a place to rest on the frontline, or at home in military camps and railway stations. Alongside the arrangements for entertainments made by the Army at Divisional level, the YMCA had a central role in providing morale-boosting entertainment and moral-strengthening education to British soldiers. Films became a central mode of entertainment for British servicemen serving on the Western Front and the Mediterranean. Cinema shows were the most popular part of the concert party programme, with many cinema halls also acting as theatres. The YMCA had 77 cinema plants, the majority of which were portable units providing free showings to men in forward positions. There were 20 specially constructed cinema theatres in principal Base Camps, each with a capacity of up to 1500 men, and towards the end of the war, the organisation estimated that it had shown films to 35,000 men for every night of the conflict. This article will show how valuable the medium of film became to the British Army in terms of morale and discipline. An effective ‘counter-attraction’ to less wholesome forms of recreation, the cinema was an essential element of wartime life for British troops serving in the First World War.

Noise Levels in Twenty Selected Cinema Theatres in Visakhapatnam City, Andhra Pradesh, India

Cinema is the most important media for entertainment and relaxation in India. Noise is an important pollutant in cinema theaters. People are ignorant of the ill effects of noise. Frequent exposure to loud music can lead to selective hearing loss at some frequencies depending on age and gender and the common ear disorders are tinnitus and hyperacousis. The noise levels in twenty selected cinema theatres playing different types of movies in Visakhapatnam city, Andhra Pradesh, India were measured using CYGNET 2001 and a questionnaire survey was done to determine the effect of noise on the audience. The LAeq levels ranged from 78 to 93 dB (A) in the twenty selected cinema theatres and the corresponding the 8-hour daily exposure LAeq8h levels are in the range 73 to 87 dB (A). The LAeq levels in eleven theatres (55%) are above 85 dB (A), in eight theatres (40%) the levels are between 80–85 dB (A) and one theatre (5%) the level is less than 80 dB (A). At eight theatres, about 65% of audience in the age group of 40 years and above expressed mild to severe headache and tinnitus whereas 10% of audience above age of 30 years expressed slight uneasiness.

Mass Screening of Vision in the Cinemas and a Maculascope for the Masses: Revival of Haidinger’s Brush

Haidinger’s brush, an entoptic phenomenon, is very useful in checking central vision loss and eccentric fixation. Haidinger’s brush is also used to provide vision training for subjects affected by eccentric fixation/lazy eye. We propose the use of Haidinger’s brush for mass self-screening of vision in cinema theatres in one go and at no cost to the subjects. We also suggest a simple projection technology for mass vision screening of subjects in waiting rooms or at shop windows of eye-care practitioners. Finally, we propose a new affordable handheld device for vision training. The test and the devices that we propose would increase public awareness of eye health, improve vision in children, and help prevent blindness in the elderly.