The Elusive Audience: Comparing Tino Ballio and Robert Ray Essay Example

As a result, suburbanites with small children turned to radio for entertainment, leading to an unprecedented growth in the late forties. Eventually, the incorporation of television into American homes continued this trend of alternative entertainment that radios had begun. (Balio, 3)

Balio explains that the middle class lost interest in movies for multiple reasons. Firstly, they had new alternatives to spend their money on instead of watching films. Additionally, accessing movies became more difficult. Moreover, during the 1950s, the middle class acquired a broader range of options to spend their leisure funds on due to shorter working hours, paid vacations and holidays, and overall economic prosperity. This led them to engage in a spending spree for leisure activities such as domestic and foreign travel, athletics, hunting and fishing, gardening, boating, games and toys, records and hi-fi's as well as do-it-yourself projects around the home. Balio claims that an explosion of outlets for leisure time (and money), combined with non-leisure spending opportunities (homes, cars, washing machines) and increased distance from movie theaters are the main factors contributing to decreased movie viewership.

Balio speculates that the middle class was solely responsible for the decline in ticket sales, assuming that the large middle class population in America at the time made this plausible. However, Balio fails to provide further explanation for this assumption. Ray presents an alternate perspective on why Americans were less interested in going to the movies, which doesn't limit the phenomenon to the middle class alone. Despite acknowledging that the middle class lifestyle was changing, Ray believes that inconvenience of movie attendance alone is an insufficient explanation for Hollywood's economic decline.

According to Ray, Hollywood had

experienced a decline in attendance due to its persistent use of old formulas. He states that the audience's intuitive understanding of reality no longer coincides with traditional Hollywood films, as the mentality of the American audience had changed since the inception of the industry. Hollywood films had undergone a conservative evolution of subject matter, with only necessary changes to keep audiences satisfied. However, after World War II, many Americans had different concerns than those depicted in the movies. As a result, in order to retain high box office draws, the film industry would need to match the radically altered American mentality by changing their content.

Regarding the decline in popularity of standard Hollywood movies, it is acknowledged that their simplicity no longer aligned with the complex world views of certain audience members. However, not everyone desired to watch such films (Ray, 139). Several individuals preferred the escapism provided by blockbuster movies. Therefore, the divergence in movie preferences demonstrated that despite the American film industry's...

Ray (138) reveals that Hollywood always assumed its audience was a homogeneous group with the same worldview. However, it discovered a disturbing trend of an audience divided into fragments. Consequently, Hollywood realized that it could no longer produce and promote movies for the general public but had to target specific groups. Although this issue may not be relevant today, studios were concerned at the time as they couldn't expect different demographics to attend every movie, leading to lower turnout and ticket sales. The reasons behind the middle class's lack of interest in American cinema have been analyzed by several authors.

Balio and Ray have different perspectives on the changes in the film industry.

Balio focuses on external changes, such as lifestyle changes of the average American, leading to a decrease in the number of films viewed. On the other hand, Ray is more interested in changes in how Americans receive movies, suggesting that the average viewer is disillusioned with the movies themselves. As a result, each author seeks industry reactions in different places. Balio examines exhibition changes to regain the audience, whereas Ray looks for changes in film production to better cater to "modern" audiences.

Exhibitors were unable to reduce the number of products in the market or limit the leisure activities of Americans. To better serve the middle class, their only option was to improve accessibility to theaters. Due to the suburban spread, no central theater could provide equal accessibility as before, making it inevitable for some to travel to see a movie no matter its location.

The rise of drive-in theatres was a response to the need to cater to a particular demographic. These venues experienced a surge in popularity, leading to drive-ins being regarded as "the one bright spot in independent exhibition during this period" (Balio, 8). The reason for this was attributed to the increase in automobile sales, affluence amongst the population and the marketing plans put in place by drive-in proprietors. The accelerated growth of suburbs played a significant role in the ownership of cars which had seen a massive increase as it were; "by 1954, 60 percent of the nation's 54 million families owned cars." This was an impressive number, taking into consideration that production for vehicles was nearly non-existent during World War II.