Abstract
For 1934, film popularity (POPSTAT) statistics of three small English cities, Bolton, Brighton, and Portsmouth, are derived from daily local newspapers and used to investigate audience preferences. Box-office information for the Regent cinema, Portsmouth, is used to corroborate the POPSTAT Index values of those films screened during the year. A high correlation between the two is found. Comparisons between the POPSTAT charts are conducted using the RelPOP method, and differences in preferences are found for some British films. At the same time, many Hollywood productions are similarly popular across the three cities.
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Notes
- 1.
Richards (1984, p. 18).
- 2.
- 3.
At this time, distributors were commonly referred to as renters in the UK.
- 4.
Low (1985, pp. 267–270).
- 5.
Sedgwick (2000, Table 4.4). Concerning risk, see the discussion on pp. 51–54.
- 6.
Garncarz (2015).
- 7.
These population figures are those given in the Kine Yearbooks of 1935 and 1936.
- 8.
Rowson (1936) found that 43% of admissions paid 7d or less, with another 37% paying no more than 12d.
- 9.
Rowson (1936, p. 76).
- 10.
Daniels and Jewkes (1928).
- 11.
Crafts (1987: Tables 2 and 3).
- 12.
Rowson (1936, Table III).
- 13.
- 14.
- 15.
Sedgwick and Pafort-Overduin (2012).
- 16.
POPSTAT values for all films screened in Portsmouth were calculated using the same billing weights.
- 17.
To maintain compatibility with the Bolton and Brighton datasets, billing weights are simply 1 for single features and 0.5 for films in a double bill.
- 18.
Rowson (1936, p. 83).
- 19.
Rowson (1936, p. 83).
- 20.
- 21.
The table is particular to the three cities and differs substantially from that found in Sedgwick (2000, Appendix 3) for Great Britain in 1934.
- 22.
See Chapter “Introduction: ‘Millions of People Every Day’—Cinema as Part of the Quotidian of Life”, for an explanation of the RelPOP method.
- 23.
Unfinished Symphony was a joint Cine Allianz—Gaumont British joint production and shot in Vienna.
- 24.
Low (1985, pp. 141–142).
- 25.
Glancy (1999).
- 26.
Richards (1984).
- 27.
Sedgwick (2000, Table 4.4).
- 28.
Minutes of Evidence.
- 29.
Miskell (2016).
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Appendix
Appendix
Regression test results
Linear Regression | |||||||
Regression Statistics | |||||||
R | 0.94 | ||||||
R-square | 0.89 | ||||||
Adjusted R-square | 0.89 | ||||||
S | 1.32 | ||||||
N | 79 | ||||||
Column U = 7.77E-3 * Column P | |||||||
ANOVA | |||||||
d.f | SS | MS | F | p-level | |||
Regression | 1 | 1,111.53 | 1,111.53 | 640.41 | 0 | ||
Residual | 78. | 135.38 | 1.74 | ||||
Total | 79. | 1,246.92 | |||||
Coefficient | Standard Error | LCL | UCL | t Stat | p-level | H0 (5%) | |
Intercept | 0 | ||||||
Column P | 7.77E-3 | 3.07E-4 | 7.15E-3 | 8.38E-3 | 25.31 | 0 | rejected |
T (5%) | 1.99 | ||||||
LCL—Lower value of a reliable interval (LCL) | |||||||
UCL—Upper value of a reliable interval (UCL) | |||||||
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Sedgwick, J. (2022). Comparative Film Popularity in Three English Cities—Bolton, Brighton, and Portsmouth: An Exercise in POPSTAT Methodology. In: Sedgwick, J. (eds) Towards a Comparative Economic History of Cinema, 1930–1970. Frontiers in Economic History . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05770-0_4
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