'Nobody can truly participate in the motion picture business without looking at numbers of all kinds, and especially those numbers which represent the collective and comparative decisions of paying customers. Far from being mere numbers, box office grosses represent the responses of PEOPLE to films. To ignore those numbers-- and those people-- is to risk business failure and -- worse-- to inhabit the catatonic world of the compulsive aesthete'
Art Murphy, Boxoffice Register
Nobody knows anything?
The screenwriter William Goldman famously wrote that in the 'entire movie industry [...] NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING' (Adventures in the Screen Trade: A Personal View of Hollywood).
The more prosaic truth is that EVERYBODY KNOWS SOMETHING (EVEN IF THEY DON"T KNOW IT), although F. Scott Fitzgerald is probably correct that few 'have ever been able to keep the whole equation of pictures in their head' (The Last Tycoon).
How, then, do you begin to make sense of the bewildering business of film? As good a place as any to start is the huge body of research that has accumulated over the years from industry, public and academic sources. Economic analyses, market research, social and behavioural studies, policy papers...the list goes on. Plus, of course, box office data in its ubiquity: the very lifeblood of the commercial discourse of film, as Art Murphy makes clear.
Research galore!
The good news for anyone who cares to know it is that much of this information is freely available. You've just got to know where to look. And that, in a nutshell, is the modest aim of Bigger Picture Research. A place on the web where you can read about the latest in film-related research and chase links to key sources around the world.
My posts present an unashamedly personal view of film research, which may be inspired by the publication of new research, or sparked by events in the news that touch on a relevant theme. Inevitably there'll be a UK focus, but I'm happy to range further afield if there's a good story to tell or idea to share.
Have your say
Feel free to stop by again, and if you feel like making it a conversation then do leave your comments. They'll always be gratefully received.
p.s. compulsive aesthetes also welcome.
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