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The Market for Films in Postwar Italy: Evidence for Both National and Regional Patterns of Taste

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 August 2018

JOHN SEDGWICK ,
PETER MISKELL  and
MARINA NICOLI
JOHN SEDGWICK
Affiliation:
John Sedgwick is a visiting research academic in the Faculty of Technology, Design and the Environment, Oxford Brookes University. 18 Main Street, Middleton, Matlock DE4 4LQ, UK. E-mail: sedgwicj52@gmail.com.
PETER MISKELL
Affiliation:
Peter Miskell is professor of international business and media history in the Henley Business School, University of Reading.
MARINA NICOLI
Affiliation:
Marina Nicoli is postdoctorate researcher in economics history in the Department of Social and Political Sciences, Bocconi University.
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Abstract

The postwar market for films in Italy resembles those found in other developed capitalist economies, in which supply adjusts to demand through a set of institutional arrangements designed to maximize revenue for the film distributor. The outcome is a statistical distribution of revenues that manifests extreme levels of inequality, indicating that the hits of the day were “giants” in relation to the median film and enjoyed throughout the territory. By drawing upon film industry–sourced box-office data for five cities, Milan and Turin in the north, Naples and Bari in the south, and Rome in the center, we can observe the market mechanism operating at the city level, allowing the exploration of differences in preferences between the cities. A relative popularity index (RelPOP) is introduced to measure variation in film popularity across the five cities, and clear evidence is found to support the coexistence of national and local taste. This phenomenon is examined with respect to those films that were exceptionally popular throughout, and those with particular geographically specific audiences. The example of the many films that starred Totò, appealing in particular to southern Italian audiences, is highlighted and contrasted with the Don Camillo series of films that were set in Emilia Romagna and appealed differentially to filmgoers in the north.

Type
Article
Information
Enterprise & Society , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , March 2019 , pp. 199 - 228
Copyright
Copyright © The Author 2018. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Business History Conference. All rights reserved. 

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References

Bibliography of Works Cited

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Sedgwick, J., and Nicoli, M.. “Popular Filmgoing in Mid-1950s Milan: Opening up the ‘Black Box.’” In Routledge Companion to New Cinema History, edited by Biltereyst, D., Maltby, R., and Meers, Ph.. New York: Routledge, 2018.Google Scholar
Sedgwick, J., and Pokorny, M.. “The Film Business in the U.S. and Britain during the 1930s.” Economic History Review, 58, (2005): 79–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sedgwick, J., and Pokorny, M.. “Hollywood’s Foreign Earnings during the 1930s.” Transnational Cinemas, 1 (2010): 83–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sedgwick, J., Pafort-Overduin, C., and Boter, J.. “Explanations for the Restrained Development of the Dutch Cinema Market in the 1930s.” Enterprise and Society, 13 (2012): 634–671.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sedgwick, J., Pokorny, M., and Miskell, P.. “Hollywood in the World Market—Evidence from Australia in the Mid-1930s.” Business History, 56 (2014): 689–723.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Treveri Gennari, D. “‘If you have seen it, you cannot forget!”: Film Consumption and Memories of Cinema-going in 1950s Rome.” Historical Journal of Film Radio and Television, 35 (2015): 53–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Treveri Gennari, D., and Sedgwick, J.. “Memories in Context: The Social and Economic Function of Cinema in 1950s Rome.” Film History, 27, 2 (2015): 76–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zaheer, Srilata. “Overcoming the Liability of Foreignness.” Academy of Management Journal, 38, no. 2 (1995): 341–343.Google Scholar
AGIS, Annuario del cinema italiano, Rome (published from 1951)Google Scholar
AGIS, Giornale dello spettacolo: Settimanale d’informazione delle attività economiche, tecniche, artistiche e sindacali dello spettacolo, Rome (published from 1957)Google Scholar
Bakker, G. Entertainment Industrialised: the Emergence of the International Film Industry, 1890–1940. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beath, J., and Katsoulacos, Y.. The Economic Theory of Product Differentiation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caves, R., Creative Industries: Contacts between Art and Commerce. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Forgacs, D., and Gundle, S.. Mass Culture and Italian Society: From Fascism to the Cold War. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Garncarz, J. Wechselnde vorlieben. Frankfurt am Main: Stroemfeld, 2015.Google Scholar
Governi, G. Totò. Vita opere e miracoli. Rome: Fazi Editore, 2017.Google Scholar
Handel, L. Hollywood Looks at Its Audience. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1950.Google Scholar
Higson, A. Waving the Flag: Constructing a National Cinema in Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Hoskins, Colin, McFadyen, Stuart, and Finn, Adam. Global Television and Film: An Introduction to the Economics of the Business. Oxford: Clarendon, 1997.Google Scholar
Jarvie, I. Hollywood’s Overseas Campaign: The North Atlantic Movie Trade, 1920–1950. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Kuhn, A. An Everyday Magic: Cinema and Cultural Memory. London: Tauris, 2002.Google Scholar
Kuisel, R. Seducing the French: The Dilemma of Americanization. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.Google Scholar
Miskell, P. A Social History of Cinema in Wales: PulRelPOPts, CoalRelPOPts and FleaRelPOPts. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Richards, J., and Sheridan, D.. Mass Observation at the Movies. London: Routledge, 1987.Google Scholar
Scarpellini, E. Material Nation: A Consumer’s History of Modern Italy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.Google Scholar
Sedgwick, J. Popular Filmgoing in 1930s Britain: A Choice of Pleasures. Exeter, UK: Exeter University Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Thompson, D. Hit Makers: How Things Become Popular. London: Allen Lane, 2017.Google Scholar
Thompson, K. Exporting Entertainment: America in the World Film Market. London: British Film Institute, 1985.Google Scholar
Treveri Gennari, D. Post-war Italian Cinema: American Intervention, Vatican Interests. New York: Routledge, 2009.Google Scholar
Trumpbour, J. Selling Hollywood to the World: U.S. and European Struggles for Mastery of the Global Film Industry, 1920–1950. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Ulff-Møller, J. Hollywood’s “Film Wars” with France: Film-Trade Diplomacy and the Emergence of a French Film Quota Policy. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2001.Google Scholar
Vasey, R. The World According to Hollywood, 1918–1939. Exeter, UK: Exeter University Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Bakker, G. “Selling French Films on Foreign Markets: The International Strategy of a Medium-sized Company.” Enterprise and Society, 5 (2004): 45–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Browning, H., and Sorrell, A.. “Cinema and Cinema-going in Great Britain.” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 117 (1954): 133–165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Vany, A., and Walls, W. D.. “Bose-Einstein Dynamics and Adaptive Contracting in the Motion Picture Industry.” Economic Journal, 106 (1996): 1493–1514.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Felice, E. “Regional Value Added in Italy, 1891–2001, and the Foundation of a Long-Term Picture.” Economic History Review, 64 (2011): 929–950.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Felice, E., and Vecchi, G.. “Italy’s Modern Economic Growth, 1861–2011.” Enterprise and Society, 16 (2015): 225–248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johanson, Jan, and Vahlne, Jan-Erik. “The Uppsala Internationalization Process Model Revisited: From Liability of Foreignness to Liability of Outsidership. Journal of International Business Studies, 40, no. 9 (2009): 1411–1431.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miskell, P. “International Films and International Markets: The Globalisation of Hollywood Entertainment, c. 1921–1951.” Media History, 22, no. 2 (2016): 174–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miskell, P., and Nicoli, M.. “From Outsiders to Insiders? Strategies and Practices of American Film Distributors in Postwar Italy.” Enterprise and Society, 17, no. 3 (2016): 546–590.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, A. J. “Hollywood and the World: The Geography of Motion-Picture Distribution and Marketing.” Review of International Political Economy, 11, no. 1 (2004): 33–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sedgwick, J. “Product Differentiation at the Movies: Hollywood, 1946–65.” Journal of Economic History, 62 (2002): 676–704.Google Scholar
Sedgwick, J., and Nicoli, M.. “Popular Filmgoing in Mid-1950s Milan: Opening up the ‘Black Box.’” In Routledge Companion to New Cinema History, edited by Biltereyst, D., Maltby, R., and Meers, Ph.. New York: Routledge, 2018.Google Scholar
Sedgwick, J., and Pokorny, M.. “The Film Business in the U.S. and Britain during the 1930s.” Economic History Review, 58, (2005): 79–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sedgwick, J., and Pokorny, M.. “Hollywood’s Foreign Earnings during the 1930s.” Transnational Cinemas, 1 (2010): 83–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sedgwick, J., Pafort-Overduin, C., and Boter, J.. “Explanations for the Restrained Development of the Dutch Cinema Market in the 1930s.” Enterprise and Society, 13 (2012): 634–671.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sedgwick, J., Pokorny, M., and Miskell, P.. “Hollywood in the World Market—Evidence from Australia in the Mid-1930s.” Business History, 56 (2014): 689–723.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Treveri Gennari, D. “‘If you have seen it, you cannot forget!”: Film Consumption and Memories of Cinema-going in 1950s Rome.” Historical Journal of Film Radio and Television, 35 (2015): 53–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Treveri Gennari, D., and Sedgwick, J.. “Memories in Context: The Social and Economic Function of Cinema in 1950s Rome.” Film History, 27, 2 (2015): 76–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zaheer, Srilata. “Overcoming the Liability of Foreignness.” Academy of Management Journal, 38, no. 2 (1995): 341–343.Google Scholar