Introduction: ‘Millions of People Every Day’—Cinema as Part of the Quotidian of Life

Cinema is a way of life during the period covered by this book in large parts of the world. Central to it is the transaction between an exhibitor and a customer and the mechanism whereby a stock of films-as-commodities flowed among a set of cinemas through time and place. The flow was calculated and deliberate, making popular movies much less scarce than unpopular ones. Economic rationality is apparent: exhibitors and distributors in capitalist economies maximised their returns by adjusting supply to reflect audience preferences once revealed. Each transaction generated filmgoing data, from which patterns emerged, sometimes challenging accepted wisdom concerning the popularity of films or how they were circulated. The book aims to show what can be achieved by bringing simple empirical methods to bear on the history of cinema. It also seeks to encourage scholars to develop studies of their own, allowing audiences to speak for themselves through the choices they made—a method built upon microfoundations.