978-1319058517 Chapter 7

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Chapter 7

Movies and the Impact of Images

In this chapter, we examine the rich legacy and current standing of movies. We will:

• Consider film’s early technology and the evolution of film as a mass medium

• Look at the arrival of silent feature films; the emergence of Hollywood; and the development of the

studio system with regard to production, distribution, and exhibition

• Explore the coming of sound and the power of movie storytelling

• Analyze major film genres, directors, and alternatives to Hollywood’s style, including independent

films, foreign films, and documentaries

• Survey the movie business today—its major players, economic clout, technological advances, and

implications for democracy

• Examine how convergence has changed the way the industry distributes movies and the way we

experience them

Preview Story: The Star Wars franchise is responsible for the development of new technologies in

filmmaking, innovative promotion of movies, and lucrative merchandising tie-ins with both media- and

nonmedia-related products. From the first film (in 1977) to the latest (at the end of 2015), Star Wars has

had an indelible impact on culture in the United States and throughout the world. Disney’s purchase of

Lucasfilm in 2012 is an example of the economic power of large corporate conglomerates in the culture

industries. (Two other important movie brand acquisitions were its purchase of Pixar for $7.6 billion in

2006, and Marvel for $3.96 billion in 2009.) The first Star Wars film released by Disney, The Force

Awakens, quickly became the most successful film in U.S. box office history. Disney released an

anthology film in 2016 and will release new Star Wars films in 2017 and 2019 as well as anthology films

in 2018 and 2020.

I. Early Technology and the Evolution of Movies

A. The Development of Film.

1. Muybridge and Goodwin Make Pictures Move.

2. Edison and the Lumières Create Motion Pictures.

B. The Introduction of Narrative.

C. The Arrival of Nickelodeons.

II. The Rise of the Hollywood Studio System

A. Production.

B. Distribution.

C. Exhibition.

III. The Studio System’s Golden Age

A. Hollywood Narrative and the Silent Era.

B. The Introduction of Sound.

C. The Development of the Hollywood Style.

1. Hollywood Narratives.

2. Hollywood Genres.

3. Hollywood “Authors.”

D. Outside the Hollywood System.

1. Global Cinema.

2. The Documentary Tradition.

3. The Rise of Independent Films.

IV. The Transformation of the Studio System

A. The Hollywood Ten.

B. The Paramount Decision.

C. Moving to the Suburbs.

D. Television Changes Hollywood.

E. Hollywood Adapts to Home Entertainment.

V. The Economics of the Movie Business

A. Production, Distribution, and Exhibition Today.

1. Making Money on Movies Today.

2. Theater Chains Consolidate Exhibition.

B. The Major Studio Players.

C. Convergence: Movies Adjust to the Digital Turn.

D. Alternative Voices.

VI. Popular Movies and Democracy

Case Study: Breaking through Hollywood’s Race Barrier

Global Village: Beyond Hollywood: Asian Cinema

Media Literacy and the Critical Process: The Blockbuster Mentality

Digital Job Outlook: Media Professionals Speak about Jobs in the Film Industry

LECTURE IDEAS

Preview Story

• “It’s official: J. J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the highest-grossing film of all time

in North America, not accounting for inflation.” So begins Pamela McClintock’s article in the

Hollywood Reporter on the latest film in the Star Wars franchise and the first since Disney

purchased Lucasfilm in 2012. In its first twenty days, Star Wars: The Force Awakens earned

$764.4 million. By comparison, the previous top North American film, Avatar, took seven months

to earn about $750 million. (It also earned more than $10 million in later rereleases in movie

theaters.) By the middle of 2016, The Force Awakens had topped $935 million in U.S. sales and

more than $2 billion worldwide. It’s not at all certain that Star Wars: The Force Awakens will ever

break Avatar’s global record of nearly $2.8 billion (Pamela McClintock, “Box Office: ‘Star Wars:

Force Awakens’ Tops ‘Avatar’ to Become No. 1 Film of All Time in North America,” Hollywood

Reporter, January 6, 2016, available at http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/box-office-star-

wars-force-852274).

• Star Wars: The Force Awakens relied less on new types of digital effects and more on narrative.

Compare films heavy on special digital effects with those more focused on character development

and stories.

• The enormous success of the 1977 Star Wars, produced, written, and directed by George Lucas,

changed the culture of the movie industry. As the late film critic Roger Ebert explained: “Star Wars

effectively brought to an end the golden era of early-1970s personal filmmaking and focused the

industry on big-budget special-effects blockbusters, blasting off a trend we are still living through. .

. . In one way or another all the big studios have been trying to make another Star Wars ever since.”

The blockbuster mentality spawned by Star Wars formed a new primary audience for Hollywood—

teenagers. Repeat attendance and positive buzz among young people made the first Star Wars the

most successful movie of its generation and started the initial trilogy that included The Empire

Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). The youth-oriented focus begun by Star Wars is

still evident in Hollywood today, with the largest segment of the U.S. movie audience—the twelve-

to twenty-four-year-old age group—accounting for 38 percent of theater attendance.

Another part of the blockbuster mentality created by Star Wars and mimicked by other films is the

way in which movies are made into big-budget summer releases with merchandising tie-ins and

high potential for international distribution. Lucas, who also created the popular Indiana Jones film

series, argues that selling licensing rights is one of the ways he supports his independent

filmmaking. By 2008, the six Star Wars films had generated an estimated $12 billion in

merchandising—far more than the record-breaking $4 billion worldwide box-office revenue—as

Star Wars images appeared on an astonishing array of products, from Lego’s X-Wing fighter kits to

Darth Vader toothbrushes. When Lucasfilm was sold to Disney in 2012, a series of new films was

announced (along with plenty of TV content, merchandising, and theme park opportunities).

Star Wars has impacted not only the cultural side of moviemaking but also the technical form. In

the first Star Wars trilogy, produced in the 1970s and 1980s, Lucas developed technologies now

commonplace in moviemaking—digital animation, special effects, and computer-based film

editing. With the second trilogy, Lucas again broke new ground in the film industry—this time

becoming a force in the emerging area of digital filmmaking. Several scenes of Star Wars: Episode

I—The Phantom Menace (1999) were shot on digital video, easing integration with digital special

effects. The two subsequent movies, Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones (2002) and

Revenge of the Sith, were shot entirely in the digital format.

The Phantom Menace also used digital exhibition—becoming the first full-length motion picture

from a major studio to use digital projectors, replacing standard film projectors. Changing

exhibition technology will eventually move motion pictures away from bulky and expensive film

reels toward a digital distribution system via satellite or optical disks. Digital film distribution also

threatens to bypass theaters, as films could be delivered directly to a viewer’s computer or digital

television set-top box.

• Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm in 2012 (as well as Pixar in 2006 and Marvel in 2009) is an

example of corporate consolidation and hegemony in Hollywood.

• Disney has embraced the merchandising and transmedia potential of Star Wars with the launch

of numerous books, e-books, comic books, toys, clothing, electronic games, interactive Web sites,

and so forth.

I. Early Technology and the Evolution of Movies

• Here is Thomas Edison’s 1911 prediction about the promise of motion pictures as an educational

tool:

[They will make schools] so attractive that a big army with swords and guns couldn’t

keep boys and girls out of it. You’ll have to lick ’em to keep ’em away.

• Here is a description of Edison’s vitascope London premiere on April 23, 1896:

The whirr of the machine brought to view a heaving mass of foam-crested water. Far out

in the dim perspective one could see a diminutive roller start. It came down the stage,

II. The Rise of the Hollywood Studio System

• Lecture on the development of the American movie industry and how the major studios gained

control of production, distribution, and exhibition. Consider drawing parallels with the rise of other

media industries.

• Between 1910 and 1920, Hollywood became the film capital of the world for several reasons:

• Film producers avoid Edison’s trust stipulations by slipping across the border to Mexico.

• Southern California offered cheap labor.

• There was diverse scenery for outdoor shooting.

• The mild climate allowed year-round production.

• By the late 1990s, however, film production was increasingly located around the New York–New

Jersey area. One reason is that the edgy, urban moviemaking style—long associated with the New

York film world and with New York–based independent filmmaking in general—became trendy. On

the West Coast, a great deal of film production moved to Vancouver, Canada, where production

costs are often half what they are in Southern California.

III. The Studio System’s Golden Age

• Discuss the dramatic shift from silent films to films with sound. Two feature films, Sunset

Boulevard (1950) and Singin’ in the Rain (1952), chronicle the film industry’s transition from silent

pictures to sound. Singin’ in the Rain has a few hilarious scenes in which film producers attempt to

work with an actress trying to adapt to talking pictures. She looks good on camera but has the most

awful voice imaginable. She takes “speaking lessons,” but to no avail.

• Explain the development of Hollywood storytelling, including Hollywood genres and the notions of

product standardization and differentiation.

• Lecture on the existing alternatives to Hollywood, including both global cinema and independent

• Some of Frederick Wiseman’s most recent film documentaries about institutions have been Aspen

(1991); Zoo (1993); High School (1994), an update of the high school documentary he produced in

the 1960s; Ballet (1995); La Comédie Française (1996), about France’s three-hundred-year-old

state theater; and The Garden (2005). Wiseman’s films now appear regularly on PBS.

Netflix has become a notable distributor of documentary films and distributes documentaries that

studios find too risky.

• Independent filmmakers got a boost when Robert Redford developed the Sundance Festival in Park

City, Utah, as an alternative (non-Hollywood) venue, which quickly became a major launching pad

for American and foreign films and their directors; it is a serious, established, A-list industry event.

In late January each year, the festival swarms with agents and distributors looking for new films

and fresh directing talent, often channeling them directly into the control of major studios. Some

IV. The Transformation of the Studio System

• Detail the transformation of the Hollywood system after World War II, including the Paramount

decision and the effects of suburbanization and television.

Consider how our moviegoing experiences have changed over several generations:

Year Number of Drive-ins

1946

102

1948

820

1958

5,000

• 1931: There is no television yet. We are enjoying Mary Pickford in Kiki. What’s more, we’re

sitting in a large downtown movie palace that comfortably seats more than four thousand

filmgoers. An afternoon or evening at the movies is part of a weekly ritual that includes watching

a cartoon, a newsreel, a film short or travel documentary, and a feature-length movie.

• 1933: The first drive-in opened in Camden, New Jersey.

One of the largest drive-in theaters was the All-Weather Drive-In in Copiague, New York, with

space for 2,500 cars. It also had an indoor 1,200-seat viewing area that was heated and air-

conditioned, a playground, a cafeteria, and a restaurant with full dinners. A shuttle train took

customers from their cars to the various areas on the drive-in’s twenty-eight acres.

One scholar of drive-ins, Don Sanders, argues, in The American Drive-In Movie Theater

(1997), that the decline of drive-in movies corresponded with the start of daylight saving time,

which meant that movies started and finished later, well past children’s bedtimes. Color

television also added to the demise of drive-ins during the 1960s, and some theaters began

showing X-rated films.

• 1961: There are no VCRs yet. We are heading to our favorite downtown theater along with

throngs of teens and families, or we’re piling into hot rods and station wagons to go to the drive-

in at the edge of town. We are watching Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer in West Side Story.

• 2001: Our filmgoing experience stars a group of teenagers gathered at a multiplex near a major

highway intersection on the outskirts of a city. Video games line the entrances that lead into

twenty or more tiny theaters featuring projection screens not much larger than an oversized

double-door garage but perhaps with new stadium-style seating. There are only a few families in

the theater, although there would be many more if we were attending on a weekend afternoon.

Most families are at home, watching movies like Shrek 2 on their VCR or DVD player and home

theater system.

• Today: We download movies (legally and illegally) onto our iPads and laptops and order Netflix

films from our online account. We are also becoming creators, ripping scenes from digital copies

of movies, editing mash-ups with increasingly affordable digital editing software, and sharing them

for instant streaming. This arrangement benefits both sides: Studios have longer to push DVD sales,

and Netflix’s streaming business (arguably the future of home video distribution) grows stronger.

V. The Economics of the Movie Business

• Outline the current major Hollywood studios, their former Hollywood origins, and their increasing

horizontal and vertical integration.

• The time it takes for a film-to-video release has decreased from six months to between four and

five months. The reasons behind the rush to video differ depending on the film. If a movie does

terribly at the box office, it has to go straight to the video store before people forget about it. High-

volume video rental is necessary to recoup the millions spent on the film. For blockbusters, the rush

to video is crucial because more people are buying films as holiday gifts. Megahits are now

released to the multiplexes in the late spring and early summer to be ready for their video sales

Patient).

Fresco was a “painstaking process whereby damp plaster is stained with pigments that bond

chemically with the plaster and change color as they dry.” Because so many variables needed to

be controlled, the technique required amazing preparation and a precise knowledge of

pigments. No revisions were possible, and it was a very “expensive effort of many people and

various interlocking technologies, overseen by the artist who took responsibility for the final

product.” The shortcomings of creating frescoes, Murch argues, are similar to those of working

with celluloid film.

When oil paint on canvas was invented, it freed artists to paint wherever and whenever they

wished, without having to worry about the paint color changing when it dried. They could paint

over areas they didn’t like and have more control over every aspect of their work, thereby

• Because tape is so cheap, filmmakers using digital cameras can shoot more footage, which

gives them more choices in the editing room. Because tapes run up to an hour, they also

enable directors to keep cameras rolling longer than the ten-minute maximum for a film reel.

Directors can also review a shot immediately after it is completed rather than wait an entire

day for the film dailies to be processed and printed.

• Digital prints played on high-definition projectors offer a more pristine image than film: Film

is plagued by flickers, scratches, dirty transfers, degraded third-generation prints, and torn

sprockets. Every run of a digital master has the same color, detail, and brightness.

The movie Bounce, starring Ben Affleck and Gwyneth Paltrow, was the first digital master to be

distributed via satellite. From Tulsa, Oklahoma, the digitally compressed (and encrypted) movie

was “bounced” off an orbiting satellite, then decrypted and loaded onto computer hard drives, and

then decompressed at showtime.

A good portion of the money George Lucas got from the merchandising of Star Wars action figures

figures. . . . The ability to spend the $20 million it took to create that, and make it a real

thing and prove it, and go to the trade shows and everything and show everybody and

say this works, you can do this, and then everybody will go out and copy it and

eventually sell it to Avid—you need the money to do it in the first place. . . . We started

with revenue from the toy companies.

As media scholar, Henry Jenkins wrote in 2015 (http://henryjenkins.org/2015/12/what-we-talk-

about-when-we-talk-about-star-wars.html):

Lucas made what turned out to be a key move when he rejected a higher salary of the

movies toward a focus on public movies, from a focus on local audiences toward a

focus on a potential global audience, from a focus on mastering the technology toward

a focus on mastering the mechanisms for publicity and promotion, and from a focus on

self-documentation toward a focus on an aesthetic based on appropriation, parody, and

the dialogic.

VI. Popular Movies and Democracy

• Discuss the various ways to interpret the cultural significance of American films on the world

stage.

Do the globally popular films create more of a sense of a global village and break down barriers?

Does the same American-based common culture stifle local cultures and the diversity of

moviemaking?

How does the growing popularity of Hong Kong and Bollywood films around the world fit into this

picture?

MEDIA LITERACY DISCUSSIONS AND EXERCISES

THEATER OR DVD?

In class, make a tally of students who prefer to attend movies in the theater and students who prefer to

watch movies at home on DVD or online. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of both viewing

habits. Discuss whether theatergoing will become obsolete in the next decade given that increasingly

more revenue is earned through video release than through box-office receipts. What could be done to

enhance moviegoing in theaters? Make a list. How might your ideas be reasonably financed? Would there

be a payoff for theater owners?

STAR WARS

Use students’ experiences with the Star Wars franchise to discuss the impact of new technologies on

cinema and culture and the impact of blockbusters on American and global cultures, using Disney as a

case study to explore concepts like hegemony and consensus narratives. For example, The Force Awakens

characters Rey and Finn can be used to generate a discussion about gender and race in Hollywood. The

Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media (http://seejane.org) is an excellent resource for such a

discussion.

HOLLYWOOD REPRESENTATIONS OF OTHER COUNTRIES

Pre-Exercise Question: What’s your most memorable image of a foreigner in a Hollywood movie?

Films from the United States dominate world markets. For example, American films occupy about three-

fourths of the European market. Make a list of representations of “foreign” people and places in several of

these American films. Also make note of how the American characters interact with these foreign

characters. Then discuss issues of cultural imperialism in the storytelling of Hollywood movies.

If Hollywood movies are the dominant movie narratives of the world, how does Hollywood structure

global relationships and understanding?

WRITING A MOVIE CRITIQUE

Pick a current popular film that you have seen or that the class has seen together. In this Critical

Process exercise, write a three- to four-page (750– to 1,000-word) movie critique either defending or

attacking the movie as a form of popular culture (see Chapter 1). Include plenty of examples to support

your argument, and focus on three or four significant points.

1. Description. In preparing to write your critique, describe important plot, theme, or character points

that are relevant to your argument. (This step is essentially the note-taking part of your paper.)

2. Analysis. Analyze the particular patterns (the three or four significant points) that emerge from your

Description step and that you have chosen to examine.

3. Interpretation. Interpret what all this information might mean based on the evidence you provide.

4. Evaluation. Discuss the limits of your critique, and offer evaluations of the film industry based on

your evidence and your interpretations. Evaluate the movie by judging whether it works as high art

or as popular culture.

5. Engagement. Does your critique of the movie differ substantially from published reviews in local or

national newspapers and magazines or a Web page? (Try Movie Review Query Engine at

http://www.mrqe.com to find reviews.) Use the evidence from your critique to present your

interpretation of the film in a written response to a published review.

FILM SUCCESS: FINDING THE BALANCE BETWEEN FAMILIARITY AND NOVELTY

Pre-Exercise Question: Why do some films become enormous hits while others become enormous

failures?

This Critical Process discussion/exercise investigates the factors that determine a movie’s success with

audiences.

To begin, select two recent big-budget films (one success and one box-office flop) and two small

independent films (one that became commercially successful and one that never made a huge impact).

(To find listings and reviews of smaller films, check big-city alternative publications like the Village

Voice (http://www.villagevoice.com/movies), Chicago Reader (http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies),

or LA Weekly (http://www.laweekly.com/movies).

Proceed with a critical inquiry:

1. Description. Isolate the major elements of the four films: What genre (or combination of genres)

does each film belong to? What are the major attractions of each film: popular actors, renowned

directors, intriguing “unknown” actors, expensive special effects, a familiar story, an unfamiliar

story? Check newspaper ads: How were the movies marketed? Were the movies critically

acclaimed?

2. Analysis. Compare the movies’ elements. Do any patterns emerge among the successes and the

flops?

3. Interpretation. What seems to bring success? What seems to cause failure? What role does genre

play in success? How important is it to balance familiarity and novelty? (You may wish to again

consider the “culture as a hierarchy” vs. “culture as a map” models from Chapter 1 of the text.)

Why do movies succeed or fail? How do we measure that?

4. Evaluation. What do you think of these films? Is box-office success a reliable indicator of how

good a movie really is? Do we as a culture fixate excessively on box-office winners and losers?

5. Engagement. Write a movie review of a film that you think was fabulous but that did not do well at

the box office. Publish it online (you can offer your critiques on various movie databases, such as

the Internet Movie Database, http://www.imdb.com), in your college newspaper, or in another

venue.

TRACKING RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY: A

SEMESTER-LONG CRITICAL PROCESS EXERCISE AND PAPER

In this exercise students discover the most recent developments in the industry, and they become familiar

with industry trade sources. The paper they produce is due in sections, which correspond with the steps in

the Critical Process.

1. Description. Read industry trade sources to get a sense of the main issues affecting the motion picture

industry. Look at the Web sites of industry trade associations and professional societies. (Links to

Web sites of some industry trade sources are given in the Classroom Media Sources below.) Take

notes on topics that have multiple stories or mentions in the current year. What issues or

developments in the industry have received a lot of recent attention, discussion, or commentary in

industry sources? (Focus only on information from the current year—and only from trade sources.)

Write a one-page synopsis of the information you found about current topics in the industry. Cite your

sources properly.

2. Analysis. Look for one development or pattern that has received significant attention on trade sites

and from trade journalists in the current year. Choose one specific trend, and write one or two pages

with details about the information you found about that trend. Continue to track news about your

topic as the semester progresses. Cite sources properly.

3. Interpretation. What does the trend mean for the state of the industry? Is it evolving? How? What

does it tell you about media in general at the current time? What might it say about our culture or our

society? Can your information help us interpret the role of the industry in our lives? Write up your

interpretation in a five-page paper. (The first page should be a synopsis of the trend, with proper

citations.) You might not have to provide information from your sources for the next four pages

because this section is your interpretation of the trend. (Save any ideas you have about whether the

trend is “good” or “bad” for the Evaluation step of the Critical Process.) Cite any sources properly.

4. Evaluation. Is the trend “good” or “bad?” For the industry? society? culture? democracy? us? What

do you think might happen in the future?

5. Engagement. Are there any actions you can take (related to your trend and the industry)? Possibilities

include posting your views on social media, creating a petition, contacting people in the industry to

see what they think of your interpretation and evaluation, or going to an industry event if any are held

nearby. (This step need not be required if students are not motivated to take action.)

Note: This exercise works well if each step of the Critical Process is due two weeks after the prior step is

due. Limiting students to only trade sources and only information from the current year helps keep them

on track. Your institution’s librarians should be able to provide students with information on how to

access industry trade sources.

CLASSROOM MEDIA RESOURCES

LAUNCHPAD FOR MEDIA & CULTURE: http://www.macmillanhighered.com/mediaculture11e

Breaking Barriers with 12 Years a Slave (2013, 1:20 minutes) A brief clip from the film 12 Years a Slave

depicts the brutality of slave owners in the 1800s.

Race in Hollywood: Tyler Perry (2013, 1:40 minutes) A brief clip from A Medea Christmas shows an

example of the work of prolific actor, writer, and director Tyler Perry.

Theatrical Experience and The Hobbit (2013, 1:31 minutes) A brief clip from The Hobbit: Desolation of

Smaug shows the quality of the advanced technology used in filming.

More Than a Movie: Social Issues and Film (2010, 3:45 minutes). Chris Gebhardt of Participant Media

discusses how movies like The Cove can turn audiences into activists through the power of film and

social media.

Technology in Gravity (2013, 1:32 minutes). A brief clip from Gravity illustrates how the movie uses the

most advanced technical tools in service of classical storytelling.

VIDEOS/DVDS/CDS

Behind the Screens: Hollywood Goes Hypercommercial (2000, 37 minutes). Tracking the phenomenal

rise in product placements, tie-ins with fast-food chains, and mammoth toy-merchandising deals, this

video argues that mainstream, big-budget movies have become largely a vehicle for advertising and

marketing. Distributed by the Media Education Foundation, 800-897-0089; http://www.mediaed.org.

Hollywood on Trial (date not available, 90 minutes). The story of the Hollywood Ten and the accusations

by the House Committee on Un-American Activities of their supposed communist activities.

Distributed by Facets Multimedia, 800-331-6197; http://www.facets.org.

The Jazz Singer (1927, 89 minutes). The first feature-length film with spoken dialogue. Distributed by

Facets Multimedia, 800-331-6197; http://www.facets.org.

Midnight Ramble: The Story of the Black Film Industry (1994, 55 minutes). This program examines the

role of race movies—films that featured all-black casts—in American culture from the beginning of

the twentieth century through the 1940s. The documentary illustrates how black cinema was a

response to the demeaning stereotypes that emerged from mainstream studios and why the genre

declined. Distributed by Instructional Support Services at Indiana University, 800-552-8620.

Pioneers of Cinema (1999, 180 minutes). This film chronicles the birth of cinema and the contributions of

such pioneers as the Lumière brothers, Thomas Edison, and George Méliès. Available on

http://www.amazon.com.

The Player (1992, 123 minutes). Tim Robbins plays the vice president of a Hollywood movie studio in a

film that satirizes the Hollywood system. Directed by Robert Altman.

Trumbo (2015, 124 minutes). Biopic about Dalton Trumbo, one of the “Hollywood 10,” who wrote two

Oscar-winning scripts (anonymously) while blacklisted. Cast includes: Bryan Cranston, Diane Lane,

Helen Mirren, Louis C.K., and John Goodman.

Women Who Made the Movies (1992, 55 minutes). A chronicle of the careers and films of pioneer women

filmmakers in cinema history.

WEB SITES

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: http://www.oscars.org

American Film Institute: http://www.afi.com

Box Office: http://pro.boxoffice.com

Box Office Mojo: http://www.boxofficemojo.com

Chicago Reader: http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies

Deadline Hollywood: http://deadline.com/v/film

Directors Guild of America: http://www.dga.org

Hollywood Foreign Press Association: http://www.hfpa.org

Hollywood Reporter: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com

Inside Film Magazine: http://www.insidefilm.com

Internet Movie Database: http://www.imdb.com

LA Weekly: http://www.laweekly.com/movies

Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA): http://www.mpaa.org

National Association of Theater Owners: http://www.natoonline.org

#OscarsSoWhite: https://twitter.com/hashtag/oscarssowhite

SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild): http://www.sagaftra.org

Screen Daily: http://www.screendaily.com

Variety: http://www.variety.com

Village Voice: http://www.villagevoice.com/movies

The Wrap: http://www.thewrap.com

Writers Guild of America—East and West: https://www.wgaeast.org & http://www.wga.org