When the lights go down: why do people still go to the movies?
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Nicholas Canada (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
- Advisor
- Arielle Kuperberg
Abstract: This study explored why individuals still attend movie showings in a theater environment when so many alternatives are available in the digital age. The goals of this paper were to understand the behavior of movie-going using theoretical research, qualitative interviewing, and ethnographical observation. A total of eighteen subjects were interviewed in three North Carolina cities: Winston-Salem, Lexington, and Charlotte. It was determined that movie-going is based on cultural geography, time, and population. Subsequently, the literature and field data strongly suggest that movie-going culture and fandom carries different meanings for each individual. Since movie-going has often been attributed as a unique social experience, each subject was asked to expound on how the movie-going experience differed from that of in-home digital alternatives such as Netflix, Hulu, and illegal pirating. Nostalgia, social solidarity, escapism, and even religious behavior were reoccurring motivations for the participating moviegoers in this study.
When the lights go down: why do people still go to the movies?
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Created on 5/1/2017
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Thesis
- Language: English
- Date: 2017
- Keywords
- Cinema, Film, Social Psychology, Sociology, Theater
- Subjects
- Motion picture audiences $z North Carolina $y 21st century
- Motion picture theaters $z North Carolina $y 21st century