Explanations for the Restrained Development of the Dutch Cinema Market in the 1930s

Abstract

Cinemagoing in the Netherlands during the 1930s appears to have been much less intense than in the English-speaking world. To support this assertion we examine film attendance and diffusion in the Dutch market by recourse to a new large dataset, and contrast it with observations drawn from recent research on the Anglo-Saxon countries (United States, United Kingdom, and Australia). In setting down the economic principles behind the organisation of the film industry that best describe the Anglo-Saxon model, we show how the Dutch experience differed in scale, but not in type. To investigate the reasons for this, we examine the idea that film consumption in the Netherlands was constrained through the operation of informal institutional pressures. In particular, we investigate the influence that the vertical stratification of Dutch society into distinct religious and ideological strands may have had on the filmgoing appetites of the Dutch people. A further investigation looks at the combination of exhibitors and distributors into a single industry cartel and its impact upon prices and cinema building. The paper concludes that a complex mixture of cultural, economic, institutional, and social factors were at play, causing the Dutch people to be an outlier as far as film provision and consumption was concerned.

Moving Films: Visualising Film Flow in Three European Cities in 1952

“…44 However, a further explanation is the restrained development of Dutch cinema culture in general when compared to other European countries. 45 Nevertheless, the average (777) as well as the median (743) size of the Rotterdam cinemas was high in terms of seating capacity. 43 Gothenburg had many cinemas, but they were relatively small, as we can tell from the average (441) and the median (412).…”

Dutch Films in the Mid-1930s Dutch Market: A Characteristics Approach to Film Popularity

“…See Chaps. 1 and 12 for an explanation of the concept.3 SeeSedgwick et al (2012) for an account of the complexities of Dutch society in the mid-1930s and how this affected filmgoing.4 See for example a discussion of this fact inJurca and Sedgwick (2014).…”