Hook is a 1991 American fantasy film directed by Steven Spielberg. The film stars Dustin Hoffman in the title role, Robin Williams, Julia Roberts, Bob Hoskins, and features Maggie Smith, Caroline Goodall, Charlie Korsmo, Amber Scott, and Dante Basco. Hook acts as a sequel to Peter Pan's original adventures, focusing on a grown-up Peter who has forgotten his childhood. Now known as "Peter Banning", he is a successful corporate lawyer with a wife and two children. Captain Hook kidnaps his two children, and he must return to Neverland and reclaim his youthful spirit as Peter Pan in order to challenge his old enemy.

Spielberg began developing the film in the early-1980s with Walt Disney Productions and Paramount Pictures, which would have followed the storyline seen in the 1953 animated film and 1924 silent film. Peter Pan entered pre-production in 1985, but Spielberg abandoned the project. James V. Hart developed the script with director Nick Castle and TriStar Pictures before Spielberg decided to direct in 1989. Hook was shot entirely on sound stages at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California. Although receiving negative reviews by critics at the time of its release, it was a success with audiences, grossing over $300 million worldwide, and was nominated for multiple categories at the 64th Academy Awards. It also spawned merchandise, including video games, action figures and comic book adaptations.

Plot[link]

Peter Banning (Robin Williams) is a mild-mannered corporate attorney whose relationship with his family, especially his two young children Jack (Charlie Korsmo) and Maggie (Amber Scott), is strained by continuous absences and broken promises. His wife, Moira, (Caroline Goodall) struggles to keep them together and grows frustrated at Peter for his callous behavior. The family flies to London to visit Moira's grandmother, Wendy Darling (Maggie Smith), who helped Peter find a family when he was a young orphan.

Upon arrival, they meet Tootles (Arthur Malet), Wendy's first orphan, now an elderly gentleman who has "lost his marbles". Peter, Moira, and Wendy attend a ceremony for the expansion of Wendy's orphanage. While they are out, the children are abducted and a note is left for Peter by a James Hook. Wendy attempts to explain to Peter that he is in fact Peter Pan, who left Neverland years ago after falling in love with Moira, and that his old nemesis, Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman), has returned and taken his children for revenge. He denies this and spends the evening drinking.

Tinker Bell (Julia Roberts) appears before Peter that night and knocks him unconscious and flies him to a pirate port in Neverland. There, he awakens in disbelief, and is discovered by Hook and his second in command Smee (Bob Hoskins), who threaten to harm the children unless he accepts Hook's challenge to a duel. However, Peter's failure to reach expectations disheartens Hook, who commands the crew to kill them all. Tinker Bell intervenes and is granted three days in which to prepare Peter for a proper duel. Peter is accidentally knocked overboard and eventually finds his way to the Lost Boys' hideout, now led by Peter's successor, Rufio (Dante Basco). The Lost Boys at first dismiss him as an old man who has no hope of regaining his former glory, but through their rigorous training and his own sparks of inspiration he begins to relearn the magic of Neverland.

Meanwhile, Hook gets an idea from Smee to persuade Peter's children to love him more than Peter, so Hook devises a ploy for Maggie and Jack called "Why Parents Hate Their Children". Maggie does not fall for the ploy, but Jack does when Hook uses Jack's frustration over his father's continuous broken promises to steal his affection. Peter is heartbroken when he sees Hook treating Jack like a son, and becomes determined to win his family back. Stumbling upon his childhood home in a tree (destroyed by Hook), he finally remembers his past, learning how to fly by recalling his "happy thought": being a father. Peter regains the leadership of the Lost Boys and they challenge Hook and his pirates in an all-out battle. Peter tries to get Jack back from Hook, but Jack refuses as he now has come to look upon Hook as a father. However, Peter soon regains Jack's love when the latter realizes what Hook is really like, after Rufio is killed by Hook in a duel. Peter then saves Maggie from Hook's pirates. Peter and Hook engage in a climactic sword fight, and Hook is apparently killed when the Crocodile, which Hook has built into a massive clock tower, falls on him. Jack and Maggie return home as Peter designates the largest member of the Lost Boys, Thud Butt (Raushan Hammond), the only other lost boy besides Rufio whom Peter grew a connection to, as the new leader of the Lost Boys, and tells them to take care of everybody smaller than them, adding "Thank you for believing," as he leaves Neverland.

Returning home, Peter finally realizes the love he has for his family and the importance of having a youthful heart. Tootles is dismayed at missing the adventure, but discovers pixie dust in his bag of lost marbles and uses it to go flying around London and back to Neverland. While flying out from the windows, he says "seize the day", a catchphrase often used in Dead Poets Society, another movie starring Robin Williams. Wendy remarks to Peter that his adventures are now over, but Peter says, "To live would be an awfully big adventure."

Cast[link]

• Dustin Hoffman as Captain Hook: A villainous pirate who has had a long enemy relationship with Peter Pan. After escaping from his death, Hook seeks revenge against Peter by kidnapping his two children.
• Robin Williams as Peter Banning / Peter Pan: Peter has forgotten his childhood in Neverland. After leaving Neverland he was adopted by an American couple, Hank and Jane Banning. He has become a successful corporate lawyer with a wife and two kids. After Captain Hook kidnaps his two children, Peter Banning must reclaim his youthful spirit as Peter Pan in order to challenge Hook.
  • Ryan Francis as young Peter Pan in flashbacks, and Max Hoffman as the younger Peter.
• Julia Roberts as Tinker Bell: A fairy who helps Peter regain memory of his childhood and "happy thoughts". She is in love with Peter but understands why he must continue his relationship with his family.
  • Lisa Wilhoit as the young Tinker Bell.
• Bob Hoskins as Smee: Hook's henchman who devises the plan to persuade Peter's children to "love" Hook. Hoskins also portrays a garbage sweeper in Kensington Gardens.
• Maggie Smith as Wendy Darling: A former neighbor of J. M. Barrie, who was credited as the author of Peter Pan. After Wendy's adventures with Peter Pan, she becomes well known for helping orphans. After Peter decided to leave Neverland to find love with Moira, the adult Wendy taught young Peter how to read and arranged for him to be adopted by the Bannings. As a young girl, she was in love with Peter Pan but young Peter realized too late his own feelings for Wendy after seeing her as a married older woman.
  • Gwyneth Paltrow appears as young Wendy Darling in flashbacks.
• Charlie Korsmo as Jack Banning: Peter and Moira's son who begins to rebel against his father and looks towards Captain Hook as a father figure when Hook uses Jack's frustration of his father's broken promises to turn him against Peter.
• Amber Scott as Maggie Banning: Peter and Moira's daughter and Jack's younger sister who, after the kidnapping, does not fall for Hook's ploy of "why parents hate their children". A Peter Pan enthusiast, after Maggie discovers her father and the hero she idolizes are one and the same, she is proud to be his daughter.
• Caroline Goodall as Moira Banning: Wendy's granddaughter, Peter's loving wife, mother to Jack and Maggie and sister to the unseen Margaret. After realizing that he missed his chance with Wendy, young Peter decides to leave Neverland for Moira to prevent his history with her grandmother from repeating itself after falling in love with her at first sight.
• Dante Basco as Rufio: Leader of the Lost Boys since Peter's departure from Neverland. Rufio is initially resentful of Peter but soon wishes he had a father like him. He is killed by Captain Hook during a duel.
• Arthur Malet as Tootles: A senile old man living with Wendy. A former Lost Boy, Tootles is also Wendy's "first orphan". Peter helps to give him the ability to fly by finding his lost marbles, which he had left in Neverland.
• Jasen Fisher and James Madio portray Lost Boys. Kelly Rowan makes a cameo appearance as Peter Pan's mother and Genesis vocalist Phil Collins appears briefly as an English police inspector. More cameos include singers David Crosby and Jimmy Buffett as members of Hook's pirate crew, Nick Tate as a pirate who fights Peter Pan while taking away Maggie, and Glenn Close similarly appears as a male pirate who is punished by Hook. Filmmaker George Lucas and actress Carrie Fisher appear as the couple accidentally sprinkled with fairy dust as Tinker Bell brings Peter to Neverland.

Production[link]

J. M. Barrie considered writing a story in which Peter Pan grew up; his 1920 notes for the latest stage revival of Peter Pan included possible titles for another play: The Man Who Couldn't Grow Up or The Old Age of Peter Pan.^[2] The genesis of Hook started when director Steven Spielberg's mother often read him Peter and Wendy as a bedtime story. Spielberg explained in 1985, "When I was eleven years old I actually directed the story during a school production. I have always felt like Peter Pan. I still feel like Peter Pan. It has been very hard for me to grow up, I'm a victim of the Peter Pan syndrome."^[3]

In the early 1980s, with Walt Disney Pictures, Spielberg began to develop the film which would have closely followed the storyline of the 1953 animated film and 1924 silent film.^[4] He also considered directing Peter Pan as a musical with Michael Jackson in the lead.^[5] The project was taken to Paramount Pictures, where James V. Hart wrote the first script with Dustin Hoffman already cast as Captain Hook.^[5] Peter Pan entered pre-production in 1985 for filming to begin at sound stages in England. Elliot Scott had been hired as production designer.^[4] With the birth of his first son, Max, in 1985, Spielberg decided to drop out. "I decided not to make Peter Pan when I had my first child," Spielberg commented. "I didn't want to go to London and have seven kids on wires in front of blue screens. I wanted to be home as a dad."^[5] Around this time, Spielberg considered directing Big, which carried similar motifs and themes with Peter Pan.^[5] In 1987, Spielberg "permanently abandoned" Peter Pan, feeling he expressed his childhood and adult themes in Empire of the Sun.^[6]

Meanwhile, Paramount and Hart moved forward on production with Nick Castle as director. Hart began to work on a new storyline when his son, Jake, showed his family a drawing. "We asked Jake what it was and he said it was a crocodile eating Captain Hook, but that the crocodile really didn't eat him, he got away," Hart reflected. "As it happens, I had been trying to crack Peter Pan for years, but I didn't just want to do a remake. So I went, 'Wow. Hook is not dead. The crocodile is. We've all been fooled'. In 1986 our family was having dinner and Jake said, 'Daddy, did Peter Pan ever grow up?' My immediate response was, 'No, of course not'. And Jake said, 'But what if he did?' I realized that Peter did grow up, just like all of us baby boomers who are now in our forties. I patterned him after several of my friends on Wall Street, where the pirates wear three-piece suits and ride in limos."^[7]

By 1989, Hart and Castle changed the title of Peter Pan to Hook, and took it from Paramount to TriStar Pictures, headed by Mike Medavoy, who was Spielberg's first talent agent. Robin Williams signed on, but Williams and Hoffman had creative differences with Castle. Medavoy saw Hook as a vehicle for Spielberg and Castle was fired, but paid a $500,000 settlement.^[7] Spielberg briefly worked together with Hart to rewrite the script^[4] before hiring Malia Scotch Marmo to rewrite Captain Hook's dialog and Carrie Fisher for Tinker Bell's dialog. The Writers Guild of America gave Hart and Marmo screenplay credit, while Hart and Castle were credited with story. Fisher went uncredited. Filming started on February 19, 1991, occupying nine sound stages at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California.^[1] Stage 30 housed the Neverland Lost Boys playground, while Stage 10 supplied Captain Hook's ship cabin. Hidden hydraulics were installed to rock the setpiece to simulate a swaying ship, but the filmmakers found the movement distracted the dialogue, so the idea was dropped.^[8]

Stage 27 housed the full-sized pirate ship Jolly Roger and the surrounding Pirate Wharf.^[8] Industrial Light & Magic provided the visual effects sequences. Hook was financed by Amblin Entertainment and TriStar Pictures, with TriStar distributing the film. Impressed with his work on Cats, Spielberg brought John Napier as a "visual consultant". The original production budget was set at $48 million, but ended up between $60–80 million.^[1][9] This was also largely contributed by the shooting schedule, which ran 40 days over its original 76 day schedule. Spielberg explained, "It was all my fault. I began to work at a slower pace than I usually do."^[9] He also found it difficult to work with Julia Roberts, who was suffering from a mental disorder after her breakup with Dylan McDermott.^[4]

Themes[link]

Spielberg found close personal connection to the film. The troubled relationship between Peter and his son echoed Spielberg's relationship with his father. Previous films of Spielberg that explored a diminishing father-son relationship included E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Peter Banning's "quest for success" paralleled Spielberg starting out as a film director and transforming into a Hollywood business magnate. This led to Spielberg's divorce from Amy Irving, which would possibly lead to Banning's relationship with his family.^[10] "I think a lot of people today are losing their imagination because they are work-driven. They are so self-involved with work and success and arriving at the next plateau that children and family almost become incidental. I have even experienced it myself when I have been on a very tough shoot and I've not seen my kids except on weekends. They ask for my time and I can't give it to them because I'm working."^[4] Similar to Peter Banning at the beginning of Hook, Spielberg also has a fear of flying. He feels that Peter Pan's "enduring quality" in the storyline is simply to fly. "Anytime anything flies, whether it's Superman, Batman, or E.T., it's got to be a tip of the hat to Peter Pan," Spielberg reflected. "Peter Pan was the first time I saw anybody fly. Before I saw Superman, before I saw Batman, and of course before I saw any superheroes, my first memory of anybody flying is in Peter Pan."^[4]

Soundtrack[link]

The film score was composed by John Williams. The lyrics for tracks "We Don't Wanna Grow Up" and "When You're Alone" were written by Leslie Bricusse. The original 1991 issue was released by Epic Records. In 2012, a limited edition of the soundtrack, called Hook: Expanded Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, was released by La-La Land Records and Sony Music. It contains almost the complete score with alternates and unused material. It also contains liner notes that explain the film's production and score recording.

Commercial songs from film, but not on soundtrack

• Pick'em Up - Music by John Williams and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse
• Take Me Out to the Ball Game - Written by Jack Norworth & Albert Von Tilzer

Expanded Original Motion Picture Soundtrack[link]

Reception[link]

Spielberg, Williams and Hoffman did not take salaries for the film. Their deal called for the trio to split 40% of TriStar Pictures' gross revenues. They were to receive $20 million from the first $50 million in gross theatrical film rentals, with TriStar keeping the next $70 million in rentals before the three resumed receiving their percentage.^[1] Hook was released in North America on December 11, 1991, earning $13.52 million in its opening weekend. The film went on to gross $119.65 million in North America and $181.2 million in foreign countries, accumulating a worldwide total of $300.85 million. Hook was declared a financial success,^[13] and is the fifth-highest grossing "pirate-themed" film, behind all four films in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series.^[14] In North America totals, Hook was the sixth-highest grossing film in 1991,^[15] and fourth-highest worldwide.^[16]

Film critics gave Hook generally negative reviews. As of December 2011, review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 29% of critics have given the film a positive review, based on 38 reviews, certifying it "Rotten", with an average rating of 4.4/10.^[17] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote that the "failure in Hook was its inability to re-imagine the material, to find something new, fresh or urgent to do with the Peter Pan myth. Lacking that, Spielberg should simply have remade the original story, straight, for the '90s generation."^[18] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone felt Hook would "only appeal to the baby boomer generation" and highly criticized the sword-fighting choreography.^[19] Vincent Canby of The New York Times felt the story structure was not well balanced, feeling Spielberg depended too much on art direction.^[20] Hal Hinson of The Washington Post was one of few who gave the film a positive review. Hinson elaborated on crucial themes of children, adulthood and loss of innocence. However, he observed that Spielberg "was stuck too much in a theme park world".^[21] Despite this, as of May 2012, the film holds a rating of 6.3/10 on IMDb.

Hook was nominated for five categories at the 64th Academy Awards. This included Art Direction (Norman Garwood, Garrett Lewis) (lost to Bugsy), Costume Design (lost to Bugsy), Visual Effects (lost to Terminator 2: Judgment Day), Makeup (lost to Terminator 2: Judgment Day) and Original Song ("When You're Alone", lost to Beauty and the Beast).^[22] Hook lost the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film to Aladdin, in which Robin Williams co-starred,^[23] while cinematographer Dean Cundey was nominated for his work by the American Society of Cinematographers.^[24] Dustin Hoffman was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor (Musical or Comedy).^[25] John Williams was given a Grammy Award nomination;^[26] Julia Roberts received a Golden Raspberry Award nomination for Worst Supporting Actress.^[27]

Children's literature portal

Video game[link]

Hook is the name of four distinct video games released in 1992, all based on the Steven Spielberg film of the same name.

[edit] Hook by Irem

In this arcade beat 'em up produced by a Japanese video game company, Irem, the objective was to save Peter Pan's children from the evil Captain Hook. The player could choose to play as Pan or as one of the four Lost Boys. Five playable characters but up to four players at the same time can play this game.

[edit] Hook by Sony Imagesoft/Ukiyotei

The player controlled Peter Banning through various side-scrolling levels on, yet again, a quest to save his children from Captain Hook. This game received mostly positive reviews, making it stand out from the typical movie-game adaptation.

The original Super Nintendo Entertainment System version was designed and developed by a Japanese video game developer, Ukiyotei. The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and Sega Mega/Sega CD ports were handled by Core Design. The Sega Game Gear port was handled by Spidersoft (this was also supposed to be released for the Sega Master System; a prototype exists). All versions were published by Sony Imagesoft and were essentially identical; however, the Sega CD version had the musical score from the film and better cut scenes with voice actors and digital stills.

[edit] Hook by Sony Imagesoft/Ocean

Ocean developed this side-scrolling platformer, different from the Sony/Ukiyotei game, for the Nintendo Entertainment System and Nintendo Game Boy. Sony Imagesoft published both versions.

[edit] Hook by Ocean/Shadow Software

This was the only adventure video game published by Ocean, following roughly the plot of the movie.

Designed and developed internally at Ocean Software for the Amiga and Atari ST, converted to PC by Shadow Software. The game was a point and click adventure. The initial pirate setting of Neverland brings to mind the Monkey Island series. The main objective was to escape the Pirate City, reach the Lost Boys' hideout and try to become Peter Pan in order to fight once more with Captain Hook.

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Terry Brooks (17 December 1991) (Hardcover). Hook. novelization of the film. Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-449-90707-4. 
• Charles L.P. Silet (2002). The Films of Steven Spielberg. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-4182-7. 

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Hook

• Hook at the Internet Movie Database
• Hook at AllRovi
• Hook at Rotten Tomatoes
• Hook at Box Office Mojo
• Sony Imagesoft's Hook at MobyGames
• Ocean's Hook at MobyGames

v t e J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan Characters and setting Peter Pan Wendy Darling Captain Hook Tinker Bell The Lost Boys Other characters Neverland Official books and plays The Little White Bird (1902) Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906) Peter and Wendy (1911) Peter Pan in Scarlet (2006) Films Peter Pan (1924) Peter Pan (1953) Hook (1991) Return to Never Land (2002) Peter Pan (2003) Neverland (2003) Finding Neverland (2004) Tinker Bell films Tinker Bell (2008) The Lost Treasure (2009) The Great Fairy Rescue (2010) Pixie Hollow Games (2011) Secret of the Wings (2012) TV series The Lost Boys (1978) The Adventures of Peter Pan (1989) Peter Pan and the Pirates (1990–91) Jake and the Never Land Pirates (2011–present) Neverland (2011) Theatre 1950 musical 1954 musical 1976 musical Peter Pan: A Musical Adventure Peter and the Starcatcher (play) Peter Pan 360 (play) Video games Peter Pan and the Pirates Hook Starcatchers books Peter and the Starcatchers Peter and the Shadow Thieves Peter and the Secret of Rundoon Peter and the Sword of Mercy The Bridge to Neverland Never Land Books Other media Peter Pan's Flight (ride)

Look up hook in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Hook may refer to:

Technology[link]

• Hooking, a computer programming technique
• Hook echo, a feature visible on radar indicative of tornadic rotation in a thunderstorm
• Tailhook, a device on an aircraft

Language[link]

• Hook (rhetoric), a rhetorical device that "hooks" the listener
• Hook above, a diacritical mark above letters in the Vietnamese alphabet
• Hook (diacritic), a diacritical mark attached to letters in various alphabets
  • Palatal hook, a hook attached below curled to the left
• Narrative hook, a literary technique
• Rhotic hook, a diacritical mark attached to symbols in the International phonetic alphabet.

Media and entertainment[link]

• Hook (music), a catchy musical passage
• "Hook" (song), a song by Blues Traveler
• The Hook (album), an album by Jukka Tolonen
• Hook (film), a 1991 fantasy continuation of J. M. Barrie's Peter and Wendy
  • Hook (video game), four video games based on the film
• The Hook (film), several films
• Hook (Transformers), several characters in the Transformers universe
• Hooksoft, a Japanese visual novel studio
• The Hook, a classic urban legend
• The Hook (newspaper), a weekly Virginia newspaper
• Captain Hook, a fictional pirate in J. M. Barrie's Peter and Wendy

Places[link]

• Hook Lighthouse, Ireland
• Hook, New Zealand
• Hook River, New Zealand
• Hook of Holland, the Netherlands

United Kingdom[link]

• Hook, East Riding of Yorkshire
• Hook, Hart, north Hampshire
• Hook, Fareham, south Hampshire
• Hook, London
• Hook, Pembrokeshire
• Hook, Wiltshire

Sports[link]

• Hook (boxing), a boxing punch
• Hook (bowling), a curving ball
• Hooking (ice hockey), a penalty
• Hook shot, a type of shot in basketball
• Hook shot, a type of misplayed shot in golf stroke mechanics
• Curveball, a type of baseball pitch

Tools, hardware, and fasteners[link]

• Cabin hook, a hooked bar that engages into an eye screw, used on doors
• Cargo hook (helicopter), different types of hook systems for helicopters
• Fish hook, a device used to catch fish
• Flesh-hook, a device used in cooking meat
• Grappling hook, a hook attached to a rope, designed to be thrown and snagged on a target
• Hook (hand tool), also known as longshoreman's hook and bale hook, a tool used for securing and moving loads
• Hook-and-eye closure, a clothing fastener
• Lifting hook, a device for grabbing and lifting loads
• Purse hook, a hook used to keep a woman's purse from touching the floor
• Shepherd's hook (or crook), a staff used in herding sheep or other animals
• Siege hook, a weapon used to pull stones from a wall during a siege
• Hook-and-loop fastener, used in Velcro

Other[link]

• Battle of the Hook, Korean war
• Telephone hook, a cradle on which a telephone handset rests
• Prosthetic hook or transradial prosthesis, part of a prosthetic arm for amputees
• Bondage hook, a device used in sexual bondage play
• Abu Hamza al-Masri, a Sunni Muslim leader known as "Hook" in the British tabloid press
• Mil Mi-6, a Soviet/Russian heavy transport helicopter nicknamed "Hook"

See also[link]

• All pages beginning with "Hook"
• All pages with titles containing "Hook"
• Hook (surname)
• Hooke (disambiguation)
• Hooked (disambiguation)
• Hooks (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in the French Wikipedia. (January 2012) Don't speak French? Click here to read a machine-translated version of the French article. Click [show] on the right to review important translation instructions before translating. Google's machine translation is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. After translating, {{Translated|fr|Cinéma}} must be added to the talk page to ensure copyright compliance. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

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This 16 mm spring-wound Bolex "H16" Reflex camera is a popular entry level camera used in film schools.

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects. The process of filmmaking has developed into an art form and industry.

Films are cultural artifacts created by specific cultures, which reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them. Film is considered to be an important art form, a source of popular entertainment and a powerful method for educating – or indoctrinating – citizens. The visual elements of cinema give motion pictures a universal power of communication. Some films have become popular worldwide attractions by using dubbing or subtitles that translate the dialogue into the language of the viewer.

Films are made up of a series of individual images called frames. When these images are shown rapidly in succession, a viewer has the illusion that motion is occurring. The viewer cannot see the flickering between frames due to an effect known as persistence of vision, whereby the eye retains a visual image for a fraction of a second after the source has been removed. Viewers perceive motion due to a psychological effect called beta movement.

The origin of the name "film" comes from the fact that photographic film (also called film stock) has historically been the primary medium for recording and displaying motion pictures. Many other terms exist for an individual motion picture, including picture, picture show, moving picture, photo-play and flick. A common name for film in the United States is movie, while in Europe the term film is preferred. Additional terms for the field in general include the big screen, the silver screen, the cinema and the movies.

History[link]

A clip from the Charlie Chaplin silent film The Bond (1918)

Preceding film in origin by thousands of years, early plays and dances had elements common to film: scripts, sets, costumes, production, direction, actors, audiences, storyboards, and scores. Much terminology later used in film theory and criticism apply, such as mise en scene (roughly, the entire visual picture at any one time). Owing to an absence of technology for doing so, moving visual and aural images were not recorded for replaying as in film.

In the 1860s, mechanisms for producing two-dimensional drawings in motion were demonstrated with devices such as the zoetrope, mutoscope and praxinoscope. These machines were outgrowths of simple optical devices (such as magic lanterns) and would display sequences of still pictures at sufficient speed for the images on the pictures to appear to be moving, a phenomenon called persistence of vision. Naturally the images needed to be carefully designed to achieve the desired effect, and the underlying principle became the basis for the development of film animation.

With the development of celluloid film for still photography, it became possible to directly capture objects in motion in real time. An 1878 experiment by English photographer Eadweard Muybridge in the United States using 24 cameras produced a series of stereoscopic images of a galloping horse, is arguably the first "motion picture", though it was not called by this name.^[1] This technology required a person to look into a viewing machine to see the pictures which were separate paper prints attached to a drum turned by a handcrank. The pictures were shown at a variable speed of about 5 to 10 pictures per second, depending on how rapidly the crank was turned. Commercial versions of these machines were coin operated.

A frame from Roundhay Garden Scene, the world's earliest film produced using a motion picture camera, by Louis Le Prince, 1888

By the 1880s the development of the motion picture camera allowed the individual component images to be captured and stored on a single reel, and led quickly to the development of a motion picture projector to shine light through the processed and printed film and magnify these "moving picture shows" onto a screen for an entire audience. These reels, so exhibited, came to be known as "motion pictures". Early motion pictures were static shots that showed an event or action with no editing or other cinematic techniques. The first public exhibition of projected motion pictures in America was shown at Koster and Bial's Music Hall in New York City on the 23rd of April 1896.

Ignoring W. K. L. Dickson's early sound experiments (1894), commercial motion pictures were purely visual art through the late 19th century, but these innovative silent films had gained a hold on the public imagination. Around the turn of the 20th century, films began developing a narrative structure by stringing scenes together to tell a story. The scenes were later broken up into multiple shots of varying sizes and angles. Other techniques such as camera movement were realized as effective ways to portray a story on film. Rather than leave the audience with noise of early cinema projectors, theater owners would hire a pianist or organist or a full orchestra to play music that would cover noises of projector. Eventually, musicians would start to fit the mood of the film at any given moment. By the early 1920s, most films came with a prepared list of sheet music for this purpose, with complete film scores being composed for major productions.

A shot from Georges Méliès Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon) (1902), an early narrative film.

The rise of European cinema was interrupted by the outbreak of World War I when the film industry in United States flourished with the rise of Hollywood, typified most prominently by the great innovative work of D. W. Griffith in The Birth of a Nation (1914) and Intolerance (1916). However in the 1920s, European filmmakers such as Sergei Eisenstein, F. W. Murnau, and Fritz Lang, in many ways inspired by the meteoric war-time progress of film through Griffith, along with the contributions of Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton and others, quickly caught up with American film-making and continued to further advance the medium. In the 1920s, new technology allowed filmmakers to attach to each film a soundtrack of speech, music and sound effects synchronized with the action on the screen. These sound films were initially distinguished by calling them "talking pictures", or talkies.

The next major step in the development of cinema was the introduction of so-called "natural color", which meant color that was photographically recorded from nature rather than being added to black-and-white prints by hand-coloring, stencil-coloring or other arbitrary procedures, although the earliest processes typically yielded colors which were far from "natural" in appearance. While the addition of sound quickly eclipsed silent film and theater musicians, color replaced black-and-white much more gradually. The pivotal innovation was the introduction of the three-strip version of the Technicolor process, which was first used for short subjects and for isolated sequences in a few feature films released in 1934, then for an entire feature film, Becky Sharp, in 1935. The expense of the process was daunting, but continued favorable public response and enhanced box-office receipts increasingly justified the added cost. The number of films made in color slowly increased year after year.

In the early 1950s, as the proliferation of black-and-white television started seriously depressing theater attendance in the US, the use of color was seen as one way of winning back audiences. It soon became the rule rather than the exception. Some important mainstream Hollywood films were still being made in black-and-white as late as the mid-1960s, but they marked the end of an era. Color television receivers had been available in the US since the mid-1950s, but at first they were very expensive and few broadcasts were in color. During the 1960s, prices gradually came down, color broadcasts became common, and the sale of color television sets boomed. The strong preference of the general public for color was obvious. After the final flurry of black-and-white film releases in mid-decade, all major Hollywood studio film production was exclusively in color, with rare exceptions reluctantly made only at the insistence of "star" directors such as Peter Bogdanovich and Martin Scorsese.

Since the decline of the studio system in the 1960s, the succeeding decades saw changes in the production and style of film. Various New Wave movements (including the French New Wave, Indian New Wave, Japanese New Wave and New Hollywood) and the rise of film school educated independent filmmakers were all part of the changes the medium experienced in the latter half of the 20th century. Digital technology has been the driving force in change throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s. 3D technology increased in usage and has become more popular since the early 2010s.

Theory[link]

Film theory seeks to develop concise and systematic concepts that apply to the study of film as art. It was started by Ricciotto Canudo's The Birth of the Sixth Art. Formalist film theory, led by Rudolf Arnheim, Béla Balázs, and Siegfried Kracauer, emphasized how film differed from reality, and thus could be considered a valid fine art. André Bazin reacted against this theory by arguing that film's artistic essence lay in its ability to mechanically reproduce reality not in its differences from reality, and this gave rise to realist theory. More recent analysis spurred by Jacques Lacan's psychoanalysis and Ferdinand de Saussure's semiotics among other things has given rise to psychoanalytical film theory, structuralist film theory, feminist film theory and others. On the other hand, critics from the analytical philosophy tradition, influenced by Wittgenstein, try to clarify misconceptions used in theoretical studies and produce analysis of a film's vocabulary and its link to a form of life.

Language[link]

Film is considered to have its own language. James Monaco wrote a classic text on film theory titled "How to Read a Film". Director Ingmar Bergman famously said, "[Andrei] Tarkovsky for me is the greatest [director], the one who invented a new language, true to the nature of film, as it captures life as a reflection, life as a dream." Examples of the language are a sequence of back and forth images of one actor's left profile speaking, followed by another actor's right profile speaking, then a repetition of this, which is a language understood by the audience to indicate a conversation. Another example is zooming in on the forehead of an actor with an expression of silent reflection, then changing to a scene of a younger actor who vaguely resembles the first actor, indicating the first actor is having a memory of their own past.

Montage[link]

Parallels to musical counterpoint have been developed into a theory of montage, extended from the complex superimposition of images in early silent film^{[citation needed]} to even more complex incorporation of musical counterpoint together with visual counterpoint through mise en scene and editing, as in a ballet or opera; e.g., as illustrated in the gang fight scene of director Francis Ford Coppola’s film, Rumble Fish.

Criticism[link]

Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films. In general, these works can be divided into two categories: academic criticism by film scholars and journalistic film criticism that appears regularly in newspapers and other media.

Film critics working for newspapers, magazines, and broadcast media mainly review new releases. Normally they only see any given film once and have only a day or two to formulate opinions. Despite this, critics have an important impact on films, especially those of certain genres. Mass marketed action, horror, and comedy films tend not to be greatly affected by a critic's overall judgment of a film. The plot summary and description of a film that makes up the majority of any film review can still have an important impact on whether people decide to see a film. For prestige films such as most dramas, the influence of reviews is extremely important. Poor reviews will often doom a film to obscurity and financial loss.

The impact of a reviewer on a given film's box office performance is a matter of debate. Some claim that movie marketing is now so intense and well financed that reviewers cannot make an impact against it. However, the cataclysmic failure of some heavily promoted movies which were harshly reviewed, as well as the unexpected success of critically praised independent movies indicates that extreme critical reactions can have considerable influence. Others note that positive film reviews have been shown to spark interest in little-known films. Conversely, there have been several films in which film companies have so little confidence that they refuse to give reviewers an advanced viewing to avoid widespread panning of the film. However, this usually backfires as reviewers are wise to the tactic and warn the public that the film may not be worth seeing and the films often do poorly as a result.

It is argued that journalist film critics should only be known as film reviewers, and true film critics are those who take a more academic approach to films. This line of work is more often known as film theory or film studies. These film critics attempt to come to understand how film and filming techniques work, and what effect they have on people. Rather than having their works published in newspapers or appear on television, their articles are published in scholarly journals, or sometimes in up-market magazines. They also tend to be affiliated with colleges or universities.

Industry[link]

Cate Blanchett at the Berlin International Film Festival. Around 20,000 professionals from over 130 countries attend the event in Berlin.

The making and showing of motion pictures became a source of profit almost as soon as the process was invented. Upon seeing how successful their new invention, and its product, was in their native France, the Lumières quickly set about touring the Continent to exhibit the first films privately to royalty and publicly to the masses. In each country, they would normally add new, local scenes to their catalogue and, quickly enough, found local entrepreneurs in the various countries of Europe to buy their equipment and photograph, export, import and screen additional product commercially. The Oberammergau Passion Play of 1898^{[citation needed]} was the first commercial motion picture ever produced. Other pictures soon followed, and motion pictures became a separate industry that overshadowed the vaudeville world. Dedicated theaters and companies formed specifically to produce and distribute films, while motion picture actors became major celebrities and commanded huge fees for their performances. By 1917 Charlie Chaplin had a contract that called for an annual salary of one million dollars.

From 1931 to 1956, film was also the only image storage and playback system for television programming until the introduction of videotape recorders.

In the United States today, much of the film industry is centered around Hollywood. Other regional centers exist in many parts of the world, such as Mumbai-centered Bollywood, the Indian film industry's Hindi cinema which produces the largest number of films in the world.^[2] Whether the ten thousand-plus feature length films a year produced by the Valley pornographic film industry should qualify for this title is the source of some debate.^{[citation needed]} Though the expense involved in making movies has led cinema production to concentrate under the auspices of movie studios, recent advances in affordable film making equipment have allowed independent film productions to flourish.

Profit is a key force in the industry, due to the costly and risky nature of filmmaking; many films have large cost overruns, a notorious example being Kevin Costner's Waterworld. Yet many filmmakers strive to create works of lasting social significance. The Academy Awards (also known as "the Oscars") are the most prominent film awards in the United States, providing recognition each year to films, ostensibly based on their artistic merits.

There is also a large industry for educational and instructional films made in lieu of or in addition to lectures and texts.

Associated fields[link]

Derivative academic Fields of study may both interact with and develop independently of filmmaking, as in film theory and analysis. Fields of academic study have been created that are derivative or dependent on the existence of film, such as film criticism, film history, divisions of film propaganda in authoritarian governments, or psychological on subliminal effects of a flashing soda can during a screening. These fields may further create derivative fields, such as a movie review section in a newspaper or a television guide. Sub-industries can spin off from film, such as popcorn makers, and toys. Sub- industries of pre-existing industries may deal specifically with film, such as product placement in advertising.

Terminology used[link]

Although the words "film" and "movie" are sometimes used interchangeably, "film" is more often used when considering artistic, theoretical, or technical aspects, as studies in a university class and "movies" more often refers to entertainment or commercial aspects, as where to go for fun on a date. For example, a book titled "How to Read a Film" would be about the aesthetics or theory of film, while "Lets Go to the Movies" would be about the history of entertaining movies. "Motion pictures" or "Moving pictures" are films and movies. A "DVD" is a digital format which may be used to reproduce an analog film, while "videotape" ("video") was for many decades a solely analog medium onto which moving images could be recorded and electronically (rather than optically) reproduced. Strictly speaking, "Film" refers to the media onto which a visual image is shot, and to this end it may seem improper for work in other "moving image" media to be referred to as a "film" and the action of shooting as "filming", though these terms are still in general use. "Silent films" need not be silent, but are films and movies without an audible dialogue, though they may have a musical soundtrack. "Talkies" refers to early movies or films having audible dialogue or analog sound, not just a musical accompaniment. "Cinema" either broadly encompasses both films and movies, or is roughly synonymous with "Film", both capitalized when referring to a category of art. The "silver screen" refers to classic black-and-white films before color, not to contemporary films without color.

The expression "Sight and Sound", as in the film journal of the same name, means "film". The following icons mean film: a "candle and bell", as in the films Tarkovsky, of a segment of film stock, or a two faced Janus image, and an image of a movie camera in profile.

"Widescreen" and "Cinemascope" refers to a larger width to height in the frame, compared to an earlier historic aspect ratios.^[3] A "feature length film", or "feature film", is of a conventional full length, usually 60 minutes or more, and can commercially stand by itself without other films in a ticketed screening.^[4] A "short" is a film that is not as long as a feature length film, usually screened with other shorts, or preceding a feature length film. An "independent" is a film made outside of the conventional film industry.

A "screening" or "projection" is the projection of a film or video on a screen at a public or private theater, usually but not always of a film, but of a video or DVD when of sufficient projection quality. A "double feature" is a screening of two independent, stand-alone, feature films. A "viewing" is a watching of a film. A "showing" is a screening or viewing on an electronic monitor. "Sales" refers to tickets sold at a theater, or more currently, rights sold for individual showings. A "release" is the distribution and often simultaneous screening of a film. A "preview" is a screening in advance of the main release.

"Hollywood" may be used either as a pejorative adjective, shorthand for asserting an overly commercial rather than artistic intent or outcome, as in "too Hollywood", or as a descriptive adjective to refer to a film originating with people who ordinarily work near Los Angeles.

Expressions for Genres of film are sometimes used interchangeably for "film" in a specific context, such as a "porn" for a film with explicit sexual content, or "cheese" for films that are light, entertaining and not highbrow.

Any film may also have a "sequel", which portrays events following those in the film. Bride of Frankenstein is an early example. When there are a number of films with the same characters, we have a "series", such as the James Bond series. A film which portrays events that occur earlier than those in another film, but is released after that film, is sometimes called a "prequel", an example being Butch and Sundance: The Early Days.

Credits is a list of the people involved in making the film. Before the 1970s, credits were usually at the beginning of a film. Since then, the credits roll at the end of most films.

A Post-credits scene is a scene shown after the end of the credits. Ferris Bueller's Day Off has a post-credit scene in which Ferris tells the audience that the movie is over and they should go home.

Preview[link]

A preview performance refers to a showing of a movie to a select audience, usually for the purposes of corporate promotions, before the public film premiere itself. Previews are sometimes used to judge audience reaction, which if unexpectedly negative, may result in recutting or even refilming certain sections (Audience response).

Trailer[link]

Trailers or previews are film advertisements for films that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema, on whose screen they are shown. The term "trailer" comes from their having originally been shown at the end of a film programme. That practice did not last long, because patrons tended to leave the theater after the films ended, but the name has stuck. Trailers are now shown before the film (or the A movie in a double feature program) begins.

Film, or other art form?[link]

Film may be combined with performance art and still be considered or referred to as a "film", for instance, when there is a live musical accompaniment to a silent film. Another example is audience participation films, as at a midnight movies screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, where the audience dresses up in costume from the film and loudly does a karaoke-like reenactment along with the film. Performance art where film is incorporated as a component is usually not called film, but a film, which could stand-alone but is accompanied by a performance may still be referred to as a film.

The act of making a film can, in and of itself, be considered a work of art, on a different level from the film itself, as in the films of Werner Herzog.

Similarly, the playing of a film can be considered to fall within the realm of political protest art, as in the subtleties within the films of Tarkovsky. A "road movie" can refer to a film put together from footage from a long road trip or vacation.

Education and propaganda[link]

Film is used for education and propaganda. When the purpose is primarily educational, a film is called an "educational film". Examples are recordings of lectures and experiments, or more marginally, a film based on a classic novel.

Film may be propaganda, in whole or in part, such as the films made by Leni Riefenstahl in Nazi Germany, US war film trailers during World War II, or artistic films made under Stalin by Eisenstein. They may also be works of political protest, as in the films of Wajda, or more subtly, the films of Andrei Tarkovsky.

The same film may be considered educational by some, and propaganda by others, such as some of the films of Michael Moore.

Production[link]

At its core, the means to produce a film depend on the content the filmmaker wishes to show, and the apparatus for displaying it: the zoetrope merely requires a series of images on a strip of paper. Film production can therefore take as little as one person with a camera (or without it, such as Stan Brakhage's 1963 film Mothlight), or thousands of actors, extras and crewmembers for a live-action, feature-length epic.

The necessary steps for almost any film can be boiled down to conception, planning, execution, revision, and distribution. The more involved the production, the more significant each of the steps becomes. In a typical production cycle of a Hollywood-style film, these main stages are defined as:

1. Development
2. Pre-production
3. Production
4. Post-production
5. Distribution

This production cycle usually takes three years. The first year is taken up with development. The second year comprises preproduction and production. The third year, post-production and distribution.

The bigger the production, the more resources it takes, and the more important financing becomes; most feature films are not only artistic works, but for-profit business entities.

Crew[link]

A film crew is a group of people hired by a film company, employed during the "production" or "photography" phase, for the purpose of producing a film or motion picture. Crew are distinguished from cast, the actors who appear in front of the camera or provide voices for characters in the film. The crew interacts with but is also distinct from the production staff, consisting of producers, managers, company representatives, their assistants, and those whose primary responsibility falls in pre-production or post-production phases, such as writers and editors. Communication between production and crew generally passes through the director and his/her staff of assistants. Medium-to-large crews are generally divided into departments with well defined hierarchies and standards for interaction and cooperation between the departments. Other than acting, the crew handles everything in the photography phase: props and costumes, shooting, sound, electrics (i.e., lights), sets, and production special effects. Caterers (known in the film industry as "craft services") are usually not considered part of the crew.

Technology[link]

Film stock consists of transparent celluloid, acetate, or polyester base coated with an emulsion containing light-sensitive chemicals. Cellulose nitrate was the first type of film base used to record motion pictures, but due to its flammability was eventually replaced by safer materials. Stock widths and the film format for images on the reel have had a rich history, though most large commercial films are still shot on (and distributed to theaters) as 35 mm prints.

Originally moving picture film was shot and projected at various speeds using hand-cranked cameras and projectors; though 1000 frames per minute (16⅔ frame/s) is generally cited as a standard silent speed, research indicates most films were shot between 16 frame/s and 23 frame/s and projected from 18 frame/s on up (often reels included instructions on how fast each scene should be shown).^[5] When sound film was introduced in the late 1920s, a constant speed was required for the sound head. 24 frames per second was chosen because it was the slowest (and thus cheapest) speed which allowed for sufficient sound quality. Improvements since the late 19th century include the mechanization of cameras – allowing them to record at a consistent speed, quiet camera design – allowing sound recorded on-set to be usable without requiring large "blimps" to encase the camera, the invention of more sophisticated filmstocks and lenses, allowing directors to film in increasingly dim conditions, and the development of synchronized sound, allowing sound to be recorded at exactly the same speed as its corresponding action. The soundtrack can be recorded separately from shooting the film, but for live-action pictures many parts of the soundtrack are usually recorded simultaneously.

As a medium, film is not limited to motion pictures, since the technology developed as the basis for photography. It can be used to present a progressive sequence of still images in the form of a slideshow. Film has also been incorporated into multimedia presentations, and often has importance as primary historical documentation. However, historic films have problems in terms of preservation and storage, and the motion picture industry is exploring many alternatives. Most movies on cellulose nitrate base have been copied onto modern safety films. Some studios save color films through the use of separation masters: three B&W negatives each exposed through red, green, or blue filters (essentially a reverse of the Technicolor process). Digital methods have also been used to restore films, although their continued obsolescence cycle makes them (as of 2006) a poor choice for long-term preservation. Film preservation of decaying film stock is a matter of concern to both film historians and archivists, and to companies interested in preserving their existing products in order to make them available to future generations (and thereby increase revenue). Preservation is generally a higher concern for nitrate and single-strip color films, due to their high decay rates; black-and-white films on safety bases and color films preserved on Technicolor imbibition prints tend to keep up much better, assuming proper handling and storage.

Some films in recent decades have been recorded using analog video technology similar to that used in television production. Modern digital video cameras and digital projectors are gaining ground as well. These approaches are preferred by some moviemakers, especially because footage shot with digital cinema can be evaluated and edited with non-linear editing systems (NLE) without waiting for the film stock to be processed. Yet the migration is gradual, and as of 2005 most major motion pictures are still shot on film.

Independent[link]

Independent filmmaking often takes place outside of Hollywood, or other major studio systems. An independent film (or indie film) is a film initially produced without financing or distribution from a major movie studio. Creative, business, and technological reasons have all contributed to the growth of the indie film scene in the late 20th and early 21st century.

The Lumière Brothers

On the business side, the costs of big-budget studio films also leads to conservative choices in cast and crew. There is a trend in Hollywood towards co-financing (over two-thirds of the films put out by Warner Bros. in 2000 were joint ventures, up from 10% in 1987).^[6] A hopeful director is almost never given the opportunity to get a job on a big-budget studio film unless he or she has significant industry experience in film or television. Also, the studios rarely produce films with unknown actors, particularly in lead roles.

Before the advent of digital alternatives, the cost of professional film equipment and stock was also a hurdle to being able to produce, direct, or star in a traditional studio film.

But the advent of consumer camcorders in 1985, and more importantly, the arrival of high-resolution digital video in the early 1990s, have lowered the technology barrier to movie production significantly. Both production and post-production costs have been significantly lowered; today, the hardware and software for post-production can be installed in a commodity-based personal computer. Technologies such as DVDs, FireWire connections and non-linear editing system pro-level software like Adobe Premiere Pro, Sony Vegas and Apple's Final Cut Pro, and consumer level software such as Apple's Final Cut Express and iMovie, and Microsoft's Windows Movie Maker make movie-making relatively inexpensive.

Since the introduction of DV technology, the means of production have become more democratized. Filmmakers can conceivably shoot and edit a movie, create and edit the sound and music, and mix the final cut on a home computer. However, while the means of production may be democratized, financing, distribution, and marketing remain difficult to accomplish outside the traditional system. Most independent filmmakers rely on film festivals to get their films noticed and sold for distribution. The arrival of internet-based video outlets such as YouTube and Veoh has further changed the film making landscape in ways that are still to be determined.

Open content film[link]

An open content film is much like an independent film, but it is produced through open collaborations; its source material is available under a license which is permissive enough to allow other parties to create fan fiction or derivative works, than a traditional copyright. Like independent filmmaking, open source filmmaking takes place outside of Hollywood, or other major studio systems.

Fan film[link]

A fan film is a film or video inspired by a film, television program, comic book or a similar source, created by fans rather than by the source's copyright holders or creators. Fan filmmakers have traditionally been amateurs, but some of the more notable films have actually been produced by professional filmmakers as film school class projects or as demonstration reels. Fan films vary tremendously in length, from short faux-teaser trailers for non-existent motion pictures to rarer full-length motion pictures.

Distribution[link]

When it is initially produced, a feature film is often shown to audiences in a movie theater or cinema. The identity of the first theater designed specifically for cinema is a matter of debate; candidates include Tally's Electric Theatre, established 1902 in Los Angeles,^[7] and Pittsburgh's Nickelodeon, established 1905.^[8] Thousands of such theaters were built or converted from existing facilities within a few years.^[9] In the United States, these theaters came to be known as nickelodeons, because admission typically cost a nickel (five cents).

Typically, one film is the featured presentation (or feature film). Before the 1970s, there were "double features"; typically, a high quality "A picture" rented by an independent theater for a lump sum, and a "B picture" of lower quality rented for a percentage of the gross receipts. Today, the bulk of the material shown before the feature film consists of previews for upcoming movies and paid advertisements (also known as trailers or "The Twenty").

Historically, all mass marketed feature films were made to be shown in movie theaters. The development of television has allowed films to be broadcast to larger audiences, usually after the film is no longer being shown in theaters.^{[citation needed]} In 1967, videocassettes of movies became available to consumers to watch in their own homes.^[10] Recording technology has since enabled consumers to rent or buy copies of films on VHS or DVD (and the older formats of laserdisc, VCD and SelectaVision – see also videodisc), and Internet downloads may be available and have started to become revenue sources for the film companies. Some films are now made specifically for these other venues, being released as a television movie or direct-to-video movies. The production values on these films are often considered to be of inferior quality compared to theatrical releases in similar genres, and indeed, some films that are rejected by their own movie studios upon completion are distributed through these markets.

The movie theater pays an average of about 50-55% of its ticket sales to the movie studio, as film rental fees.^[11] The actual percentage starts with a number higher than that, and decreases as the duration of a film's showing continues, as an incentive to theaters to keep movies in the theater longer. However, today's barrage of highly marketed movies ensures that most movies are shown in first-run theaters for less than 8 weeks. There are a few movies every year that defy this rule, often limited-release movies that start in only a few theaters and actually grow their theater count through good word-of-mouth and reviews. According to a 2000 study by ABN AMRO, about 26% of Hollywood movie studios' worldwide income came from box office ticket sales; 46% came from VHS and DVD sales to consumers; and 28% came from television (broadcast, cable, and pay-per-view).^[11]

This section requires expansion with: optical disc distribution.

Animation[link]

Animation is the technique in which each frame of a film is produced individually, whether generated as a computer graphic, or by photographing a drawn image, or by repeatedly making small changes to a model unit (see claymation and stop motion), and then photographing the result with a special animation camera. When the frames are strung together and the resulting film is viewed at a speed of 16 or more frames per second, there is an illusion of continuous movement (due to the persistence of vision). Generating such a film is very labor intensive and tedious, though the development of computer animation has greatly sped up the process.