Part I: Distribution Introduction (From Boardroom to Bijou: Exploring Cinema Distribution & Exhibition‪)‬

It has become somewhat of a cliche to say that cinema distribution and exhibition are poor relations within film scholarship-playing second fiddle to content and creators. Indeed, I too have said this. The cliche rang true for a long time, but happily is losing its currency, as more and more scholars turn their attentions away from the screen towards the technologies, processes, practices and histories that lie behind (and in front of) it. From Boardroom to Bijou was named to reflect this end of the industry. It was planned as a single Post Script issue on cinema distribution and exhibition; however, the quantity and quality of current work in this field has justified two issues: the volume you are reading, covering elements of cinema distribution, and a forthcoming issue with its eye on exhibition. More on the rationale for these choices later. For Film Studies to shift its emphasis towards wider histories of one sort or another is, to my mind, no bad thing. So many attempts to squeeze screen product into monolithic theory seem to ignore simple, practical considerations. Sometimes the decisions made by directors are based less on their love for their mothers and more on the fact that the budget ran out, or that a choice location was too expensive. In his 1933 biography of William Fox, Upton Sinclair offers this insight: