no longer the case. In the 1950s and into the 1960s, producers discovered television and the fact that they could sell their old films to television and make money from an entirely new market. Theatrical distribution was still the primary source of revenue, with television seen as an ancillary market that could produce added revenues. Indeed, some producers found that they could use television to create their film by selling the television rights in order to raise the money to make the film in the first place. This method is still used with reference to cable outlets that may put money into theatrical production in order to have pictures for showing on cable at a later date. Cable indeed became the next major market after broadcast television beginning in the 1970s. Then came home video, which pushed ahead to become probably the primary supplementary market and, in time, the tail that wagged the dog.
This is because a lot of theatrical distribution and marketing today is geared less to making money in theaters--though that is always a goal and a hope--and more to making money later in home video. Over the last decade, the window between the time when a film is shown in theaters and the time when it appears on video has closed, making the lag time shorter and shorter. This has distressed exhibitors, who feel they are being used to advertise home videos while their own concerns are ignored. This trend hurt the neighborhood theaters first, theaters which were already encountering problems in an era of reduced audience size, parking problems, high rents, decaying inner city neighborhoods, and so one. Most of the nation's neighborhood theaters have gone from first run to second run because they have been pressured to change by the success of the multi screen national chains which have moved into suburban regions and which have attracted more audience. While there are no statistics available, it is believed by many that the num...