Boxoffice Pro - April 2020

INDUSTRY A CENTURY IN EXHIBITION
Left: In an effort
to boost flagging
attendance, studios
of the 1950s began
catering to a previously
untapped audience:
teenagers. Enter
Elvis Presley and his
swinging hips.
Above: Moviegoers of
the 1950s loved Marilyn
Monroe. The decade
took her from a small
role in All About Eve
(1950) to playing Sugar
Kane Kowalczyk in Billy
Wilder’s Some Like It
Hot (1959).
A CENTURY
IN EXHIBITION
1950s: Turmoil, TV, and
Technological Innovation
BY VASSILIKI MALOUCHOU
2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of
Boxoffice Pro. Though the publication you hold in your
hands has had different owners, headquarters, and even
names—it was founded in Kansas City by 18-year-old Ben
Shlyen as The Reel Journal, then called Boxoffice in 1933
and, more recently, Boxoffice Pro—it has always remained
committed to theatrical exhibition.
From the 1920s to the 2020s, Boxoffice Pro has always
had one goal: to provide knowledge and insight to those
who bring movies to the public. Radio, TV, home video,
and streaming have all been perceived as threats to the
theatrical exhibition industry over the years, but movie
theaters are still here—and so are we.
We at Boxoffice Pro are devotees of the exhibition industry,
so we couldn’t resist the excuse of a centennial to explore
our archives. What we found was not just the story of a
magazine, but the story of an industry—the debates, the
innovations, the concerns, and above all the beloved
movies. We’ll share our findings in our year-long series,
A Century in Exhibition.
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April 2020