Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Contributors
Contents
Preface: A Time of Illusion
A Note on Box-Office Revenues
A Note on Aspect Ratios

1 Introduction: A Decade of Change
2 Formative Industry Trends, 1970--1979
3 Manufacturing the Blockbuster:
The "Newest Art Form of the Twentieth Century"
4 The Auteur Cinema: Directors and Directions
in the "Hollywood Renaissance"
5 Genres 1: Revision, Transformation, and Revival
6 Genres II: Exploitation and Allusion
7 Orders of Magnitude I: Majors, Mini-Majors,
"Instant Majors," and Independents
8 Orders of Magnitude II: Costs, Agents, Stars
9 Technological Innovation and Aesthetic Response
10 Motion Picture Exhibition in 1970s America
Douglas Gornery
11 Looking Back and Turning Inward:
American Documentary Films of the Seventies
William Rothman
12 Avant-Garde Cinema of the Seventies
Robin Blaetz

Avant-Garde Cinema Filmography
Appendixes:
APPENDIX 1 ANNUAL U.S. BOX OFFICE RECEIPTS, 1970-1979
APPENDIX 2 AVERAGE WEEKLY ATTENDANCE, 1970-1980
APPENDIX 3 INFLATION 1970-1g8o, ACCORDING TO "CONSUMER PRICE INDEX"
FIGURES COMPILED BY THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMEHCE
APPENDIX 4 AVERAGE TICKET PRICE IN THE U.S. EACH YEAR, 1970-1980
APPENDIX 5 NUMBER OF MOVIE THEATERS IN THE U.S., 1970-1980
APPENDIX 6 MAJOR COMPANY SHARE OF NEW RELEASES HANDLED BY
NATIONAL DISTRIBUTORS, 1970-1980
APPENDIX 7 MARKET DOMINATION BY SIX LEADING DISTRIBUTORS OF
THEATRICAL FILMS, 1977 AND 1980
APPENDIX 8 MARKETING EXPENSES FOR MAJOR RELEASES, 1970-1980
APPENDIX 9 MAJOR STUDIO REVENUES AND AFTER-TAX PROFITS, 1970-1980
APPENDIX 10 LATE SIXTIES FLOPS
APPENDIX 11 HIT MOVIES OF THE 1968-1969 SEASON
APPENDIX 12 TOP TwENTY RENTAL FILMS, 1970-1980
APPENDIX 13 NORTH AMERICAN RENTALS IN EXCESS OF $22.25
MILLION, 1970-1980
APPENDIX 14 MAJOR ACADEMY AWARDS, 1970-1980

Notes
Bibliography
Picture Sources
General Index
Index of Films

About the Author

David A. Cook is Founding Director of the Film Studies program at Emory University, where he is Professor of Film. He is the author of A History of Narrative Film (1996) and the "Motion Picture History" entry in the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Reviews

"A book of impressive research which eschews vague impressions for a rigorous look at industry documents and publications, among other sources of information.... The breakthrough in Cook's study comes primarily from the ways he figures the interrelation of the two key developments in 1970s American film around auteurism and industry reconsolidation."-Dana Polan, Film Quarterly "David Cook's Lost Illusions is an excellent account of Hollywood in the 1970s-a decade of social upheaval around the world and major transformation in the U.S. movie industry.... His book overflows with useful data, and his lucid account of mainstream entertainment is nicely supplemented by the special chapters by other scholars: Douglas Gomery on exhibition, William Rothman on documentaries, and Robin Blaetz on the avant-garde."-James O. Naremore, author of More than Night: Film Noir in Its Contexts