STEPHEN GROENING

Film in Air: Airspace, In-Flight Entertainment, and Nontheatrical Distribution

n 21 May 1932 Los Angeles radio station over the dispersal of cultural content across new spatial KHJ transmitted a segment of a motion categories—the airspace above the world stage. picture as a television signal for five min- The introduction of new screen technologies, such as utes to a Western Air Express transport seatback screens on airplanes, has allowed Hollywood to plane nearly ten miles away The experiment was part of multiply its exhibition sites and circulate its product into a proposed plan to transmit weather information to planes places and spaces it could not previously access. Film's using the emergent technology of television. In this early standing as an essential part of contemporary culture application of in-flight screened entertainment, the visual depends on the abuity of film exhibition technologies to communication technology was intended to further the transform places into movie theaters (or approximations efficiency of transportation technologies. Without ac- thereof). Furthermore, the introduction of these new curate weather reports, goods (including human labor) exhibition technologies opens up additional sources for could not be delivered safely and in a timely manner. the fikn industry's revenue stream. In-flight entertainment However, if the experiment was simply to be used as a exemplifies the film industry's intent to create and reach weather information system, it is unclear why Western audiences rather than waiting for audiences to find the Air Express and KHJ broadcast a feature-length film to industry's product. The film industry uses these new ex- test the technology. This convergence of entertainment hibition spaces (fk)m which persons often find themselves and aviation technologies was a telling indication of a unable to exit) to promote, market, and sell product. Film growing alliance between Hollywood and commercial is thus no longer part of a menu of entertainment and air . Although the film (starring Loretta Young) was leisure but a constant, sometimes distracting background. broadcast without sound, the engineers told reporters, On many airplanes films appear on screens unbidden, who constituted the majority of those on the plane, that ready to become the central focus of attention if a pas- it would require only a small adjustment to also transmit senger chooses to listen in via headphones. sound, pointing toward the possibility of entertainment Changes in the field of film studies indicate a growing applications.' concern and awareness of this multiplicity of new cin- The experiment demonstrated American technical ematic spaces: movies on television, films on computers, prowess within the ongoing modern project: to eliminate portable DVD players, seatback screens in minivans, and barriers of physical distance and lay claim to the new kinds handheld digital media players. From the millennium issue of spaces created by this project.The television signals were of the journal Screen to the adoption of the initial "M" received on a moving vehicle, occupying the relatively by the Society for Cinema Studies in 2002, the discipline new spatial category of "airspace" (a term barely twenty has increasingly recognized that moving image culture is years old). As the plane itself defied the normal rules of no longer locatable in the movie theater or on the silver territorial contiguity, flying over Los Angeles but not being screen. This can also be seen in the emergence of PhD in Los Angeles, the transnational communication apparatus programs, such as Moving Image Studies (Georgia State of Hollywood became seemingly ethereal. Hollywood, University) and Screen Cultures (Northwestern Uni- ever ready to take the spotlight for new advancements in versity), that by their very names proclaim "fdm" to be a entertainment, now^ took flight to ensure its dominance limited and perhaps obsolete demarcation of the presence

The Velvet Light Trap, Number 62, Fall 2008 ©2008 by the University ofTexas Press, RO. Box 7819, Austln,TX 78713-7819 Stepher) Groening of moving pictures in contemporary culture. Alongside the film Speed (Twentieth Century Fox, 1994), in which this effort to find motion pictures in myriad nontheatrical the does not crash into an airplane. Normally, content places (a kind of "ambient cinema," to paraphrase Anna editing is performed by the distribution companies, which McCarthy) is a turn toward "convergence culture" (to act as mediators between the studios and .This can borrow from Henry Jenkins), in which motion pictures require a degree of cooperation on the part of a film's are seen as but one choice in a menu of digital entertain- producers. For instance,James Ivory spent two hours with ment options, a single facet of a franchised and remediated the head of Jaguar Distribution, a distributor of in-flight property—or merely a piece of intellectual property that films, editing A Room with a View (Merchant Ivory, 1985) converges vÁth other cultural commodities in a single piece for airplane exhibition (Nichols). of technology. Add to that numerous claims regarding the But those inside Hollywood did not always hold in- "end of cinema," the death of celluloid, and the downfall flight movies in such high regard. In 1965, when regu- of the movie theater, and it becomes an understatement larly scheduled in-flight films were in their infancy, Mark to say there is an ongoing debate over the definition of Robson, the director of Von Ryan's Express (Twentieth cinema, the places it occupies, and the spaces it creates. Century Fox, 1965), saw his film on an airplane on a black- In-flight entertainment constitutes an apt case study for and-white video system in 4:3 ratio instead of in DeLuxe exploring the issues—screens, convergence, remediation, Color in 2.35:1 ratio. He complained that the bad word and the end of cinema—that inform these debates. The of mouth from seeing films reformatted so inadequately practices of in-flight entertainment give rise to useful and would lead to depressed box-office sales. Robson suggested productive understandings of trends in media technologies that studios "hold back new pix from airlines until played and provide a convenient snapshot of reconfigured spatial off in key money-making dates" ("Mark Robson").^ Es- relations brought about by networks of rapid commu- sentially, Robson outlined a plan to delay the in-flight nication and rapid transportation technologies. In-flight exhibition until after the theatrical release, arranging the entertainment offers insight into the globalization of media release schedule of films by venue and format. products. It constitutes yet another venue for film culture, The division of a film's release schedule into discrete exemplifying the fashion in which film finds an audi- units creates a range of revenue sources for the film indus- ence (rather than the other way around). In addition, the try, known as exhibition windows. Traditionally, the first seatback of an economy-class seat is rapidly becoming the window is the theatrical exhibition window. The second, cutting-edge site of media convergence. In what follows known as the nontheatrical exhibition window, can be I focus on the passenger airplane as a revenue generator divided into television transmission and home rental or for the film industry and how in-flight films are crucial even further still into pay per view, satellite, cable, major to Hollywood's status as the icon of the film industry and broadcast networks, and specialty cable channels."* For the global film culture. I argue that distribution and exhibition members of the MPAA, revenue is increasingly generated practices—not simply content—are key to contemporary in the domestic sphere rather than in theaters.^ In 2003 media culture. Disney, Paramount, Sony,Twentieth Century Fox,Warner Currently, for members of the Motion Picture Associa- Bros., and Universal actually lost money in the theatrical tion of America (MPAA), the revenue generated from in- category. With DVD sales the studios retain almost two- flight films reaches nearly $200 million annually (Sharkey). thirds of the revenue as profit and retain almost 90 percent The payoff in cultural cachet is not as easily measured. with television deals. Because of this disparity in profit share Former MPAA president JackValenti has commented that across platforms, for the fdni studios the theatrical release is "widening the audience for a film through the increased an investment in publicity to serve as a foundation for the attendance that is on airplanes, that's growing rapidly, is far more lucrative markets in the nontheatrical window.' very good for our industry" (Wu). One indicator of the value placed on in-flight exhibition is the willingness to A New Space for Nontheatrical Exhibition conform to the content guidelines set up by the World Entertainment Association.^ Some studios view the From this brief sketch it becomes clear how introducing in-flight window as important enough to warrant shooting new screen technologies is key to the generation of revenue separate scenes for films, such as an alternate ending for for the film industry. Existing material can be reformatted Film in Air and resold to different delivery systems (movie theaters, entertainment. Transcontinental and transoceanic long- television, home video) and thus more exhibition windows. haul flights have a duration that allows for the exhibition More exhibition panes decrease fmancial risk while further of feature-length films, and in-flight entertainment is spreading moving images into our built environment.This considered standard on these routes. Hollywood's distri- has a snowball effect: the more we use electronic media, bution practices thus take advantage of the stature and the more pervasive their deployment; the more we depend international network of in-flight entertairmaent. In-flight on electronic media, the more intrusive they become. By entertainment is one of the film industry's methods for relying on the reformatting of previously produced mate- creating market awareness by advertising product to a seg- rial, the film industry has found a way to rerun and spin ment of the population with disproportionate purchasing off movie and television properties at Httle cost, whue con- power and cultural influence. In addition, the passenger sumer electronic corporations foot the bill for researching cabin provides an audience for films that they might oth- methods of distributing this newly formatted material. In erwise not acquire: passengers may choose to see films in the case of in-flight entertainment, of the $2 billion spent a plane they would not pay to see in a theater or rent for annually by the airline industry, over two-thirds is spent on domestic consumption. the display technology to show the reformatted content The trend toward media convergence has turned the produced by the film industry (Guha). Current changes passenger cabins of major international commercial airlin- in in-flight entertainment systems, including video on ers into mobile media centers.^ The seats, particularly in demand and Uve television, mean that planes are no longer first-class cabins, enable passengers to pursue screen-based simply transportation vessels; they are flying multiplexes. entertainments without interference from their neighbors. In order for the film industry to realize these new fi- Indeed, one seat can be a mobue business office and the nancial opportunities, previously produced filmic products one next door a chud's gaming room, while across the must be repurposed into digitized material, and noncin- aisle a teenager watches music videos and gets fashion ematic spaces must be repurposed into exhibition sites. tips. The preponderance of personal media technologies Nontheatrical exhibition is key to Hollywood's growth and has succeeded in atomizing private space so that each seat ubiquity.The nontheatrical departments of film studios are on the airplane becomes a media apparatus isolated from charged with seUing product for in-flight venues (as well other seats, even as the electronic media connect airplane as cruise ships, military bases, prisons, and other specialty passengers to a mediasphere supplied and administered by venues) .The in-flight film pane typically falls three months commercial interests. after the theatrical release but before the DVD release. In In-flight entertainment as we currently experience the year following 11 September 2001 airlines cut spending it is rooted in Hollywood's strategic responses to the as- on in-flight movies by nearly a quarter and programmed cendancy of domestic television. Television's ascendancy films that were already available on DVD (and, in some in the United States began soon after the end of World cases, on television). The library films were programmed War II. In 1946 television broadcasts reached only 0.02 even though studios cut their new release rental prices for percent of households in the United States. By 1955 it was in-flight exhibition in 2002.^ The studios, however, rarely 65 percent; by 1961, 89 percent (Murray 35-36; Spigel deal directly with the airlines. Instead, they release around 32). The rise of the domestic television set is generally twenty-five films a month to distributors such as Pace assumed to be a major contributing factor to the decline Communications and Jaguar Distribution, which broker of box-office revenue for theatrically released films in deals between the production companies and the airlines. the United States. The threat of television forced several These distributors also negotiate the deals between airlines reorganization strategies in Hollywood. After World War and television networks (Gräser; Glader; Guha). II the film industry pursued audiences in domestic and Through in-flight entertainment airspace has become a other nontheatrical spaces, sometimes through alliances new space through which Hollywood films and American with television networks (Balio; Anderson). culture now flow.Th e use of airplanes as nontheatrical ex- One unexamined consequence of this competition with hibition sites furthers the diffusion of Hollywood practices television is the in-flight movie. While films on airplanes into a greater number of places.This strategy has effectively have appeared sporadically since the 1920s, the first con- transformed airspace into a new space of moving picture tinuous and regular in-flight film programming began in Stepheti Groenir)g

1961. This idea of regular in-flight film programming is the physical landscape miles below whue also replacing credited to a Memphis, Tennessee, film exhibitor named the unseen landscape of the flight's destination, creating a David Flexer, who blamed television for the decline in at- kind of window into the passenger's potential future. The tendance at his theaters and his subsequent loss of revenue. success of these fdms depends on the audience's ability to Flexer decided to go after audiences where they were project themselves into the scenery, sights, and places in rather than waiting for audiences to come to his theaters. the film. He realized he could take advantage of the fact that travelers Currently, these travel promotion programs are part of could not leave a plane in midflight and so sought to bring synergistic marketing strategies. These travel guides are films to this captive audience. Flexer started taking his idea important to the tourism business of the cities featured. to airline companies in 1958. Only Trans World Airlines The Denver Post declared that ' Three (TWA) was interested enough to let him use their planes Perfect Days series "lifts Denver's image" and signifies to perform an equipment test in front of their executives. that Denver is on the Hst of "24 world-class cities." The In May 1961 Lockheed Aircraft Services signed a contract in-flight travel film aligns the financial interests of airlines, with InFlight for exclusive manufacture of the projection the fikn industry, and tourist industries of the networked systems. The first of these systems, which projected a 16 cities. For the passengers, even as they are isolated from the mm film on a single screen in the first-class cabin and landscape and sights, these promotional travel programs, required headsets to offset the airplane noise, was installed which each passenger watches on an individual screen, at- into TWA planes.ByJuly 1961 TWA had commenced the tempt to connect passengers to the world outside the plane. first regularly scheduled in-flight movie.' United Airlines commissions these travel guides, paying Part of the reason forTWA's willingness to experiment independent production companies to film destinations was that the airline industry was in the midst of a financial in its network of routes. crisis; in 1961 U.S. domestic airlines lost $13.5 million. In another attempt to "sell" a nodal city, in July 2003 Flexer s system did improve the situation for some airlines: United Airlines seized upon an opportunity for cross- a month after installing the system on United Airlines' promotion and featured Miramax's fdm Chicago in-flight. flights to Hawaii the company's passenger share went up The city of Chicago is one of United Airhnes' hubs and 20 percent. The fdm system was particularly lucrative for was the subject of their in-flight magazine's extensive Flexer and InFlight: that first year TWA spent $2 million to cover story that month. In addition to the feature film, a lease InFlight's equipment ($13.3 million in 2007 dollars). behind-the-scenes documentary was also screened, and The estimated profit for distributors from in-flight movies the film was the subject of articles in the magazine. This in 1965 was $2.5 million. By 1970 it was more than twice program was screened on every United Airlines flight in the United States during that month.Thus, Chicago was The in-flight movie was quickly adapted for the speci- transformed from merely the midpoint in a journey—a ficity of airlines' needs and moved beyond just sticking any space of waiting—into an exciting and glamorous hot reel of film or 8 mm cassette into a projector. By the end spot. of the 1960sTWA ran magazine advertisements, declaring, Some early in-flight movie systems tried to create a "TWA will show you all around Hawaii three hours before direct replacement for the landscape. In 1964 American you get there." TWA realized that they could advertise Airlines bought an in-flight projection system from Sony Hawaii as a destination on the long-haul tourist flights called Astrovision.This system, rather than the single large to Hawaii using in-flight film technology. These pretour screen used by TWA, featured several smaller monitors "tours," currently referred to as destination guides, have throughout the cabin. Initially, the video system displayed become ubiquitous.They have the advantage of providing only in black and white. The system could also receive an additional revenue stream for the airlines by promoting television signals, and broadcast the 1964 its partners in the tourist industry (which often belong to World Series on select flights." Astrovision also included the same "rewards" or frequent flyer programs), and, by a camera mounted on the nose of the plane so that pas- filling the films with potential sights, they make sure that sengers could witness take-offs and landings via a closed some passengers will want to visit again and again. In this circuit video system.'^ This system managed to both call way in-flight entertainment distracts the passenger from passengers' attention to the fact of flight as well as distract 8 Film in Air from it.The thrill of witnessing taking offand landing from it necessary to follow suit (Wilson). As one industry expert an optical perspective close to that of the pilots helped turn pointed out at the time, to install personal viewing screens the most dangerous (and therefore exciting) part of pas- in economy-class seats would mean putting $1,500 worth senger into a contained piece of entertainment, of equipment in a $1,400 seat, "which means the seat es- a thrill to witness. Astrovision presented what amounted sentially becomes a video rack."'^ to a point-of-view shot from the optical standpoint of the While manufacturers were w^üling to share installation pilot and thus encouraged a kind of disembodied gaze for costs with the airlines, this media systems race meant that the passengers akin to "ride films" of amusement parks and the airlines were investing nearly $300 miUion annually to fairgrounds.These on-screen moments of flight, presented stay competitive in the 1990s. Some of these costs could as safely contained on the screen, distracted passengers from be recouped through fees and increased ticket prices. the real danger they faced.'•' The industry concluded that the necessary revenue could come from advertising to the captive audience. This led In-Flight Media Convergence more airlines to install video-based shopping systems and to include advertisements as part of the video lineup. The The Boeing Company reaUzed that the race to install in- inclusion of advertising in the video lineup stalled for U.S. flight movie systems in airplanes provided an opportunity carriers in the late 1990s, even though carriers included for a new Une of aircraft designed specifically with in-flight ads in their in-flight magazines, passes, ticket entertainment systems in mind. Rather than retrofitting jackets, and other print media. During the downturn in air previously built aircraft, Boeing began to design passenger travel following 11 September 2001 airlines resumed the planes as movie theaters. Introduced in 1970, the Boeing inclusion of advertisements. Airhnes began to incorporate 747 was the first plane to be designed with provisions sponsors for their video lineups and include promotional for an entertainment system already in place. From the films for hotels and resorts. More recently, the low-cost start, Boeing designed the 747 as a flying multiplex and airline experimented with no-charge transport, entertainment center. Boeing allowed for three different offsetting costs with advertising throughout the cabin and types of entertainment systems to be installed in the jumbo pay-per-view entertainment systems.'^ jet: a large-screen direct-projection system (like InFlight's Most major airlines now carry a range of choices geared system), a continuous-reel system with multiple projec- for children and adults. Even in cabins without a choice tion viewers, and television sets suspended above the seats. of video channels the programming offers a variety of This flexibility allowed multiple airlines to purchase the genres. After the safety announcement the television pro- 747 without having to renegotiate with their entertain- grams are usually travel and tourism themed, assumed to ment system suppliers or to design new systems ("There's be appropriate for all audiences. In cabins with channel Nothing") .The 747 was also equipped with a second-story selection, such as economy seats on , the cabin that was often turned into an entertainment lounge. in-fhght entertainment could include a choice of films, American Airhnes installed piano bars in some of its 747s, comedy channels running sitcoms, a travel channel, a and Frank Sinatra,Jr.,played on the inaugural coast-to-coast cartoon channel, and a sports channel, all meant to appeal flight (Serling). In 1979 Boeing reconvened its customers to a heterogeneous audience. for a presentation of a new video system installed in the The mixture of short programming with long program- 747 that included video projectors and mounted television ming also allows passengers to pick and choose when they sets. Programming included television shows, films, and, in might engage in those aforementioned travel games, read a some cases, video games such as Pac-Man.'"* book, or nap. The typical first-class airline seat on a trans- By the early 1990s the emphasis for commercial car- oceanic flight offers multiple film options, video games, riers was on offering an array of in-flight entertaimnent video shopping, television programming, Internet access, choices, including phone service, multiple video and audio power for a laptop, multiple audio options, and satellite channels, and personal viewing screens.This period of in- phone and fax services.The seatback system for Singapore air media convergence was the result of what amounted Airlines offers twenty-five films, twelve television channels, to a media systems race. Once one major international interactive video games, and music in addition to being a airHne installed a system in its airplanes, other airlines felt full-fledged computer that can run business applications Stephen Groening such as word processing and spreadsheet programs. Boeing demonstrates how the commercial air travel business has has boasted that the software required to run its current become as much an entertainment venture as a transporta- in-flight entertainment system is more complex than the tion industry. software required to fly the plane. In-flight entertainment The introduction of regular and continuous live tele- systems can culminate in an additional four miles of wiring vision in the passenger cabin has generated an enormous to the plane and a substantial amount of weight, Hmiting amount of publicity for JetBlue. Other low-cost airlines fuel efficiency and augmenting cost per flight for the air- have found the outlay for in-flight entertainment to be lines (StoUer) .The fact that airlines continue to install these prohibitive. Delta's Song airline, for instance, created to systems in their planes despite the accompanying financial directly compete with JetBlue by offering an array of burden is a powerfijl demonstration of social expectations in-flight entertainment, folded after less than two years that moving images can and perhaps should be anywhere of operation. Southwest AirHnes, on the other hand, does and everywhere. not offer in-flight entertainment, preferring to keep costs In February 2000 JetBlue began offering live (real-time) down. In-flight entertainment would not have been fea- television in its passenger cabins.The programming, fi-om sible at all for regional carriers without the introduction a sateUite television service named LiveTV, includes sports of television programming. Short-haul flights, which channels, travel and weather channels, and financial news constitute the majority of routes for regional airlines, do channels. In 2002 JetBlue purchased LiveTV, making it not have a viable duration for feature-length films. the first U.S. carrier to own a media distribution company. provides a useful counterexample. For This reversal of the standard financial arrangement between reasons of geography, the majority of Singapore Airlines' firms complicates the relationships between airlines and routes are long-haul international flights.The direct flight the film industry and affects interairline relations as well. from Singapore to Newark is possibly the longest nonstop also uses the LiveTV service on its flights passenger jet flight, lasting a total of eighteen hours. The and now pays another airline for in-flight entertainment. scale of Singapore Airlines' network of flights means that JetBlue's strategy means that it can offset the cost of in- in-flight entertainment is a high priority. Singapore Airlines flight entertainment system hardware by wholly owning believes its in-flight entertainment to be a key factor in the distributor that supplies the content, effectively cutting customer choice and loyalty. As one industry analyst put it, in-flight entertainment costs by 25 percent. "Ifyou are going to fly a 12-hour flight to Singapore, all Even though this arrangement could be construed as an other things being equal, you will probably fly with the one example of vertical integration, it remains puzzling as to providing [a choice of| 50 movies" (Guha).Entertainment why other airlines have not purchased in-flight entertain- is an essential and integral part of these air transportation ment distribution companies. Many of these companies networks. Making sure entertainment flows between global have diversified into providing content to other nonthe- cities is of paramount importance for the commercial air atrical venues, but airplanes remain a primary part of their industry. The fashion in which these cides are networked business. Airlines, on the other hand, have long recognized via air routes affects airlines' decision to install new in-fught that in-flight entertainment systems will never pay for entertainment systems, the nature of those systems, and the themselves and prefer to think of in-flight entertainment array of choices they offer. as a loss leader that builds brand loyalty. Whether or not such customer loyalty actually exists has been the subject The Space of Flows, In-Flight Movies, and of debate in trade pubhcations such as Airline Business, Cultural Globalization Interavia Aerospace Review, and Air Transport World as well as mainstream business publications such as the FinandalTimes Combining rapid jet travel with viewing motion pictures and the Wall Street Journal." Mark Smith, the director of exemplifies a new spatial mode, dubbed the "space of flows" in-flight entertainment for American Airhnes, succinctly by Manuel Castells,in which networks of communication summarized this ambiguous position for airlines: "Our and transportation take precedence over the territories research indicates that passengers don't make air-travel they connect. This network has reconfigured the space choices based on entertainment options, but we know of places (the destinations that tourism transforms into we have to be competitive" (Day). The JetBlue example commodities) into the space of flows.'^The space of flows 10 Film in Air is made of nodes and hubs and contains the communica- Air travel does not make geography irrelevant; instead, tion, transportation, and information networks. Airspace, it emphasizes geography in new and changing ways. Air- the spatial category necessary to air travel, constitutes an planes traverse space and create airspace, a new form of important part of the space of flows.The passenger jet, by space that the film industry seeks to exploit.^'' The scale transporting cultural commodities and forms of labor, is a and scope ofjet travel mean these mobile exhibition spaces high-speed vehicle that moves through the channels of air almost always traverse national borders. National borders routes to network the nodal cities of the global economy. are not unimportant, but the fashion in which national Air routes tend to exemplify these standardized networks. borders are overcome, negotiated, and transgressed is sig- It is through this dominant spatial configuration that in- nificant. Indeed, it is doubtful that the travel industry wants flight films travel.Thus, the place of the passenger jet cabin to do away with national borders.Tourism's most valuable becomes a space of information flow Each flight transports commodity is, after all, the exotic, which requires some labor (in the form of business representatives or tourists), sort of barrier, real or imagined, to be overcome.The space goods, services, and culture along a network of air routes conquered by networked connections between global cit- between densely populated urban areas or global cities. ies is technologically underdeveloped and less financially The exhibition of motion pictures takes place along the productive territory than the global cities themselves.Thus, same routes as their distribution; the space of flows enables transportation and communication networks themselves cultural transmission as much as financial transactions. create spaces of inequality by designating certain places as The passenger jet is important because it is a status destinations and endpoints, while others are merely tran- symbol: even though more goods are transported by ship sitory. Therefore, control of distribution takes precedence and railway, the possession of a robust network of air routes over control of content in the generation of profit. In ad- marks the ascendance of an urban region from a node to a dition, the film industry utilizes transportation networks as hub in the global system. David Keeling has argued that "air exhibition spaces as ^veIl as conduits for product transmis- transport is the preferred mode of inter-city movement for sion. the transnational capitalist class, migrants, tourists, and high- Thus, networks such as aviation routes reconfigure value, low-bulk goods; and airline links are an important global space so as to bind one urban area to another, ignor- component of a city's aspirations to world city status" (118). ing the intervening territory. In this fashion, in-flight en- He introduces vivid, concrete examples of airline trans- tertainment may eschew landscapes and compel passengers portation as the key to a city's future. For instance, in the to ignore the "space of places" in favor of feature-length early 1990s city officials of Pordand, Oregon, believed that films. For the jet traveler the spatial relationship between nonstop flight service to London or Frankfurt was vital to New York and Los Angeles is not three thousand miles but the continued growth of their economy, while "Nashville a safety announcement, two movies, snack service, and a officials [touted] the city's recent successful bid for a non- promotional travelogue. This furthers the perception of stop flight to London as a direct pipeline into the world global dominance by Hollywood: for the majority of the economy" (Keeling 119). By 2005 the Nashville chamber world's wealthy, traveling internationally means jet travel, of commerce claimed that, because of the 's status which in turn means spending time with a selection of as a hub, "we've actually had more success in recruiting films financed and/or produced in the United States. [corporate] headquarters in the last two years than probably Through their ubiquity in the space of flows, in the net- in the history of the city" (Priesmeyer). Evidently, inclusion works between global cities, moving pictures increasingly in the air transport network is vital to urban economies, constitute the experience of travel. This may lead to the and the differences between number and type of routes impression of cultural homogenization, the feared conse- reaching a particular area are perceived as having a direct quence of cultural globalization. effect on a city's status in the global capitalist economy.'^ Cultural globalization develops from and enables finan- Likewise, as previously noted, the inclusion of a film in cial and economic globalization. The logics of free trade the lineup of entertainment choices on these international and copyright law, coupled with the collapse of the New flights, whose passengers have a disproportionate amount World Information and Communication Order, have led to of social and cultural capital, comprises an important form increased global traffic in cultural goods and communica- of publicity for the film industry. tion technologies. Mass culture manages to both accentuate Stephen Groening II and erase difference. The global capitalist system sells in which every space and place is equally acceptable. In whatever people are willing to buy, whether Hollywood order to continue its economic and cultural domination, action films, Bollywood musicals, or kung fu classics.This the film industry needs to continually produce new spaces requires networks of centripetal flows of profits and cen- for exhibition and exploit new networks of distribution. trifugal flows of goods, often centered at global cities such As the case of in-flight entertainment demonstrates, the as Hong Kong, London, Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles, content and quality of films are secondary considerations. and New Delhi. Such networks require the technologi- Nontheatrical exhibition spaces continue to be an im- cal potentials of rapid communication and transportation portant destination for theatrically released films. Because systems to compress space and time.The financial burden nontheatrical exhibition occurs after theatrical release, it of creating these networks is so great that only a handful would appear to be a secondary consideration for the film of conglomerates (with the assistance of governmental industry. However, since nontheatrical exhibition enables subsidies) can afford to create and maintain them. Thus, ubiquity, it is actually the primary interest for the film it is maintaining and accessing distribution networks and industry's continued growth. not producing films that is of paramount importance.^' Brought about by economic pressures in a changing In-flight entertainment turns the distribution network media and air travel industry, in-flight entertainment marks into an exhibition venue, generating additional revenue a lasting partnership between the from the space of flows by taking advantage of the new industry and a film industry dominated by Hollywood. spatial configuration necessary for maintenance of the Initially, airlines assumed that in-flight films would serve to global economy. pacify and occupy passengers. But the airlines' commitment to the technology has deepened to the point that, starting Conclusion with the , planes have been designed as movie theaters, and the software used to exhibit in-flight films Distribution is the key to ancillary markets such as home can be more complex than the software used to fly the viewing and other nontheatrical spaces, including airplanes. plane. Billions are spent each year by airlines on in-flight The increasing control of a few distribution companies entertainment, despite falling revenues and bankruptcies. over the ever-expanding range of media products, originat- Air travel created an entirely new spatial category, airspace, ing in some fashion from Hollywood, is crucial to the film for the industry to use as part of the project to create and industry's survival and growth, even as it provides presumed reach new audiences. The in-flight movie exemplifies evidence of Americanization or a "Global Hollywood." In the film industry's efforts to open even more exhibition other words, managing the channels of distribution and windows, pardy in response to the rise of television. the flows of media takes precedence over the content of The revenues generated from this window may be those forms. For the film industry the scale of distribution small in comparison to network television deals or DVD determines the scale and content of production. releases, but the market awareness and publicity generated The instruments of mass culture, be they cinema, by screening films to a small, elite segment of the popu- television, or other communication technologies, have lation before these films reach the home rental or cable initiated new ways of dividing and connecting the world. television windows are incalculable. For the airlines, the For Hollywood to continue controlling key financial and benefits of in-flight entertainment are less clear.The ability distribution hubs, international law must continue to cre- of these systems to create customer loyalty is the subject ate spaces of inequality. Likewise, the travel industry needs of debate within the travel industry.The seatback in-flight political and geographic barriers to create a sense of the entertainment technologies often cost more than the seat exotic and strange, which can then be accessed by a privi- itself, and the installation of these systems adds enormous leged few through the use of travel services. An analysis of weight to the airplane and brings with it the potential for in-flight entertainment demonstrates that the extraction electrical fires. of surplus value necessitates regions of underdevelopment, Even the ability of films to pacify passengers is ques- overdevelopment, and the reconfiguration of space to suit tionable, given the recent surge in incidents of the imperatives of new economic and cultural orders rather (Carey; Haslam).The fact that airlines continue to install than a radically egalitarian (or "flat") globalized world and upgrade these systems in their planes despite these 12 Film in Air problems epitomizes the widespread and deeply felt social 7. Worldwide, airhnes cut spending on in-flight entertainment expectation that visual media should be a readily available about $500 million (Guha). 8. For a discussion of airplanes as the site of media convergence distraction.JetBlue's acquisition ofa distribution network see Freedman. seems the only logical cost-cutting (and potentially profit- 9. For accounts of this first see Friedlander, "Movies"; Serling; making) move for airlines committed to offering in-flight "Transport News: Movies in the Sky." entertainment. Given these social and financial pressures, it 10. For supporting figures see Archer; Friedlander, "Airlines"; appears likely that the transportation industry will continue Friedlander, "Movies"; Serhng;"T.W.A. 707 Fhghts." 11. The system cost American $52,000 per plane ($350,000 in to look more and more like an extension of the film in- 2007 dollars), and the airline paid $1 million ($6.6 million in 2007 dustry, raising the possibility of further exhibition windows dollars) for the rights to fifty-two films ("Coffee"). for füm and furthering the proliferation of screens. 12. For more on Astrovision see "Second Airline"; Serhng;"Trans- port News: In-Flight Movies." Govil reports that this practice was resumed for a time by Air New Zealand (245). For more on ride Notes films, IMAX, Hale's Tours, and immersion cinema see Rabinovitz. 13. In 1998 faulty wiring in the in-flight entertainment system of Research for this paper was conducted under the Graduate a Swissair McDonnell Douglas 11 was determined to be a contrib- Research Partnership Program and Harold Leonard Memorial Film uting factor to the crash of flight 111 ofï" the coast of Nova Scotia, Fellowship from the University of Minnesota. I am grateful to the which resulted in the deaths of 229 people. The crash prompted numerous people who have offered insight and commentary on the Swissair to shut off entertainment systems in its planes in the fall of numerous early drafts of this article: Andrea Christy, Zoe Druick, 1998 (Mathews).The in-flight entertainment system in question was Keya Ganguly, Ronald Greene, Eva Hudecova, Helga Lietner, Lindsey banned a year later (StoUer). Between 1998 and 2003 sixty incidents Simms, and Haidee Wasson. of malfunctioning in-flight entertainment systems, including fires and 1. For accounts of this event see "Movie Sent to Plane"; Serling. I smoking wiring, were reported to the Federal Aviation Administra- have been unable to ascertain which film was shown. Loretta Young tion, prompting safety concerns (Donegan). In-flight entertainment appeared in over a dozen films in 1931 and 1932.The NewYorkTimes systems may add more than four miles of extra wiring to an airplane, article remarks that the film was "one of her latest," which is indicative increasing the chances for electrical fires and system malfunctions of the status of this experiment as a publicity stunt but not precise (not to mention extra weight). enough to narrow the field of possibility. 14. "CurrentVisual Entertainment System Options 747 Standard 2. "Inflight Editing Standards:Varies somewhat by airHne and by Detail Specification (D6-33111 & D6-33191, Section 10)":"A com- region, but generally inflight editing standards (for main-screen exhibi- plete projection system, accommodating 8 mm BFE motion picture tion) are similar to, but more conservative than TV-editing standards. projectors shall be installed at four locations in the main cabin, zones No airline crash scenes or references to airline disasters; careful about A,B (SP Only), C,D and E (not on the 747SP).BFE projection units terrorism or references to terrorism; no nudity/sex scenes (U.S./Asia shall conform to the requirements of the 'basic passenger movie system more conservative than Europe); no profanity; no images of/references equipment interface requirements.' . . . Seller Furnished Equipment to other airKnes; no racist comments or denigrating references to (SFE): Projector structural and wiring provisions, Screen provisions. culture, religion, or nationality; careful about violence and bloodshed Projector electrical controls at attendant panels. Buyer Furnished (U.S./Asia less sensitive than Europe); carefiil about references to guns, Equipment (BFE): Movie projector. Screen.... 8 mm movie system: drug abuse, physical abuse. Most ideal inflight film genres: comedy, Upper deck. Zone B 747-100/200. 16 mm Movie system: Upper romantic-comedy, light adventure" (World Airline Entertainment Deck, Zone B, Center Beam Instl-standard screen. Center Beam Association). Instl-raised screen" ("Introduction"). 3. Thanks to Mark Frank and Haidee Wasson for bringing this 15. Marco Lanza, president of B/E Avionics, as quoted in Wilson. article to my attention. Given the description of the in-flight system 16. See accounts in"Flyingfor'Free'";Hozee,"What Revenues"; and the time period, it is Hkely that Robson saw his film on the "Inflight Shopping"; Paul; Pfanner; Seding. Astrovision system, described later in this article. 17. See, for instance. Cook; Gräser; Guha; Hozee,"ln-Flight En- 4. Some films skip windows. Films that have no theatrical release tertainment"; Hozee, "What Revenues"; Sharkey. are referred to as "straight to video"; many ofWalt Disney's sequels 18. According to Castells, the global information economy requires to animated children's films follow this pattern. Occasionally, a film networked homogeneity and standardized systems and regulations to wiU move in reverse, from nontheatrical to theatrical, such as The Last function properly. Castells demonstrates that the information economy Seduction (1995). carries with it a new spatial logic dominant over the traditional "space 5. Since 1985 the revenue from the theatrical window has repre- of places," a category corresponding to stationary physical locations sented a quarter or less of total revenues, while revenues from selling with distinctive traits.The space of places relies on territorial contigu- rights to free-to-view TV have exceeded box-office revenue. Since ity and nonnetworked heterogeneity. 1990 VHS/DVD sales (including rentals) have exceeded box-office 19.The development and maintenance of were seen as key revenue (Epstein). factors in the establishment of a new system of core and peripheral 6. In 2003 profit from free-to-view TV was roughly $10 billion; cities in Europe during the 1990s (Sutton). profit fk)m DVD/VHS sales and rental profit was $12 billion (Epstein; 20. The term airspace has its origins in the Paris International see also Litman). Conference of Air Navigation in 1910. See Butler. Stephen Groenit)g 13

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