For over a century a vicious business war has been waged in Hollywood between studios and exhibitors. At stake, shares in what has now become a multi-billion-dollar business. This is the untold story of the contraction of the release cycle, of the maximizing of the marketing dollar, and of the democratization of consumer access, until these days instant wide release worldwide is taken for granted.

Conflicts among Hollywood studios and exhibitors have been going on for years. At their heart are questions about how films should be released--where, when and at what speed. Both sides of this disagreement are losers, with exhibitors using the law via various Consent Decrees and studios retaliating by tightly controlling output. In the Silent Era, movies were not released nearly as widely as they are now. This book tells the story of how the few became the many. It explores the contraction of the release cycle, the maximization of the marketing dollar, and the democratization of consumer access. It also offers a comprehensive list of wide releases and rebuts much of what previous scholars have found.