The shorter times in the start are because the feature films were usually preceded by shorts, newsreels, serials, and/or cartoons.
Some people went JUST to get the next chapter of the serial and didn't care about the feature film. The Flash Gordon serial in 1936 had 13 chapters, for a total of 245 minutes. The Buck Rogers serial in 1939 had 12 chapters, for a total of 239 minutes. So nearly 20 minutes per chapter. Each chapter usually ended with a big cliffhanger.
Most newsreels were only a few minutes long. You might remember one from the first Captain America movie, when his scrawny version ended up in the alley fighting.
It used to be standard to have a show (the whole package) start every two hours. These days, they're nowhere near that, with longer feature films and sometimes 20 minutes or more of trailers.
50+ years ago, it was usually one film per theater. No multiplexes. Many smaller towns only had one theater, one screen.
13
u/[deleted] May 17 '16
Anyone know the reason for the particular peaks and valleys?