Exhibition

Abstract

Exhibition completes the production process and brings the film to an audience. Theater owners have long been in the business of directly dealing with the intricacies of trade agreements and market fluctuations. The story of exhibition in Latin America reveals a number of tensions central to the story of capitalism and the culture industry. This chapter examines changes due to market liberalization and privatization, where states cease to regulate ticket prices or run state theaters, which seem to signal the success of global capital in controlling the film experiences of Latin Americans. Certainly the rise of foreign-owned multiplexes drawing middle class spectators on their way to and from shopping seems to signal the end of the era of political potential for Latin American films. And yet, that conclusion would be too narrow. While it is true that we can note major forms of foreign control of film exhibition, there is another side to the story—one that proves the ongoing ambivalence inherent in millennial globalization.