The name is absent

Appendix 2: Correlating success at the UK box office

I have correlated the annual awards of the fan magazine
Pictureqoer, three of the most consistent categories in the
British trade journal Kinematoqraph Weekly, and two of the
categories attending specifically to the British box office in
the American Motion Picture Almanac (Appendix 2.2). All these
three sources give annual accounts of the industry in terms of
film titles and stars' names, sometimes, though not always,
linked. Since the perception of popularity was closely
associated with named stars I have taken assessments of stars^,
popularity into account. Given this material there were twelve
different ways of calculating the relative popularity of films
at the UK box office in each year. I tested these methods on one
year (1954; see appendix 3.1), selecting a method which excludes
all American listings except those of MPH concerned with the UK
box office, excludes all critics' evaluations and awards, but
takes account of the popularity of named stars at the UK box
office. I applied a numerical calculation to each of the years
from 1945-65 which yielded a small group of markedly more popular
films for each year (Appendix 2.3: Scoring procedure). Finally
I selected a group of six films from each of three points in the
period, 45-46, 55-56, 63-65, from amongst the group of those
which appear by my calculations to have been the most popular.
This final selection was determined partly by availability,
partly by my wish to achieve as much generic variety as possible
in my sample group of eighteen films. The list of films from
amongst which my selection was made is given in Appendix 2.5.

This appendix is organised as follows:

2.1:      UK and US Awards 1945-1965.

2.2:      Picturegoer, Kinematograph Weekly, Motion

Picture Almanac annual award categories.

2.3:      Scoring method used to generate sample.

2.4:      Citations of film titles and star names

1945-1965.

2.5:      Films most popular at the British box

office 1945-1965.

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