Measuring and Interpreting Film Preferences in Autocratic States

The success of films can be measured by the number of tickets sold, regardless of the form of government and economy, and can be interpreted as an expression of the preferences of cinema-goers. To this end, several autocratic states are compared with democratic ones. If cinema attendance is based on personal choice and films are shown in response to a threshold level of demand, we can measure audience preferences by determining the success of a film by the number of tickets sold. To determine the number of tickets sold, one can rely on traditional data or collect such data retrospectively with POPSTAT if traditional audience figures are not available. The utilisation index is a powerful tool for interpreting audience preference patterns and comparing them between audiences in different countries.