This comprehensive introduction to the film industry focuses on three topics: how movies express meanings, how viewers understand those meanings, and how cinema functions globally as both an art and a business. This is the only introductory film text to examine the elements of film styleandthe viewer's contribution to the cinema experience. Includes case studies of prominent films, Sidebar material extends major topics of discussion and to profiles major directors, Coverage of new technologies and their impact on filmmaking. The contemporary film industry, the major studios, and the interplay between business and aesthetics well as blockbusters, new technologies, the film industry, and current box office trends. Anyone interested in film (movie buffs); anyone who wants to go into the film industry.