Few topics in American film history have generated more controversy than the question of who went to the movies during the crucial years that the cinema established itself as a national mass medium and the movies became one of the most enduring expressions of American culture. By 1910, millions of Americans were fervent moviegoers. How did these early audiences shape the history of American cinema? And how did the cinema shape their lives? In the opening decade of the 20th century, the United States was still a nation of immigrants. Were the movies a vehicle for diffusing Anglo-Protestant values and sensibilities, or did American film culture evolve as a counterpoint to middle-class leisure patterns and operate as an alternative public sphere? Did the cinema play a significant role in the Americanization of its immigrant patrons? And if so, in what ways? Since the 1970s, the issue of early cinema's social and cultural orientation has frequently appeared at the forefront of film historiography.

Many of the contributions to this ongoing debate have, like my own work, focused on New York City. Here, I will first explain why this has been the case and how previous accounts of the nickelodeon period have shaped our understanding of the relationship between early cinema and its audiences – workers and immigrants in particular. Second, I will discuss the main insights derived from so-called revisionist scholarship, which has challenged the traditional picture of pre-Hollywood cinema as primarily working-class entertainment, and demonstrated that the middle classes sought to appropriate and control cinema well before the American film industry began to accommodate this more affluent audience by changing its signifying practices and opening picture palaces. Recent studies supporting the “embourgeoisement thesis” have revealed in great detail the complex ideological tensions at work in cinema's transition from a cheap amusement associated with workers and immigrants into a respectable entertainment medium suited for all classes.