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Shopping for entertainment: malls and multiplexes in Sydney, Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2014

MATTHEW BAILEY
MATTHEW BAILEY*
Affiliation:
Department of Modern History, Politics and International Relations, Faculty of Arts, Macquarie University NSW 2109, Australia
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Abstract

This article examines multiplex cinema development and its close association with shopping centre expansion programmes in Australia. The article argues that while multiplex cinema construction in Australia echoed international developments, it also resulted from coalescing interests between local retail developers and film exhibitors, was guided by planning legislation and shaped by escalating institutional investment in the retail industry. Data mapping the emergence, growth and consolidation of multiplexes in Sydney, Australia's largest city, is used to illustrate this development, contributing to urban histories of the city and understandings of the ways in which its contours have been reshaped by consumer capitalism.

Type
Research Article
Information
Urban History , Volume 42 , Issue 2 , May 2015 , pp. 309 - 329
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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