A is a type of

film screening A film screening is the displaying of a motion picture or film, generally referring to a special showing as part of a film's production and release cycle. To show the film to best advantage, special screenings may take place in plush, low seat-cou ...

associated with

Japanese cinema The has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world; as of 2021, it was the fourth largest by number of feature films produced. In 2011 Japan produced 411 feature films that ea ...

that encourages

audience participation An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature (in which they are called "readers"), theatre, music (in which they are called "listeners"), video games (in which they are called "players"), or ...

through

cheering Cheering involves the uttering or making of sounds and may be used to encourage, excite to action, indicate approval or welcome. The word cheer originally meant face, countenance, or expression, and came through Old French into Middle English ...

, typically in the form of applause, singing, and the shouting of responses to statements made by characters. Other terms used to describe this category of screening include , , and . While participatory film screenings have an international history and context (most famously in

midnight movie The term midnight movie is rooted in the practice that emerged in the 1950s of local television stations around the United States airing low-budget genre films as late-night programming, often with a host delivering ironic asides. As a cinematic ...

screenings of the 1975 film ''

The Rocky Horror Picture Show ''The Rocky Horror Picture Show'' is a 1975 musical comedy horror film by 20th Century Fox, produced by Lou Adler and Michael White and directed by Jim Sharman. The screenplay was written by Sharman and actor Richard O'Brien, who is also ...

''), "cheer screenings" as a category gained particular popularity in Japan beginning in the early- to mid-2010s. While cheer screenings are most commonly associated with

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

films, they have been held for anime and non-anime films that are both Japanese and non-Japanese in origin.

Characteristics

Cheer screenings invite

through shouting, applause, and the yelling of responses to statements made by characters. Other activities common at cheer screenings include

cosplay Cosplay, a portmanteau of "costume play", is an activity and performance art in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character. Cosplayers often interact to create a subculture, ...

, repetition of lines of dialogue, singing along to songs and musical numbers, and the use of

glow stick A glow stick, also known as a light stick, chem light, light wand, light rod, and rave light, is a self-contained, short-term light-source. It consists of a translucent plastic tube containing isolated substances that, when combined, make light ...

s to perform ''

wotagei , also known as , refers to a type of dancing and cheering gestures performed by wota, fans of Japanese idol, Japanese idol singers (and thus seen as Akiba-kei), involving jumping, clapping, arm-waving and chanting slogans. Wotagei is performed at ...

'' (a form of coordinated cheering common at

Japanese idol An is a type of entertainer marketed for image, attractiveness, and personality in Japanese pop culture. Idols are primarily singers with training in acting, dancing, and modeling. Idols are commercialized through merchandise and endorsements b ...

concerts). Cheer screenings contrast starkly with typical film screenings in Japan during which absolute silence is the norm.

History

In Japan

In Japan, cheer screenings were conceived in the late 2000s as a response to the proliferation of

streaming media Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...

on personal devices, which has resulted in a decline in movie theater attendance. In 2009, in Tokyo screened the concert film ''

Michael Jackson's This Is It ''Michael Jackson's This Is It'' is a 2009 American documentary–concert film about Michael Jackson's rehearsals and preparation for This Is It (concert residency), the concert series of the same name scheduled to start on July 13, 2009, at ...

'' as a that encouraged the audience to stand and cheer, as they would in an actual live concert performance. In 2011, a "screaming night" screening was held for the anime film '' Sengoku Basara: The Last Party'', and in 2016, cheering screenings were held for the live action film ''

High&Low The Movie ''High&Low The Movie'' (stylized as HiGH＆LOW THE MOVIE) is a 2016 Japanese action film directed by Shigeaki Kubo. Released in Japan by Shochiku on July 16, 2016, It is the first original film of the ''High&Low'' franchise, following the story of ...

''. Cheer screenings were widely publicized following the release of the 2016 anime film '' King of Prism by Pretty Rhythm''. The film was specifically designed for the purpose of inviting audience participation through cheering, and features pauses in dialogue to allow for cheering and shouted responses by the audience. Cheering screenings for films, particularly

films, proliferated in response to the success of ''King of Prism by Pretty Rhythm''. As Japanese movie theaters that had been closed in 2020 as a result of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

gradually re-opened, cheer screenings were replaced with screenings where

text messages Text messaging, or texting, is the act of composing and sending electronic messages, typically consisting of alphabetic and numeric characters, between two or more users of mobile devices, desktops/laptops, or another type of compatible compute ...

from audience members were superimposed on the screen, a format similar to "bullet comments" (''danmaku'') common on video sharing websites such as

Bilibili Bilibili (stylized bilibili), nicknamed B Site, is a video sharing website based in Shanghai where users can submit, view and add overlaid commentary on videos. Since the mid-2010s, Bilibili began to expand to a broader audience from its origi ...

. Other cheer screenings were held on

Zoom Zoom may refer to: Technology Computing * Zoom (software), videoconferencing application * Page zooming, the ability to magnify or shrink a portion of a page on a computer display * Zooming user interface, a graphical interface allowing for image ...

, which allowed viewers to be able to see the state of the audience and cheer without loudness concerns.

Outside of Japan

The 1975 film ''

'' has a long-established history of screenings that invite audience participation through the use of props, the shouting of lines, and the singing of songs. Cheer screenings can be seen as roughly analogous to western

musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serve merely as breaks ...

s that receive limited

sing-along Sing-along, also called community singing or group singing, is an event of singing together at gatherings or parties, less formally than choir singing. One can use a songbook. Common genres are folk songs, patriotic songs, kids' songs, spirituals ...

theatrical releases, such as '' Mamma Mia!'' in 2008 and '' Frozen'' in 2014. Cheer screenings for Japanese films are occasionally held outside of Japan. In 2019, American film distributor

GKIDS GKIDS is an American film distributor based in New York with, according to the ''Los Angeles Times'', a focus on "sophisticated, indie" animation. GKIDS releases critically acclaimed, mostly hand-drawn, international films—such as the works o ...

held an official cheer screening for the anime film ''

Promare is a 2019 Japanese animated film co-produced by Trigger and XFLAG. It was directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi and written by Kazuki Nakashima. It features character and mecha designs by Shigeto Koyama, 3DCG animation by Sanzigen, and music by H ...

'' in

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

, a film that also held cheer screenings in Japan.

Impact and analysis

Cheer screenings have been cited as an example of a shift in consumer tastes towards participatory and experience-based entertainment, allowing audiences to enjoy a form of active media consumption in a typically passive environment. They have been noted as positively contributing to box office revenue; cheer screenings often become popular though

word of mouth Word of mouth, or ''viva voce'', is the passing of information from person to person using oral communication, which could be as simple as telling someone the time of day. Storytelling is a common form of word-of-mouth communication where one pe ...

on social media, and enthusiastic fans will often attend multiple cheer screenings for the same film. The format is generally regarded as ill-suited for individuals who wish to concentrate on the film or avoid spoilers; consequently, cheer screenings are typically marketed towards individuals who have already seen the film in question. The proliferation of cheer screenings has occasionally lagged behind public awareness of their existence; reports emerged of disgruntled individuals unwittingly purchasing tickets to cheer screenings of the 2019 live-action film '' Avengers: Endgame'', while a cheer screening of the 2015 anime film ''

Love Live! The School Idol Movie is a 2015 Japanese animated youth school musical film. The film is part of the ''Love Live! School Idol Project'' multimedia series by Sunrise, Lantis and ''Dengeki G's Magazine'', taking place after the second season of the 2013-2014 anime te ...

'' was cancelled after being deemed a nuisance.

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite web , title=劇場版『KING OF PRISM』監督、キャラ原案＆デザイン……制作スタッフ陣のアツすぎる想い、みんなに届け！ , url=https://www.animatetimes.com/news/details.php?id=1453429037 , website=

Animate Times is the retailing arm of MOVIC and is the largest retailer of anime, video games and manga in Japan. The first and flagship store of Animate was opened in 1983 in Ikebukuro, a district in Tokyo, Japan. Retail stores Currently there are 117 A ...

, access-date=3 January 2021 , language=Japanese , date=26 January 2016 {{cite web , title=あなたはアリ？声を出して映画を観る"応援上映"、増えるトラブル , url=https://movie.smt.docomo.ne.jp/article/1040013/ , website=Dmenu Movie , access-date=3 January 2021 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170412224705/https://movie.smt.docomo.ne.jp/article/1040013/ , archive-date=12 April 2017 {{cite web , title=増え続ける応援上映、そのマナーとは？ , url=https://www.lmaga.jp/news/2016/10/16734/ , website=Lmaga.jp , access-date=3 January 2021 , language=Japanese , date=24 October 2016 {{cite web , title=New movie showings give audiences chance to cheer, sing along , url=https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20161023/p2a/00m/0et/006000c , website=

Mainichi Shimbun The is one of the major newspapers in Japan, published by In addition to the ''Mainichi Shimbun'', which is printed twice a day in several local editions, Mainichi also operates an English language news website called ''The Mainichi'' (previ ...

, access-date=3 January 2021 , date=23 October 2016 {{cite web , title=キンプリ：異例のロングランで興収5億円、動員30万人突破　"応援上映"が話題に , url=http://mantan-web.jp/2016/04/27/20160427dog00m200027000c.html , website=Mantan Web , access-date=3 January 2021 , language=Japanese , date=27 April 2016 {{cite web , title=「M@STERPIECE」の感動を45万人が共有！アニメ「アイドルマスター」の新たな展開 , url=http://news.walkerplus.com/article/45926/ , website=Movie Walker , access-date=3 January 2021 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140412123244/http://news.walkerplus.com/article/45926/ , archive-date=12 April 2014 , language=Japanese , date=11 April 2014 {{cite web , title=『アイドルマスター SideM』、初の地上波特番発表も! 「THE IDOLM@STER SideM 1st STAGE ～ST@RTING!～」上映会初日舞台挨拶 , url=https://news.mynavi.jp/article/20160607-sidem01/ , website=MyNavi News , access-date=3 January 2021 , language=Japanese , date=7 June 2016 {{cite web , title=ライブさながらの盛り上がりに大興奮!? 『HiGH&LOW THE MOVIE』応援上映 , url=http://news.mynavi.jp/articles/2016/09/15/highandlow/ , website=MyNavi News , access-date=3 January 2021 , language=Japanese , date=15 September 2016 {{cite news , title=映画館で大騒ぎできる新サービス登場！映画版『戦国BASARA』の「絶叫ナイト」で劇場ホクホク , work=Nikkei Trendy , date=9 August 2011 , language=Japanese {{cite web , title=『シン・ゴジラ』で開催した「発声型上映」　固定観念を覆す"映画の楽しみ方" , url=https://www.oricon.co.jp/special/49355/ , website=

Oricon News , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nove ...

, access-date=3 January 2021 , language=Japanese , date=19 September 2016 {{cite web , title=映画の応援上映　初心者が楽しむためにはペンライトは必需品 , url=https://www.news-postseven.com/archives/20161107_463514.html?DETAIL , website=News Post Seven , access-date=3 January 2021 , language=Japanese , date=7 November 2016 {{cite web , title=キンプリ「応援上映」にOLたちがなぜ熱狂するのか , url=http://www.news-postseven.com/archives/20160618_422192.html , website=News Post Seven , access-date=3 January 2021 , language=Japanese , date=18 June 2016 {{cite web , title=映画館はライブを越える音楽体験を生み出せるか？　"ライブスタイル上映"のリスクと革新性 , url=http://realsound.jp/movie/2016/05/post-1747_2.html , website=Real Sound , access-date=3 January 2021 , language=Japanese , date=21 May 2016 Cinemas and movie theaters Film and video terminology Japanese subcultures

Characteristics

History

In Japan

Outside of Japan

Impact and analysis

See also

References