Analysis of the Economic Function of Cinema in the Iran’s Constitutional Era (1906-1926 AD)

At a time when it is remembered as the era of Mashrooteh, 1285 solar Hijri calendar/ 1906 AD until 1305 solar Hijri calendar/ 1926, we observe the establishment of cinema and showing film in Tehran and some states and provinces of Iran. During this period, new art of cinema entered in political, social and economic contexts which had different applications. Due to the importance of the discourse of modern arts in recognition of the changes of Qajar era and Iranian art history, exploration of its different functional aspects is important and looking at the economic history of cinema in Iran is of the purposes of this study and its collected data have been written in descriptive and analytical method. Some of the questions introduced in this article are as follow: how much the cinema was on the basis of foundations of a market economy in the era of Mashrooteh? And was reached to what economic function? The findings show that economic motivations for making money from merchants and businessmen, cinemas’ owners, and government for obtaining customs duty and taxes was led to create link between newspapers and printing houses for persistent cinematic notifications and companies and the manufacturers and distributors of film for making a profit that has been effective in entering, establishing and spreading cinema to the society of the Iran. But from the beginning to the end of this era which coincided with the coronation of Reza Khan and the decline of the power of parliament in 1305 solar calendar/ 1926 AD in Iran, Iran was a market for consuming movies of other countries. Bringing serial films, screening movie for charity and public works, renting and buying and selling movie and cinematographer device for home show and establishing cinema in hotels and coffeehouses are considered as the other economic aspects of cinema of this period that totally were led to cinema entrepreneurship in society. The price for one single-seat in this 20-year old era was between 1 to 8 Gheran and for the VIP (Loge settlers) it had an increasing price of about 4 to 30 Gheran. Totally, various economic performance of cinema and the rapid formation of the financial cycle of this new art in the era of Mashrooteh, force us to pay attention to the economic aspects of the art for a comprehensive investigation.