Culture & entertainment
Discover facts about culture & entertainment. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Culture & entertainment
India's cinema anthem rule changed after just over a year
In 2016, the Supreme Court required theaters to play the national anthem before films. In January 2018, it made playing it optional again. A ritual attached…
Discover more
Twister helped persuade some viewers to study real weather
NOAA scientists have described the 1996 film as one influence on their interest in meteorology. The cinematic chase offered an exciting doorway into a field…
Discover more
The cinema where your seat is a hot tub
A UK event company replaced theater seats with inflatable hot tubs, turning a movie into a communal soak with a dozen strangers.
Discover more
The FBI warning on a movie wasn't a compulsory opening scene
Copyright holders used the anti-piracy seal to give their warning an official visual punch. The program authorizes its use under conditions; it doesn't…
Discover more
Urban Cowboy made mechanical bulls a craze
After the film’s release, bars across the country installed mechanical bulls, turning the dangerous ride into a symbol of sex appeal.
Discover more
Why movie snacks were once considered vulgar
Before the 1930s, theaters cultivated a high-culture image and expected audiences to sit in silence, so bringing food was treated as vulgar.
Discover more
STACKY FOR IPHONEA bigger world.
One discovery
at a time.
Keep discovering with Stacky. Interesting facts in an app that is always within reach.
Why Rocky Horror still plays in theaters
Its long theatrical run is sustained by audience participation: fans throw toast and shout insults at the screen.
Discover more
How The Matrix's red pill escaped into politics
The film's red-pill metaphor, associated with trans identity, was later adopted by internet forums as a symbol of waking up to a supposed political truth.
Discover more
Britain's film board struggled with Texas Chain Saw's terror more than its gore
The BBFC initially refused a certificate despite relatively limited explicit bloodshed, judging the sustained menace too intense. Some local authorities…
Discover more
The cinemas with soundproof rooms for crying babies
Some theaters installed glass-enclosed, soundproof rooms at the back of the auditorium for parents with crying babies. Speakers let them keep listening to the…
Discover more
Audiences historically threw vegetables at bad movies
If a projection broke or a movie bored them, early cinema audiences might pelt the screen with rotten tomatoes or other vegetables.
Discover more
The cinema that hired ninjas to stop phone users
Staff in black ninja suits waited in the dark and confronted patrons who checked their phones.
Discover more
Why cinema floors feel permanently sticky
Spilled soda syrup and artificial popcorn butter can mix with cleaning products, leaving a stubborn sticky residue on the floor.
Discover more
The Birth of a Nation helped turn racist mythology into mass entertainment
D. W. Griffith's 1915 film glorified the Ku Klux Klan and drew organized protests, including from the NAACP. Its popularity contributed to the climate…
Discover more
Some Korean cinemas let children watch from toy cars
CGV's CINE KIDS concept has included ride-on-car seating inside the auditorium. It adapts the room to a young audience instead of simply shrinking an adult…
Discover more
A disaster movie became an experiment in climate communication
Researchers surveyed responses around the release of The Day After Tomorrow in 2004. Viewers reported changes in concern and understanding even though the…
Discover more
America's Godzilla edit added a witness who was never there
The 1956 U.S. version inserted newly filmed scenes with Raymond Burr as an American reporter into footage from the Japanese original. Editing and body doubles…
Discover more
How Fight Club inspired real fight clubs
Some viewers took the film’s anti-consumerist satire as a how-to manual, inspiring underground bare-knuckle fight clubs.
Discover more
Britons could see The Exorcist in a cinema but not buy an approved tape
The film had a cinema certificate, yet the BBFC withheld a home-video classification after new video rules took effect. Officials worried about children…
Discover more
Call the Midwife combines real newborns with remarkably lifelike props
The production uses prosthetic babies for scenes where a delivery needs carefully controlled movement, alongside real infants for other shots. Producer Hugh…
Discover more
Greece operates stunning outdoor cinemas with deck chairs
Athens pioneered summer open-air cinemas so audiences could watch films under the moonlight in deck chairs instead of sweltering indoors.
Discover more
Korsør's cinema began in a hotel in 1907
The Danish theater first screened films in the hotel's smaller hall, where the seating and viewing conditions were imperfect. It moved to a purpose-built home…
Discover more
Fantastic Mr. Fox gave its badger a carefully engineered body
The film's Badger puppet was made through sculpting, molding, and casting around an internal armature. That hidden structure let animators pose the character…
Discover more
Clarice Starling helped women picture themselves in the FBI
The bureau credits The Silence of the Lambs with inspiring a generation of women to join. Its archive even preserves the fictional agents' business cards made…
Discover more