Movietone

Movietone refers to a brand of newsreels produced by Fox Film Corporation (later 20th Century-Fox) featuring the Movietone sound-on-film technology. The Movietone process allowed synchronized audio to accompany moving images on the same film stock, making it possible to present dialogue, narration, and sound effects alongside news footage. The resulting newsreels were shown in cinemas before feature films and became a common way for audiences to experience current events.

The Movietone News series began in the late 1920s and quickly became one of the leading sources of world and domestic news for cinema audiences. The reels covered political events, wars, disasters, cultural events, and everyday life, often including on-location reporting and voice narration. The release schedule typically produced new reels weekly or biweekly, providing a concise panorama of contemporary events.

In the United Kingdom, British Movietone News operated as the local counterpart, producing similar sound-on-film newsreels for British audiences. Both branches contributed to the global presence of Movietone as a primary source of moving-image news for several decades.

In 1935, Fox Film Corporation merged with Twentieth Century Pictures to form 20th Century-Fox, and the brand continued as Fox Movietone News for many years. The rise of television in the postwar era led to a decline in cinema newsreels, and production of new Movietone News reels largely ended in the early 1960s, with archival footage remaining a valuable resource for historical reference. The Movietone name remains associated with early sound-on-film news coverage and the history of news broadcasting.