早期的美国电影观众研究，源起于社会进步论者对不断增长的儿童观众的道德恐慌，以传播学结构、行为受众分析为主要方法，显现出社会、应用与市场三种不同目的与模式的研究路径。社会学者着意于观众构成，意图以科学的证据为电影审查提供依据；如军方、教育部门等电影媒体使用者，看重的是电影所能产生的宣传、学习效果与受众影响；电影工业则以实用主义原则进行市场测试。此类具有实证主义倾向的早期观众研究，虽然随着20世纪60、70年代电影人文学科化而几乎中断，但却形塑了美国电影的研究传统，影响了当代电影观众理论以精神分析为主向认知、历史范式的转向。

The early studies on American movie audiences originated from the moral panic of social progressives about the growing audience of children. With the communication structure and behavior audience analysis as the main methods, the studies revealed three different aims and patterns of society, application and market. Sociologists focus on audience composition and intend to provide scientific evidence for film censorship;For example, the military, education departments and other users of the film media focus on the publicity, learning effect and audience influence generated by the film.The film industry tests the market on pragmatic principles. The type of early audience studies have a positivist tendency, though almost discontinued with the humanistic study of movies in the 1960s and 1970s, shaped the research tradition of American movies and influenced the shift of contemporary movie-goers' theories from psychoanalysis to cognition and historical paradigm.