This work builds on explanatory theories of cultural consecration that stress institutional agency and its
discourse, in particular upon Allen and Lincoln’s (2004) study of the 1990s consecration of some American
sound films. It contributes new analyses of the role of auteurtheory in such consecration by means of novel
measures of directorial status grounded in Sarris (1968). Directorial status emerges as consequential for the
volume of discourse on a film’s director and on consecration itself. Directorial effects are prominent not only
for auteurs but for directors regaled for excessive accommodation to the Hollywood system. Findings and
theoretical lacunae focus attention in new directions, for example, toward the study of producer status and
new dimensions of film discourse