"Signs and Meaning in the Cinema"'s initial publication in 1969 was followed by a revised edition, with a new appendix, just three years later. It quickly gained traction in the burgeoning film-studies world of the 1970s. In 1976, Robin Wood contended, "Peter Wollen's "Signs and Meaning in the Cinema" is probably the most influential book on film in English of the past decade." And the book has continued to wield influence decades later—having been released in a fifth, "silver" edition in 2013. In a "Sight & Sound" poll in 2010, "Signs and Meaning" repeatedly cropped up—leading critic Nick Roddick to exclaim, "If there is one book to rule them all, it is Peter Wollen's "Signs and Meaning in the Cinema". The revised and enlarged edition of 1972 is the most concise, lucid and inspiring introduction to thinking about film ever written."