Film Weekly 1961-62 year book : Canadian motion picture industry with television section (1961)

commercial advertising films and $63,613 from other unidentified sources. These theatres employed 2,039 persons and paid $1,702,342 in salaries and wages. Amuse¬ ment taxes amounted to $504,546 com¬ pared with $504,281 in 1958. There were some 115 proprietors of un¬ incorporated firms employed in operating these theatres, 44 of whom drew salaries amounting to $64,312. There were also 67 unpaid family members so employed. Six of the 234 drive-ins operating in 1959 were equipped with 16 mm. projec¬ tors and reported receipts (excluding taxes) of $31,289 and a total attendance of 52,030 persons. SEATING CANADA’S auditorium exhibition facili¬ ties at the end of I960, 781,082 chairs in 1,451 theatres, represent a reduction of 25,545 in chairs and 72 in theatres during the year, according to a Canadian Film Weekly survey. The addition of the 1959 decline to these figures shows that in two years Canada’s auditorium seating cap¬ acity was reduced by 51,767 and the num¬ ber of theatres by 117. The number of drive-ins was the same in 1960 as in 1959, 231, because two closed and two opened. The new ones had slightly greater car capacities than the closed ones and during the year several expanded, so that the national car cap¬ acity rose by 1,354 to 90,486. Since some Provincial licencing departments count each car as two-and-a-half seats, this would mean that the total car capacity is equivalent to 226,215 chairs. To this figure must be added 1,590 walk-in seats (the number was the same in 1960 as in 1959), so that Canada’s drive-ins could accommodate 227,805. If the 781,082 auditorium figure is joined to the 227,805 drive-in total, the national accommodation would be 1,008,887, or about one seat for every 18 people. This is a decrease in accommodation of 33,750 in 1960. Since the drop in 1959 was 34,449, the two-year decline is 68,199. It should be noted that quite a number of seats contained in the auditorium total are not being utilized, since theatres with a reserved-seat policy for 70 mm. attrac¬ tions do not sell the first six or more rows during such attractions. To get a picture of the effect of tele¬ vision on Canadian theatres a rough com¬ parison can be made with 1953, when TV first made itself felt in this country, and the present by using the figures issued on March 31, 1953 by the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association. On that date the CMPDA listed 1,924 35 mm. standard houses with 963,914 seats — greater than the Dec. 31, 1960 count by 473 theatres and 182,832 chairs. However, in 1953 there were 104 drive-ins with a car capacity of 48,337 and 1,056 walk-in seats, as against the present 231, 90,486 and 1,590 respectively, for a gain since 1953 of 127 drive-ins, 52,149 car spaces and 534 seats. For the overall effect on seating of the coming of TV and other competition it is necessary to apply the two-and-a-half to one formula to the 52,149 gain in car spaces, which equals 130,372, then adding the 534 increase in walk-in seats, making the total 130,906, and subtracting this fig¬ ure from the 182,832 loss in auditorium theatre chairs. Thus the growth of the drive-in field has limited the actual de¬ crease in accommodation in Canada since 1953 to 51,926. Of the 1,451 hardtops with 781,802 seats in Canada at the end of 1960, BC had 120 houses with 70,278 seats; Alta. 167 with 67,908; Sask. 175 with 55,971; Man. 103 with 44,459; Ont. 356 with 258,757; Que. 385 with 216,087; NB 49 with 23,636; NS 61 with 32,498; PEI 15 with 3,787; and Nfld. 21 with 7,701. Canada’s 231 drive-ins and their car capacity of 90,486 were made up of BC’s 31 with 10,413 car spaces; Alta.’s 39 with 13,604; Sask’s 36 with 10,139; Man.’s 13 with 5,484; Ont.’s 88 with 41,160; NB’s 12 with 4,490; NS’ nine with 3,896; and PEI’s three with 1,300. Que. bans driveins and Nfld. has none. 39