Film Weekly Year Book of the Canadian Motion Picture Industry (1954)

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FACTS ABOUT EXHIBITION FRENCH LANGUAGE HOUSES: Quebec theatres showing only French films in 1953 numbered 122, 46 more than in 1952 and 88 more than in 1949. Those playing motion pictures in both English and French decreased from 125 in 1952 to 123 in 1953. Theatres screen¬ ing English-language films exclusively decreased from 238 in 1952 to 194 in 1953. Several importing companies offer exhibitors films produced in France and other exchanges provide dubbed versions of Hollywood films. Of the 20 feature films produced in Canada since 1945, 14 were in French and these obtained almost 100 per cent of their Canadian grosses from exhibition in the province of Quebec. ATTENDANCE: An Unesco survey published two years ago says that the average Canadian attends movies 17 times per year, placing him seventh among the countries. While the average attendance did not change over the pre¬ vious year, Canada’s position dropped from fifth to seventh. Israel leads all countries with 38, second is Costa Rica with 30, third is Great Britain with 29, fourth is Australia with 25, fifth is the USA with 22 and New Zealand is sixth with 18. Israel and Costa Rica, which were behind Canada in average theatre¬ going, jumped to first and second place and the USA, which was first with 32 the previous year, slumped badly, reflecting the boxoffice crisis at that time. Since then attendance in the USA has regained most of its vitality. COMMUNITY SHOWS: In 1952, 152 35 mm. and 505 16 mm. theatres were operated as non-profit enterprises in churches and halls by religious, service and fraternal organizations, as well as Boards of Trade. The majority of the community enterprises are situated in Quebec and Saskatchewan. Most of the halls used 16 mm. projection equipment but the 152 halls where 35 mm. equip¬ ment was used accounted for 57.7 per cent of the receipts and 54.1 per cent of the total admissions. Only Manitoba had more halls using 35 mm. equipment than 16 mm. and New Brunswick had three using 35 mm. and none of the smaller gauge. PER CAPITA EXPENDITURE: The per capita expenditure for theatregoing in Canada in 1952 was $8.21, which compares with $7.72 in 1951, $7.12 in 1950, $6.89 in 1949, $6.50 in 1948, $5.77 in 1945 and $5.01 in 1942. Ontar¬ io led the provinces with a per capita expenditure of $10.06, then came British Columbia with $9.94, Alberta with $8.87, Manitoba with $7.31, Quebec with $6.99, Saskatchewan with $6.76, Nova Scotia with $6.51, New Brunswick with $5.52, Prince Edward Island with $4.01 and Newfoundland with $3.90. CAPACITY UTILIZED: There was a one per cent increase for 1952 from the 30.0 per cent total of 1951 in the number of admissions sold as against the maximum possible. The “capacity util¬ ized” potential is obtained by multiplying the number of seats in each theatre by the number of performances and cumu¬ lating the results. The 1951 and 1952 percentages are the lowest since 1940, the highest having been 1946, when the figure was 37.6. PAYROLL: The collective wages and salaries of 15,100 people in the employ of Canada’s 1,838 (regular) theatres to¬ talled $ 1 8,868, 116 in 1952. Thirty-six film distribution companies working from 129 exchange offices paid their employees $3,128,527. LANGUAGE: Of the 1,626 35 mm. films listed by the DBS as “New Films Released, 1952” in all languages, 1,290 were in English, 301 in French and 35 in other languages. The 3,563 16 mm. films were made up of 3,295 in English, 261 in French and seven in other lan¬ guages. 35