Canadian Film Weekly (Jun 16, 1948)

age tee le es neers en Page 10 Canadian FILM WEEKLY June 16, 1948 USA Gov't Report On Our Industry Exhibition In 1946 Canada had 1,477 ' theatres with a total of 758,642 seats, and box-office. receipts totaled $59,888,972. In the Province of Quebec 40 theatres were built or started during the year ending July 31, 1947. The number of paid admissions in 1946 was 227,538,798 or an average of about 4,400,000 weekly. Attendance in 1947 was good, except for a slight slump during the Spring, and was no doubt better than in 1946, Admission prices, frozen during the war, can now be increased but exhibitors have not raised them. The average charge, 26.3 cents, is believed to be considerably lower -than in the United States. The range is from 20 cents to 90 cents plus. The per capita expenditure (including amusement tax) on motion-picture entertainment increased from $5.61 in 1943 to $5.77 in 1945, and $6.15 in 1946. Shows are usually given continuously daily except Sundays in the urban centres. In the Province of Quebec they are given on Sundays as well. In neighborhood theatres and in small towns films are usually shown 2 nights a week, with matinees on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The ‘‘repeat” business is extremely good. 2 Audience preferences are very similar to those in the United States. Province of Quebec audi ences like musicals, and westerns and other “action” films. Double features were shown in 57.4 percent of Canadian theatres in 1946 and single features in 42.6 percent. However, in the large cities double billing is much more generally the rule, in Montreal only three theatres show. single bills. The J. Arthur Rank interests have scheduled the construction in Canada of 64 theatres costing $6,000,000. The first of these (in Toronto—1,200 seats) has just been completed and is reported to show a tendency toward uneconomic lavishness. Some of the theatres are said to have been contracted for by the Rank organization on rental bases which amount to surprisingly high percentages of the cost of construction. (Ed note: Cost of Rank’s building program is estimated at $20,000,000.) A most important part of exhibitors’ incomes is through the sale of popcorn, candy, ice cream, etc., in the theatres. The best theatres have candy counters conspicuously placed in their entrance vestibules. (Continued from a Recent Issuc) Advertising As in the United States, practically all media are used to advertise films. The most effective and most extensively used are newspaper advertisements and newspaper accounts of press agents’ stories. United States film magazines are very widely. read. Canadian, British, and French film magazines together probably do not Sell a total of 1 percent of the United: States publications, which are usually available on the newsstands at United States prices. There are a few locally. produced Frenchlanguage motion-picture magazines in the Province of Quebec. Influence on Sale of Dnited States Merchandise United States films, States magazines, and United States radio broadcasts are the principal means of familiarizing Candians with United. States merchandise. Although the film certainly does its part in publicizing them, it is difficult to assess the degree to which it may be responsible for the purchase of United States goods. 16 mm. Theatrical Films The market for 16 mm. entertainment motion pictures in Canada is outstandingly favorable and worthy of development in the immediate future. The considerable portion of the population which lives in theatreless villages constitutes a keen audience for showings of theatrical films in town and parish halls and by mobile projection units. Revenue from the rentals of 16 mm. films is a separate source of income which does not even partially supplant that obtained from 35 mm. films. In the Province of Quebec (population 3,331,882), children under 16 are forbidden to attend the showing of any films which are not purely educational and for which admission is charged. This has resulted in the complete absence from the commercial theatre of the most ardent class of fans, United . and the acquisition of their patronage by ‘church and other Private showings to which admission is usually charged. _ The distribution of 16 mm. films is far from well organized. There is not as yet any really satisfactory channel through which such theatrical -films can be circulated to the many small independent exhibitors. Some exhibitors have been known to show films in prohibited districts where the same pictures in 35 mm. version has been contracted for future screening, and to behave otherwise irresponsibly. Many distributors are very conservative about engaging in the 16 mm. field in Canada. What seems to be needed is a special body, such as the Film Board of Trade which is an organization of members of the industry to regulate various aspects of the 35 mm. film distribution business. Trade Restrictions United States 16 mm. entertainment films enter Canada freely, without permits or other formalities, upon the payment of 20 percent ad valorem import duty and 8 percent sales tax. The valuation for customs purposes must not be less than 8 cents per linear foot. British 16 mm. films are admitted free. Films may be distributed without restrictions, but the principal motion-picture companies and theatre chains have an agreement that 16 mm. films will not be rented for showing within about 12 miles of a place where a 35 mm. film theatre is in operation. Exceptions are made in the cases of showings to schools and to shut-ins. Usually 16 mm. versions are not shown until at least 1 year after the Screening of the 35 mm. equivalent. All 16 mm. pictures shown are made of safety film, and there are no fire laws governing the storage of acetate-nitrate base film made under fire protection standards. Paramount Purchase "After Midnight’ Paramount has _ purchased Martha Albrand’s “After Midnight,” a story about an American in quest of an imitation of a great painting. The background is laid in Italy. ‘After Midnight” will appear as a serial in The Saturday Evening Post and will be published as a novel by Random House. Paulette Goddard In Fox" "Yellow Sky’ Twentieth Century-Fox has borrowed Paulette Goddard from Paramount for the starring role opposite Gregory Peck in “Yel low Sky.” The picture will have Lamar Trotti producing and William A. Wellman directing. Others. announced for the cast are Richard Widmark, Robert Arthur end John Russell. Distribution Censorship of 16 mm. films is handled by the authorities of each of the nine Provinces in Canada in the same manner as for 35 mm. films, except in the’ Province of Quebec. where, because 16 mm. films have always been exempt from _ censorship, ° the subsequently introduced 16 mm. entertainment films also go uncensored. (Ed note: Quebec is no longer an exception.) | The distribution of 16 mm. versions is now a healthy business which may be expected: to expand materially in the immediate future. Some exchanges specialize in the 16 mm, trade while others are just beginning to handle it, but it is recognized that the potential market is very good. The amounts of. rentals vary widely, and are usually worked out on scales by which the exhibitor pays larger amounts for the first 2 days than for subsequent days. A typical charge to a small village exhibitor is $45 per film per week, but there is a great variation caused by differences in type, quality, and length of the films as well as the rentor’s capacity to pay. When sold outright, 16 mm. films bring from $35 up per reel. Labor union requirements for distribution and exhibition are not onerous financially —for showing in theatres they . are the same as in the case of 35 mm. films, for other showings 16 mm. films are distributed and delivered through the same channels as 35 mm. films, and safety films may be sent through the mails. Equipment While the 16 mm. theatre is Still rare in Canada, there may be as many as 6,000 16 mm. projectors in the country. There are probably 500 in the Province of Quebec alone. There the Provincial Government has _ just added 50 to its former lot of the same number, and the National Film Board maintains a further 50. In Canada there are 300 National Film Board mobile units and approximately 200 other mobile units not including those operated by school systems. Canada manufactures only one noteworthy 16 mm. sound projector, the Audio-Visual Educator. This machine retails for $650 and its sale is being actively promoted. Very little equipment manufactured in countries other than the United States is in use. The principal distributor of 16 mm. projectors in Montreal is now 6 months behind in supplying new machines to customers.