Canadian Film Weekly Year Book of the Canadian Motion Picture Industry (1953)

FACTS ABOUT EXHIBITION FRENCH LANGUAGE HOUSES: Quebec theatres showing only French films in 1952 numbered 76, four more than in 1951 and 42 more than in 1949. Those playing motion pictures in both English and French increased from 119 in 1951 to 125 in 1952. Theatres screening English-language films exclusively increased slightly from 234 in 1951 to 238 in 1953. Several importing companies offer exhibitors films produced in France and other exchanges provide dubbed versions of Hollywood films. Of the 19 feature films produced in Canada since 1945, 13 were in French and these obtained almost 100 per cent of their Canadian grosses from exhibition in the province of Quebec. THEATRE TOWNS: There were 1,202 towns with 35 mm. theatres and 169 with 16 mm. houses. In addition, there were 374 communities in Canada which had halls with 16 mm. projection equipment, but these halls are listed separately because they are used for other purposes besides the showing of films. ATTENDANCE: An Unesco survey published last year 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 previous 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 theatregoing, 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. COMMUNITY SHOWS: In 1951, 150 35 mm. and 482 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 31 community enterprises are situated in Quebec and Saskatchewan. Most of the halls used 16 mm. projection equipment but the 150 halls where 35 mm. equipment was used accounted for 56 per cent of the receipts and 54 per cent of the total admissions. Only Manitoba had more halls using 35 mm. equipment than 16 mm. PER CAPITA EXPENDITURE: The per capita expenditure for theatregoing in Canada in 1951 was $7.72, which compares with $7.12 in 1950, $6.89 in 1949, $6.50 in 1948, $5.77 in 1945 and $5.01 in 1942. Ontario led the provinces with a per capita expenditure of $9.80, then came British Columbia with $9.29, Alberta with $7.79, Manitoba with $7.01, Quebec with $6.51, Nova Scotia with $6.08, Saskatchewan with $5.61, New Brunswick with $4.99, Prince Edward Island with $3.94 and Newfoundland with $3.82. CAPACITY UTILIZED: There was no change in the percentage for 1951 from 30.0 per cent total of 1950 in the number of admissions sold as against the maximum possible. The “capacity utilized” potential is obtained by multiplying the number of seats in each theatre by the number of performances and cumulating the results. The 1950 and 1951 percentages are the lowest since 1940, the highest having been 1946, when the figure was 37.6. PAYROLL: The collective wages and salaries of 14,034 people in the employ of Canada’s 1,808 (regular) theatres totalled $17,137,276 in 1951. Thirty-three film distribution companies working from 123 exchange offices paid their employees $3,071,545. LANGUAGE: Of the 1,591 35 mm. films listed by the DBS as “New Films Released, 1951” in all languages, 1,280 were in English, 280 in French and 31 in other languages. The 2,290 16 mm. films were made up of 1,967 in English, 312 in French and 11 in other languages.