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

SEA TING EATING capacity in Canada’s theaS tres rose to 1,084,037 in 1951 from 1,054,978 in 1950, a gain of 29,059 chairs. While the grand total is a new high, the increase was not the greatest recorded in a 12-month period. In 1950 the increase was 50,129; in 1949 the increase was 58,402, exclusive of Newfoundland, which became Canada’s tenth province that year; in 1948 the gain was 96,131 and 1947’s was 75,718. In 1946 and 1945 the additions were relatively small, the first increasing the total by 36,942 and the last by 8,702. These figures were given in the annual report of the Dominion Bureau of Statistics. In 1949, the year Newfoundland joined Canada, its theatres and’ their 15,956 seats were added to the total for the first time. In 1950 these theatres had 19,416 seats and in 1951 21,070 and all three figures have been included in the grand total for the three years, but have been left out when figuring the gain each year to give a clearer picture of the progress made in those years. The 1,084,037 seats represent the combined total in all of Canada’s 2,440 35 and 16 mm. houses, both those privately owned and those community-operated. In the DBS report a distinction is made between the two categories and they are not totalled. The Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association, which deals only with 35 mm. houses, gave 1,849 as the number of theatres in 1951, and these had 945,982 seats. The adding of seats began in 1945, when the government, following the end of hostilities, raised the amount allowed for building alterations, and the building boom, which added several hundred theatres to Canada since it began, got under way with the lifting of restrictions on construction in 1946. In 13 years 425,863 theatre chairs were added to Canada’s total, the 1938 figure having been 658,174. It should be understood that this figure, although an impressive one, is not as big as it sounds. Starting in 1946 the Dominion Bureau of Statistics made a distinction between 16 mm. operators who move their equipment from place to place and those who remain in one location. Prior to 1946 all 16 mm. operations were classified as Itinerants but that year and after permanent locations were classified 51 as theatres and their chairs added to the Canadian total. In 1946 there were 98 such theatres, and these increased to 163 in 1947, 331 in 1948, 479 in 1949, 625 in 1950 and 646 in 1951. (The increase from 1947 to 1948 is statistical, rather than physical, for the DBS included the community-run theatres for the first time in the latter year.) But the 1951 total of 1,084,037 theatre chairs does not tell the whole story of Canada’s movie accommodation. Drive-ins jumped from 62 to 82 and had room for 40,520 cars, compared with the 31,512 of the previous year. YEAR SEATS LSB. eee eee 640,366 1939 25 oa Ae ee 658,174 1940 cake Na, eee 676,652 A940: ene remem 697,654 19420; 5 95 cae eee 702,833 1943/75 oes ete 709,082 1944-3. ioe 712,998 19457) eee eee 721,700 ADAG) ak cies 758,642 AAT: a SO pe cee aa 834,360 1948 Ue ee 930,491 19408 Oi eater ie ee 1,004,849 19500 Cadi chee eaten 1,054,978 1951! cca pete eee 1,084,037 The above figures are taken from the reports issued by the Dominion Bureau of Statistics and those for 1949-1950-1951 include Newfoundland, which became Canada’s tenth province in the first-named year. In 1949 Newfoundland theatres hod 15,956 seats, in 1950 19,416 seats and in 1951 21,070. This table does not include drive-ins, the first of which opened in Canada in 1946. For taxation and other purposes it is considered that one car is equivalent to 22 seats in a standard-type theatre and from this can be judged the amount this type of exhibition has increased seating statistics, Car capacity of drive-ins in 1946 was 705; 1947, 5,348; 1948, 9,975; 1949, 15,924; and 1950, 31,523. At the end of 1951 there was accommodation for 40,520 cars and according to figures tabulated by the Canadian Film Weekly the estimates are that by the end of 1952 there was total space for 49,200 cars. The drive-in accommodation fiqure for 1953 is expected to go well over 65,000. CONSTRUCTION HE value of theatre construction and alteration awards let in Canada in 1952 was $3,116,900, bringing _the total for the seven years since wartime restrictions were lifted at the beginning of 1946 to $39,386,000. Last year’s figure represents the dollar value of 54 contracts, bringing the total awards since 1946 to 676. These figures were