Canadian Film Weekly Year Book of the Canadian Motion Picture Industry (1955)

having been 104 in operation at the end of 1952. Recently the DBS released its Motion Picture Theatres, Exhibitors, and Distributors, 1953. Although the report gave no consolidated figure for seating accommodation, the various totals reached 1,131,121, which compares with 1,106,316 in 1952, and shows a gain of 24,805 in 1953. In 1953 the 1,906 “regular” theatres, which included 193 with 16 mm. equipment, had 978,162 chairs—a “regular” theatre being one that is not a drive-in, community enterprise or hall serviced by an Itinerant operator. To the 978,162 must be added 1,309 “walk-in” seats in Canada’s 174 drive-ins, and the 151,650 to be found in 669 community enterprises. The community enterprises, incidentally, are made up of 519 with 16 mm. equipment and 150 with 35 mm. A community enterprise is a situation operated in a very small centre by a local non-profit organization, such as the Canadian Legion or board of trade branch. Its aim is to keep the local shoppers at home, instead of going to a nearby town, where they combine theatre-going with shopping. To get the true picture of accommodation at Canadian theatres consideration must be given to the drive-ins. According to the DBS report, the 174 drive-ins in operation at the end of 1953 had a car capacity of 74,419. Some provincial governments apply the seat tax to this type of exhibition on the basis of two-and-a-half persons per car and this measure can be borrowed and its use gives us roughly accommodation for about 186,000 persons. Adding this to our previous total gives an overall figure of 1,317,121. What’s the seating picture in 1954? Naturally, DBS records won’t be available until almost 1956, so those kept from week to week by this publication may serve at this time. By the end of year there were opened for the first time about 35 standard—or “regular” theatres—in the 35 mm. category. The average number of seats per theatre seems to be about 450, so this can mean an increase of 15,750 in this section of exhibition over 1953. But 1954’s major progress in patron capacity was in the drive-in field. Canadian Film Weekly records show that 49 new ones were opened in Canada. This 49 compares with 70 new ones in 1953. Since the average drive-in accommodates about 450 cars, this should add about 22,000 to the national car capacity and, on the two-and-a-half persons per car basis, add some 55,000 seats. To summarize: the number of new 35 mm. situations in 1954 amounts to 84 and they have patron accommodation for about 80,000. Seating of halls serviced by Itinerant exhibitors is not included in these summaries, since there are no figures. In 1954 154 Itinerants used 805 halls to play to 1,381,655 paid admissions. Four of these had 35 mm. equipment. In the 15 years up to and including 1953 472,947 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 so 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. operators were classified as Itinerants but that year and after permanent locations were classified as theatres and their chairs added to the Canadian total. The DBS 1953 report, referring to the 1,906 “regular” theatres, says: “In 1953 the seating capacity of regular theatres increased by 2.4 per cent while the potential capacity rose by 1.7 per cent over 1952. Potential capacity is computed by multiplying the number of seats in each theatre by the number of performances and cumulating the results. Only 29.5 per cent of a potential capacity of 818,625,591 was utilized in 1953. Capacity utilization was highest in Newfoundland at 36.3 per cent and lowest in Quebec at 27.1 per cent. “Over 39 per cent of the 1953 business went to theatres in Ontario, which also had 35.5 per cent of the total seating capacity. Quebec theatres, with 24.4 per cent of total seating capacity obtained 25.2 per cent of the total business. British Columbia had 9.5 per cent of seating capacity and 10.1 per cent of receipts while Alberta with 7.5 per cent of the seats reported 7.6 per cent of total business. All the other provinces had lesser percentages of receipts than of seating capacity.” -— —-—-—