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THE FILM AS AN INDUSTRY
quota films (including those American companies which make films qualifying for British quota) can draw grants in proportion to the distributors' receipts for their productions ; these grants naturally vary according to the number of British productions in process of distribution, but feature films normally receive a grant amounting to between 30% and 35% of the total of the distributors' gross receipts. This grant makes all the difference between showing a small profit or incurring a considerable loss to the average British producer. Short films in commercial distribution also receive a grant calculated on the basis of 2| times their gross earnings ; the earnings of short films are so small that any grant below this level would be quite ineffective. A small section of the fund, originally specified as about 5% of the total, was set aside for 'special purposes' ; in practice this has been interpreted by the Committee of the Four Trade Associations (representing exhibitors, distributors, and the producers of feature and short films) which administers the fund, as the source for special annual grants to the non-profit-making company, Children's Film Foundation Ltd, which was set up in 1951 to make entertainment films for children under the supervision of Mary Field. This company is administered by representatives of the Four Trade Associations, and so is promoted by the industry as a whole.
The key to production is distribution; a film must pass the hurdle of Wardour Street if its production costs are to be retrieved. Nothing is better known in the industry than the axiom that without circuit distribution no British-made feature can regain its costs.
British cinema theatres are divided up roughly as follows :
The Odeon Circuit, owned by the J. Arthur Rank Organization. The Gaumont-British Circuit, also owned by the J. Arthur Rank
Organization. The Associated British Cinemas Circuit (in which Warner Brothers
have a 37 J% interest). The 'independent' cinemas (either grouped in circuits, like the
Essoldo circuit of over ninety theatres, or operating as single
independent theatres) .
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