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THE FILM AND THE PUBLIC
The three main circuits total some 950 theatres representing one-third of the total seating capacity of the country, and 44% of the total annual box-office; they also control about two-thirds of the 'first-run5 theatres in the key London area. The main theatres operating in the West End of London act normally as the advance 'shop window' for all the chief films before they are generally released (including the foreign language films on which the smaller specialized cinemas concentrate). The Warner Theatre (Warner Brothers), the Empire and Ritz (M.G.M.), the Carlton (Twentieth Century-Fox since 1954), the Plaza (Paramount) and the London Pavilion (United Artists) are controlled by the American distributors. The Rank Organization owns others, such as the Odeon, Leicester Square.
In order to provide their audiences with a constant change of programme, all these cinemas must draw on the products of American and British studios. Most cinemas (excluding those in the West End) show two feature films, and change their programmes weekly. They need from America and Britain every first feature film on which they can lay their hands, whatever its quality. The quota insists that most cinemas play films registered as British for 30% of their programmes. The rest of the time the product of Hollywood will be shown, though a very thin sprinkling of foreign-language films (either dubbed into English, or, more rarely, shown with sub-titles) has begun to find its way into provincial theatres. The Wages of Fear was the first foreignlanguage film to achieve a circuit release in Britain in its original tongue.
This, then, is the state of the industry in Britain to-day. I do not believe that the challenge of television is too great for the cinema to answer. In 1954, with the BBC's Television Service almost universally available in the country and with some four million receiving sets in action by the end of the year, cinema attendances showed an increase, not a decline. The need for good film entertainment will never cease ; the theatres, with the attraction they offer of a night out as a member of a large audience, will always prevail
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