Cinemas (Hansard, 10 July 1968)

§ Mr. Silvester

asked the President of the Board of Trade, (1) how many cinemas remained open at the end of the year; what was the total of admissions for the year; and how many were closed during the year for each category of cinema defined as is convenient by size of box office takings for each year from 1955 to 1967 or for such other periods as figures are available;

(2) how many cinemas remained open at the end of the year; what was the

NUMBERS OF CINEMAS AND ADMISSIONS 1955–67^*

1 Number of cinemas.

2 Change on previous year†.

3 Admissions (millions).

				Seating capacity
				Up to 500	501–1,000	1,001–1,500	1,501–2,000	Over 2,000	All Cinemas
1955	…	…	1	1,027	1,862	914	458	211	4,472
			2	-23	-18	-1	+2	+1	-39
			3	94	374	315	245	154	1,182
1956	…	…	1	992	1,786	898	448	201	4,325
			2	-35	-76	-16	-10	-10	-147
			3	89	350	292	229	141	1,101
1957	…	…	1	959	1,672	872	439	200	4,142
			2	-33	-114	-26	-9	-1	-183
			3	78	285	245	189	118	915
1958	…	…	1	887	1,531	821	437	188	3,864
			2	-72	-141	-51	-2	-12	-278
			3	64	223	201	165	101	755
1959	…	…	1	746	1,322	750	420	176	3,414
			2	-141	-209	-71	-17	-12	-450
			3	47	160	155	138	81	581
1960	…	…	1	652	1,165	667	397	153	3,034
			2	-94	-157	-83	-23	-23	-380
			3	39	136	133	125	68	501
1961	…	…	1	570	1,045	607	353	136	2,711
			2	-82	-120	-60	-44	-17	-323
			3	35	119	123	112	60	449
1962	…	…	1	481	919	561	334	126	2,421
			2	-89	-126	-46	-19	-10	-290
			3	29	104	110	100	53	395
1963	…	…	1	414	808	524	319	116	2,181
			2	-67	-111	-37	-15	-10	-240
			3	25	88	102	93	48	357
1964	…	…	1	390	749	514	293	111	2,057
			2	-24	-59	-10	-26	-5	-124
			3	24	83	103	86	47	343
1965	…	…	1	370	714	507	274	106	1,971
			2	-20	-35	-7	-19	-5	-86
			3	23	79	102	80	43	327
1966	…	…	1	342	668	480	263	94	1,847
			2	-28	-46	-27	-11	-12	-124
			3	20	69	92	73	35	289
1967	…	…	1	325	632	455	245	79	1,736
			2	-17	-36	-25	-18	-15	-111
			3	19	64	87	67	29	265
^* Up to and including 1958 the figures of numbers of cinemas relate to those operating during the final quarter of the year; the figures of admissions relate to all admissions during the year. From 1959 onwards the figures of the numbers of cinemas and of admissions relate to cinemas operating at the end of the year.
† The changes shown are the differences between the number of cinemas reporting at the end of each year. They thus represent the balance of cinemas closing during the year and those opening or re-opening.

76W

total of admissions for the year and how many were closed during the year, for each year from 1955 to 1967, for each of the categories of cinema defined by seating capacity of under 500, 501–1,000, 1,001–1,500, 1,501–2,000 and over 2,000, respectively.