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Cinemas and Cinema-Going in the United Kingdom: 4. Cinema exhibition, programming and audience preferences in Belfast

Cinemas and Cinema-Going in the United Kingdom
4. Cinema exhibition, programming and audience preferences in Belfast
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table of contents
  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents
  5. List of illustrations
  6. Acknowledgements
  7. List of abbreviations
  8. Introduction
  9. 1. Cinema-going experiences
  10. 2. The decline of cinema-going
  11. 3. Cinema-going and the built environment
  12. 4. Cinema exhibition, programming and audience preferences in Belfast
  13. 5. Film exhibition in post-war Sheffield
  14. Conclusion
  15. Appendices
  16. Bibliography
  17. Index

4. Cinema exhibition, programming and audience preferences in Belfast

In May 1945, the Belfast Telegraph reported that ‘the average patron may not be aware that no matter whether a cinema makes money or loses it, anything from 40 to 45 per cent of every shilling taken at the box office does not go into the cinema’s coffers but is handed over to the Minister of Finance in entertainment tax’.1 The fact that levies from cinema admissions constituted the lion’s share of total Entertainment Tax (referred to as Entertainments Duty by the Northern Ireland Ministry of Finance) reflects both the popularity of cinema-going and its fiscal importance to the Northern Ireland Government (see Table 4.1). Entertainments Duty was one of its few revenue generating powers, but it was a consistent thorn in the side of Belfast exhibitors. In his study of film exhibition and distribution in Ireland, Kevin Rockett outlined the policies of the Northern Ireland Government, changes in the rates of duty and the responses of cinema exhibitors.2 Here, however, the records of Entertainments Duty kept by the Ministry of Finance are used to investigate cinema exhibition, programming practices and audience preferences in post-war Belfast.3 Box-office data and records of individual cinemas are surprisingly rare and the creative use of taxation returns shows one way to overcome this paucity of primary source material. The detailed quantitative analysis presented here expands the geographical range of several historians who have used box-office figures and cinema listings to assess the cinema-going habits of particular UK communities.4 It also builds on the work of contemporary statisticians and economists who compiled data on audiences and exhibition in Great Britain, but who excluded Northern Ireland from their analysis.5

Table 4.1. Entertainments Duty receipts in Northern Ireland, 1949–60.

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The records contain statistics kept by the Ministry of Finance, details of alterations in the rates of Entertainments Duty and the weekly returns of most Northern Ireland cinemas. These allow for an investigation into the relationship between box-office revenue and Entertainments Duty during a period of rapidly declining attendances. The availability of weekly returns dictates the timeframe of this study as they are available only for the financial years ending March 1948, 1953, 1956 and 1961 (hereafter 1948–9, 1952–3, 1956–7 and 1960–1). The weekly returns were kept for financial purposes and show only dutiable admissions. As the minimum threshold for the payment of Entertainments Duty changed throughout the period under review the records provide a more accurate picture of attendance at cinemas that charged higher prices. In 1956–7, for example, the 56,784 admissions recorded at the Arcadian reflect its low ticket prices rather than its actual attendance figures.

The Ministry of Finance went to great lengths to ensure cinemas provided accurate data. The returns forms show that cinemas were inspected weekly and the Belfast Telegraph assured its readers that the Ministry of Finance ‘takes good care to see that a careful check is kept on all cinema returns and that the money due for entertainments tax is paid promptly’. It added that ‘patrons of any place of entertainment may not know that they can be called upon by any official of the Ministry to produce their half of the admission ticket’.6 In 1946, the Northern Ireland CEA reminded its members ‘that the patron must retain his half-ticket in case an entertainment tax inspector asked to see it’.7 The threat of prosecution also encouraged exhibitors to provide accurate returns and, in 1948, entertainment promoter Cecil Greenwood was fined £20 for failure to pay the full amount of duty.8 One drawback of the weekly returns is that they do not record the films shown by cinemas. By combining them with programme listings published in the Belfast Telegraph it is possible to examine programming practices and the changing nature of exhibition in the period under review. In his analysis of the film-booking patterns at the Queen’s Cinema, Portsmouth, Robert James argued that, even without data to indicate which films were most popular, film preferences gleaned from booking patterns ‘can be used as indicators of the popular mentalities and social attitudes’ of a particular community.9 By using the evidence provided by the Entertainments Duty summaries, it is possible to combine film listings and box-office data to investigate audience preferences and show the relative popularity of films in Belfast cinemas. These sources are supplemented by local newspapers, trade journals and oral history testimony that show how films were marketed, distributed and consumed in Belfast.

Five cinemas have been selected for detailed investigation: the Broadway, the Regent, the Ritz, the Strand and the Troxy (see Table 4.2). The choice of these five cinemas is designed to examine the differences between city centre cinemas and their inner-city and suburban counterparts, and to assess whether Belfast’s sectarian divide influenced audience preferences and cinema-going habits. The cinemas were located in different geographical areas of Belfast, catered for audiences with different religious and political identities, and served patrons with different levels of disposable income. The Regent, opened originally in 1911 as the Picture House, was located centrally on Royal Avenue. Before the construction of the 1930s ‘picture palaces’ such as the Ritz, it was one of the most upmarket Belfast cinemas and it was the first cinema to exhibit sound pictures when it screened The Singing Fool (US, 1928) in 1929. In 1947, local cinema chain Curran Theatres purchased the Picture House, renovated the building and reopened it as the Regent. This meant Curran Theatres owned eleven cinemas in Northern Ireland, including five in Belfast: the Apollo, the Astoria, the Broadway, the Regal and the Capitol. Kevin Rockett stated that Curran cinemas attracted a largely lower middle-class audience and Kine Weekly claimed that its venues catered for ‘black-coated workers’ such as civil servants and bank clerks.10 In 1948, the 850-seat Regent had its own café, and evening prices ranged from 1s 9d to 3s 6d.11 It acted as Curran’s first-run city centre cinema and had first preference on films distributed by Columbia. In December 1956, the Rank Organisation purchased the Curran chain and the Regent remained Odeon’s first-run cinema until it purchased the Royal Hippodrome in November 1960.12 The 1,380-seat Broadway was located on the largely nationalist and working-class Falls Road in west Belfast. It was one of Curran’s second-run cinemas and screened many films exhibited previously at the Regent. Local cinema historian James Doherty described it as ‘beyond comparison to any other cinema on the road’ and its higher status was reflected in its evening prices, which, in 1948, ranged from 10d to 2s 3d.13 In contrast, the highest priced tickets at the three other Falls Road cinemas – the Arcadian, the Clonard and the Diamond – cost 9d, 1s 6d and 8d respectively.

Table 4.2. Revenue, taxation and admissions in selected Belfast cinemas, 1948–61.

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The Ritz and the Strand were operated by ABC, which took control of the Union Cinemas chain in October 1938.14 The Ritz opened in 1936 and was a first-run cinema which had first preference on films distributed by Warner Brothers and MGM. Its 2,219 seating capacity made it Belfast’s largest cinema and, in 1952–3, its 1,252,019 recorded admissions were higher than any other of the city’s cinemas. Its prices were the highest of the five cinemas and, in April 1952, evening tickets ranged from 2s to 5s 6d. Kine Weekly believed that ‘everything about the Ritz, from its imposing exterior to the comfort of its seats and efficient and excellent acoustics, spells the Modern Efficient Super. The result is that four pay boxes hum so loudly as that huge aircraft factory not so many miles away’.15 Interviewees also highlighted the cinema’s upmarket nature, describing it as ‘totally different’ to other cinemas in Belfast.16 The 1,166-seat Strand opened in 1935 on Holywood Road, in the predominantly unionist area of Ballymacarett, east Belfast. Its architect, John McBride Neill, also designed the Alpha, the Apollo, the Picturedrome, the Majestic, the Curzon, the Troxy and the Lido. James Doherty described the cinema as ‘“junior” to Ulster’s premier cinema, the Ritz’. He recalled that ‘[t]he downtown quality films were handed down only three or four weeks later and for the many (most) who could not afford the expensive Ritz, they could be certain to see the new releases at the Strand’.17 The 1,164-seat Troxy opened on 24 October 1936 and was an independent, second-run cinema that exhibited many films screened previously at the Ritz and the Strand. The cinema’s location on Shore Road, between two residential properties, made it geographically the farthest from the city centre of the five cinemas. It was also the cheapest, and in April 1952, evening prices ranged from 9d to 2s. In 1944, Kine Weekly stated that the cinema was patronized by the ‘better middle-class residential type’.18 Eric Lennox, projectionist at the cinema in the late 1940s and early 1950s described it as ‘a respectable cinema’ in comparison to local ‘fleapits’, such as the Duncairn.19

1948–9: attendance patterns

The post-war restriction of consumer goods meant that money continued to pour into commercial leisure activities. Richard Farmer stated that ‘the age of austerity was marked less by poverty than paucity; there was money to be spent, but there was little to spend it on’ and exhibitors were well placed to take advantage of millions of habitual cinema-goers.20 From 1948 to 1949, however, UK attendances fell by 6 per cent from 1,514 million to 1,430 million. The decline in cinema attendance was less severe in Northern Ireland and the total number of recorded admissions fell by 3 per cent from 32.98 million in 1948 to 31.94 million in 1949.21 While the 1948–9 weekly returns do not provide admissions data, they do record daily box-office revenue and this allows us to assess the relative earning potential of cinemas and the financial success of particular films. In March 1948, tickets exceeding 3d were subject to Entertainments Duty and this includes all tickets sold by the five cinemas. Table 4.2 shows that the Ritz’s gross revenue of £129,611 was significantly higher than the Regent, which generated only £44,495. Both cinemas, however, paid a similar proportion of their revenue in the form of Entertainments Duty (39 per cent and 40 per cent respectively). The Broadway, the Strand and the Troxy generated less money from admissions but paid a smaller proportion of their revenue in Entertainments Duty (32 per cent, 35 per cent and 31 per cent respectively). The weekly returns do not record details of ancillary income from food, drink and cigarette sales. In 1951, Browning and Sorrell estimated that the average value of sales for each admission was 2.5d and this amount increased with the size of the cinema.22 The Ritz and the Regent also generated further revenue from their restaurants. The returns do not record outgoings such as wages, repairs and film hire. The latter formed a significant part of cinema expenditure and, in 1950, the Federation of British Film Makers calculated that film hire constituted 35 per cent of box-office revenue, less Entertainments Duty.23

In 1950, 74 per cent of cinemas in England, Scotland and Wales showed double feature programmes.24 They were the norm at all five cinemas and programmes also often included newsreels, cartoons, interest films and trailers. Larger cinemas, such as the Ritz, also featured organ performances from Stanley Wyllie, who regularly performed on the BBC Home Service.

In 1952, less than 0.5 per cent of UK cinemas kept their programmes unchanged for longer than a week. One quarter screened one programme a week and 60 per cent screened two programmes.25 In first-run city centre cinemas such as the Regent and the Ritz, programmes changed on a weekly basis and were exhibited for at least six days from Monday to Saturday. In 1950, 23 per cent of cinemas in Great Britain showed one programme a week and 62 per cent showed two programmes a week.26 In 1948–9, the Regent altered its programme on the fewest occasions and exhibited thirty-seven separate programmes. Twenty-four features were screened for a week, eleven first features were screened for a fortnight and two films had extended runs: The Assassin (US, 1947) was exhibited for three weeks and The Swordsman (US, 1947) was exhibited for four weeks. The Ritz, meanwhile, screened forty-five separate programmes and seven first features – including Johnny Belinda (US, 1948), My Wild Irish Rose (US, 1947) and Spring in Park Lane (UK, 1948) – were screened for two weeks. In second-run cinemas there was a greater emphasis on renewal and in most weeks the Broadway, the Strand and the Troxy changed their programmes on Monday and Thursday. The Troxy changed its programme most frequently and screened 100 separate programmes. Neither the Broadway, the Strand nor the Troxy screened any film for a period longer than a week.

The fact that Curran Theatres operated both the Regent and the Broadway meant that they screened many of the same films, and films that were successful at the former were generally also successful at the latter. In 1948– 9, seventeenth-century Scottish swashbuckler The Swordsman (US, 1948) was the highest grossing film at the Regent. It played for four weeks from 30 August 1948 and generated £3,801 in box-office revenue. The Broadway then screened it in the week beginning 6 December, where it was the fourth highest grossing film. ABC controlled three Belfast cinemas and many films exhibited at the Ritz were subsequently shown in the Majestic and the Strand. While the Troxy was independently owned, it screened many films previously exhibited at ABC cinemas. My Wild Irish Rose, for example, performed well at the Ritz, the Strand and the Troxy. As it moved down the chain of distribution it generated less revenue and was screened for a shorter period of time, allowing the distributor to maximize revenue. In 1948–9, it was the most successful film at the Ritz and yielded £7,321 in the two weeks beginning 20 December 1948. It was also the most successful film at the Strand and yielded £986 in the week beginning 24 January. In March, it was still popular with inner-city and suburban audiences and generated £420 at the Troxy. This shows that cinema-goers with less disposable income, who lived farther away from Belfast city centre, were prepared to wait for a film to work its way down the chain of distribution. Noel Spence, for instance, recalled that ‘we didn’t go to the Ritz that often, quite honestly, because we couldn’t afford it for a start, and secondly, we knew that the films they were playing as first runs, would, a few weeks later come, filter down to, either to Comber, or to some of the smaller suburban [Belfast] cinemas’.27

American first features predominated in all five cinemas and the proportion exhibited ranged from 57 per cent at the Ritz to 83 per cent at the Troxy. Cinemas in Northern Ireland were excluded from the British film quotas imposed on exhibitors in England, Scotland and Wales from 1927, which required distributors and exhibitors to take an increasing quota of British productions. In December 1946, William Wilton told the Northern Ireland senate that he was ‘amazed at the number of American films shown in Belfast in proportion to British pictures. In England it was necessary to show 25 per cent. of British films, but in Belfast any American rubbish could be screened’. Minister of Commerce Sir Roland Nugent, however, observed ‘that the British film had, by its own merits, won an increasing popularity in Northern Ireland’ and believed that many cinemas exceeded the British quota.28 In reality, many British cinemas failed to meet the film quota and Sue Harper and Vincent Porter argued that it ‘only really worked by consent, since the Board of Trade was unable to exert much real pressure on exhibitors’. In the year ending September 1952, there were only ten convictions of the 1,043 cinemas which failed to comply with the quota.29 The number of cinemas defaulting on the first feature quota fell to 431 in 1957.30

The Troxy’s ten highest grossing first features were American productions and the best performing British film – a 1947 re-release of Sanders of the River (UK, 1935) – was only the eighteenth highest-grossing first feature. The success or failure of other films had as much to do with the weather as the film itself. The Courtneys of Curzon Street (UK, 1947) was exhibited for three days from 17 May and generated only £145 in box-office revenue. This was the lowest figure of any programme and less than half the average of £303. This is surprising, given that the film is estimated to be the seventeenth most popular film of all time in the UK, with an overall attendance of 15.9 million.31 On 18 May, the Northern Whig reported on the unusually hot temperatures in Belfast and this clearly drew patrons away from the cinema.32 All five cinemas performed poorly from 17 to 19 May and the Broadway’s screening of Helzapoppin (US, 1941) generated only £107.

In 1948–9, the Ritz screened nineteen British first features and three of its ten highest-grossing first features at the Ritz were British productions: Spring in Park Lane (UK, 1948), My Brother Jonathan (UK, 1948) and An Ideal Husband (UK, 1947). Upper-class farce Spring in Park Lane, starring Anna Neagle, was the most successful of these and generated £6,372 in the two weeks beginning 3 January 1949. The success of this film is unsurprising given that it is recorded as having the fifth highest attendance figures (20.5 million) of any film ever exhibited in the UK.33 Weekly returns do not show whether tickets were purchased by men or women, but Mark Glancy claimed that the film’s success, alongside other ‘woman’s pictures’, such as The Wicked Lady and The Seventh Veil, ‘testifies to the importance of women as cinema-goers in the 1940s … and also to the appeal of films that addressed – however obliquely – the wartime upheavals in class and gender relations’.34

Why did the Ritz exhibit such a high proportion of British first features? The first reason is that it was controlled by ABC and, in 1948–9, the three major British circuits achieved 48 per cent of British first features. Meanwhile, 77 per cent of cinemas which defaulted on the quota were owned independently.35 Large chains had first access to the best British films. It is not necessarily that British films were unpopular in Belfast, but that independent cinemas found that there were not enough good British films to screen. The second reason is the August 1947 introduction of a 75 per cent ad valorem tax on US-imported films and the subsequent boycott of the British market by Hollywood film companies.36 Most Northern Ireland exhibitors were not immediately concerned by the American film duty as only four first-run cinemas were affected directly. The Irish Independent reported that as ‘agents in Belfast carry advance stocks of films for six to twelve months’ new showings, no immediate shortage of films from Hollywood is feared’. A spokesman for the Belfast cinema industry stated that ‘[t]here are a large number of top-of-the-bill pictures still to be exhibited in Northern Ireland’.37 Kine Weekly reported that, as cinemas were not subject to the British film quota, ‘most exhibitors are well into 1948 and some into 1949 in their bookings. By that time they say, in effect, the position will have remedied itself ’.38 As the boycott continued, Belfast exhibitors displayed greater concern. In February 1948, the Belfast Telegraph reported that ‘American companies, who maintain offices, film dumps and repair depots, having no films to offer are planning to close down … Other companies have reduced their staff and are to review their position in the near future’.39 The cinemas themselves fared better and it reported that:

Ulster’s film bookings as far as first run houses are concerned are six months after their English screening, except in a few cases, and this gives us a temporary relief. As some Belfast centre houses are able to run a film for two or three weeks they do not need such a big supply. Two of Belfast’s first houses belong to big British circuits who have the first call on the outputs of British studios, and with an occasional re-issue they will manage to make ends meet. 40

The Ritz was one of these cinemas and in 1948 it screened a large number of British films and American reissues. From March to September 1948, it exhibited Mrs. Miniver (US, 1942), Broadway Melody of 1940 (US, 1940), Northwest Passage (US, 1940) and City for Conquest (US, 1940). In April 1948, Kine Weekly reported that the revocation of the duty:

resulted in a headache for many Ulster exhibitors … Fearing a shortage of film product, they rushed to book any available box-office product, and not a few date-books are pencilled in as far as two years ahead. Now the crisis is over they have no dates free for any of the new American product which will be available in July. Renters are being asked by not a few exhibitors to release them from their contracts.41

The Ritz was clearly able to return to its normal exhibition practices. From October 1948 to March 1949, all films exhibited at the Ritz were produced in either 1947 or 1948 and the proportion of American films increased.

In 1948–9, all five cinemas booked few films produced outside either the US or the UK, and those that were exhibited tended to be particularly unpopular. From 8 to 11 December 1948, the Regent screened A Cage of Nightingales (France, 1946, Original Title: La Cage aux rossignols). The Monthly Film Bulletin described the film as ‘a touching and sentimental film, relieved by excellent moments of comedy’. It also, however, praised the school set as ‘grim and genuine; the singing in the dingy classrooms is as beautiful as the sunlit countryside that the boys are never allowed to see’.42 Both subtitled and dubbed versions of the film were released in the UK and even though the cinema emphasized the ‘English dialogue’ of the film in advertisements, it performed particularly badly.43 In 1948–9, it was the least successful film at the Regent and generated only £445 in box-office revenue, well below the average of £870. There were other outlets for foreign language films and, in April 1951, the Belfast Telegraph noted the large crowds at the Mayfair for a Belfast Institute Film Society midnight matinee of Jacques Tati’s comedy Jour de fête (France, 1949).44 In October 1951, the formation of the Queen’s University Film Society provided another forum for foreign language films. Its first show at the University’s Whitla Hall featured Sylvie et la Fantome (France, 1946) and Romantici a Venezia (Italy, 1948). The programme ‘was well received by an audience of upwards of 600’ and the society’s membership reached 858 by the end of its first season.45 In 1954, membership was capped at 1,200 and there was a ‘considerable waiting-list’. Programme secretary K. R. Shimeld used reaction sheets to infer that the most popular films it had screened were both French productions: Kermesse Heroique (France, 1935) and Les Enfants du Paradis (France, 1945).46

In Belfast, going to the pictures was a popular activity on public holidays, including Christmas Day. In 1946, Northern Ireland CEA members stated that ‘while a Christmas Day might not be profitable to exhibitors in Great Britain, it was a really profitable day in Ulster’.47 In 1948–9, it was the highest grossing day at the Regent and it generated £311. In 1948, the Northern Whig reported that ‘Northern Ireland cinemas controlled by the big British circuits will again be closed on Christmas day this year in accordance with the holiday agreement across the Channel’.48 While the Strand and the Ritz closed on Christmas Day, they performed well on preceding and subsequent days. My Wild Irish Rose was the second highest grossing film at the Ritz, where it screened for two weeks from 20 December 1948 and generated £7,321 in box-office revenue. On 12 July, a public holiday in Northern Ireland, all cinemas did good business and this day witnessed the sixth highest daily gross box-office revenue at the Broadway, the fifth at the Ritz, and the seventh at the Strand and the Troxy.

The day of the week was a key determinant of attendance. Despite their varying locations, programming and patronage, the revenue created by these cinemas was spread across the week in a similar manner. Saturday screenings were the greatest revenue generators. In 1948–9, the proportion of total revenue taken on Saturday ranged from 22 per cent at the Ritz, to 25 per cent at the Troxy. While it appears that Saturday was the most popular day for attendance, it is possible patrons were willing to spend more money on the more expensive seats at Saturday screenings. Monday was the second most lucrative day for all five cinemas, demonstrating that patrons were keen to view a new film at the first possible opportunity. The Regent and the Ritz changed their programmes on Mondays, but never on Thursdays. The Broadway, the Strand and the Troxy often changed their programmes on both a Monday and a Thursday. The proportion of box-office revenue generated by cinemas on Thursdays was similar across all five cinemas. It ranged only from 13.96 per cent at the Ritz, to 14.31 per cent at the Troxy. Even where new programmes were exhibited on Thursday, patrons preferred to attend Saturday screenings. Across all five cinemas, box-office revenue remained relatively constant during the week and increased sharply on Saturday. This indicates that cinema attendance was linked to the rhythms of daily life, with a core of people who attended habitually during the week, alongside an additional number of patrons, likely to have been children and young workers, who attended on Saturdays only. Belfast cinemas closed on Sunday and this may have generated increased demand for cinema attendance on other days. In the UK, there was wide variation in the levels of Sunday opening and admissions. The strength of nonconformist traditions in Scotland meant that, in 1951, only one in twelve cinemas opened and Sunday admissions were less than 1 per cent of total admissions. In the south of England, Sunday admissions were greater and constituted 12 per cent of total admissions.49

Ireland on the silver screen

One of the challenges for new cinema historians is to incorporate film texts into an analysis of the social experience of cinema-going without resorting to an assessment of visual aesthetics and style. According to Daniel Biltereyst et al., studies of film programming and exhibition offer an opportunity to show that ‘there is no antagonism between new cinema historiography and the examination of films’.50 By investigating the exhibition and consumption of Captain Boycott (UK, 1947) and The Quiet Man (US, 1952), it is possible to reveal the popularity of Irish-themed films in Belfast, demonstrate methodological problems in the study of audience preferences and highlight the danger in assuming that the main feature was the primary attraction for audiences. British historical drama Captain Boycott depicted the defeat of Captain Charles Boycott in the Irish Land War of the 1880s. It starred Cecil Parker as Captain Boycott, Robert Donat as Charles Parnell and Stewart Granger as Hugh Davin. On 1 September 1947, Captain Boycott’s world premiere was held at the Gaumont Haymarket in London.51 The film reached Belfast’s Classic, a first-run city centre cinema, on 1 December and was such a success that it was retained for a second week.52 It is likely that the supporting feature – a Technicolor film of the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten – also contributed to its success. There is no evidence to suggest that this combination of Irish historical nationalism and contemporary British royalty led to controversy in Belfast cinemas, and it is possible that the support feature constituted the main attraction. In 1948–9, Captain Boycott was the highest grossing film at the Broadway and, in the week beginning 29 March 1948, it generated £1,190 in box-office revenue, £449 greater than the next highest grossing film that year. It is likely that patrons at the Broadway were attracted to a film that depicted historical events in Ireland, and one that focused on Irish politics and identity. Despite its content, it held broad appeal and a Belfast Telegraph’s review stated that if ‘you go in search of entertainment, putting your political views with your hat under your seat, you will find this film grand value for money’.53 The Broadway booked Captain Boycott because they believed it would attract patrons to their cinema. Nevertheless, there are a range of factors that contributed to its success and the first feature was not necessarily the main attraction. The supporting feature was the film of the World Flyweight Championship boxing fight between Rinty Monaghan and Jackie Patterson that took place at Belfast’s King’s Hall on 23 March 1948. Monaghan lived in Little Corporation Street, north Belfast, and had popular appeal in the area. Following the fight, the Belfast Telegraph reported that ‘all the streets in the dock area had bonfires. Crowds paraded up and down the streets running between York Street and Little Corporation Street dancing. Singing. Shouting’.54 The fact that tickets for the fight itself ranged from £2 2s to £10 10s meant that this film presented a more affordable alternative for most spectators.55 While the fight was broadcast live on the BBC Light Programme, the cinema provided the only opportunity to view footage of the contest. Monaghan attended a preview of the film at the Regent and, in April, was presented with his World Flyweight Championship belt at a reception in its restaurant.56 The film was screened at all Curran cinemas from Monday 29 March.57 Belfast docker-turned-poet/writer John Campbell recalled watching footage of the fight at the Alhambra: ‘A cheer went up when the referee raised Rinty’s hand and he grabbed a microphone with his free hand to belt out A Brokenhearted Clown. The cinema bar was full that night, as it often was when fights were shown’.58 The timing of its exhibition was also crucial to its success. In 1948, Easter Monday fell on 29 March and it was the highest grossing day at the Broadway and the Troxy. In Belfast, Easter was traditionally a popular time for cinema-going and programmes during this week were popular in all five cinemas. The main feature’s Irish theme, local interest in Rinty Monaghan and the fact that Easter was a popular time for cinema attendance all contributed to the success of Captain Boycott at the Broadway. This example demonstrates the difficulty of disentangling the number of factors that attracted patrons to the Broadway during this particular week.

On 6 June 1952, the world premiere of The Quiet Man (US, 1952) was held simultaneously in Dublin and London. This film depicts an imagined and idealized version of Ireland and follows the return of American émigré Sean Thornton (John Wayne) to his native Galway village, where he falls for Mary Kate Danaher (Maureen O’Hara).59 On 18 August, it was screened privately at the Ritz to a ‘specially invited audience of shop assistants, bus conductors, housewives, factory workers and others’. The Belfast Telegraph described it as ‘one of the most refreshing films with an Irish setting to reach the screen for a long time’ and predicted that it ‘should enjoy a longer-than-average run’.60 Reviewer Harris Deans stated the film was ‘joyous entertainment for those who don’t take their nationality too seriously. It is seldom I have heard such happy laughter in a cinema as at the Press showing of John Ford’s film’.61 It formed part of the Ritz’s regular programme for five weeks from 18 August 1952. Table 4.3 shows that it was by far the most successful film in 1952–3 and the sale of 195,485 tickets generated £23,617 in box-office revenue. The Northern Whig reported that while the record run in a Belfast cinema was a seven-week screening of Gone with the Wind, it had two daily screenings while the The Quiet Man had four.62

Table 4.3. Ten highest-grossing films at the Ritz, 7 April 1952 to 28 March 1953.

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The nature of attendance for The Quiet Man was exceptional. In 1952–3, no other film was screened for a period longer than two weeks and when films were screened for two weeks, they usually sold significantly fewer tickets during their second week of exhibition. For instance, The African Queen (US/ UK, 1952) sold 33,014 tickets in its first week of exhibition and 19,084 in its second. Attendances for The Quiet Man remained steady for the first three weeks of exhibition with 41,554, 42,727 and 40,510 admissions respectively. Only in the last two weeks of exhibition did admissions fall to 34,861 and 35,833 respectively. During its fourth week, The Quiet Man was supported by Irish Symphony and a fashion display of Irish linen organized by the Irish Fashion Guild, which involved ‘a team of mannequins, drawn from a Belfast agency, [who] presented 43 models in 20 minutes’, accompanied by music from the Ritz organist Stanley Wylie.63 On 15 September, cinema listings emphasized The Quiet Man’s sustained popularity and one advertisement read: ‘definitely last week, 155,000 people must be right. It is your last opportunity to see this happy wonderful picture’.64

Large attendance figures during a single week of exhibition do not indicate that a film was well received by those who attended. Patrons attended films for many reasons, and a large number of admissions may have been the result of a successful marketing campaign or the appearance of a particular star. Its leading man, John Wayne, was a particular draw and in 1951 was the highest grossing western star in UK cinemas.65 The sustained interest in The Quiet Man though, and the fact that attendances remained stable until its fourth week of exhibition, indicates that the film received a highly positive reception. Table 4.4 shows that the number of admissions in all Belfast cinemas totalled at least 310,000 and it is likely that many of residents paid to see the film on several occasions.66 John Campbell attested to its cultural impact:

Perhaps we were naïve to identify with the characters and plots then … Male cinema goers squared their shoulders and swelled their chests as they identified with John Wayne when he hauled Maureen O’Hara across meadow and field in the scene which culminated in an angry and bloody confrontation with her ‘broth of a boyo’ brother, Victor McLaglan, who had been foolish enough to cast aspersions on John’s masculinity.67

The film performed well during subsequent exhibition in Belfast cinemas. The Strand exhibited the film for two weeks from 27 October and, in 1952–3, it was the only film to be shown for a period longer than a week. It was the most successful film of the year and the sale of 26,643 tickets generated £2,076 in box-office revenue. This also indicates that this Irish-themed film was popular in predominantly unionist areas of Belfast. It became the second highest grossing first feature at the Troxy, where it screened for six days from 1 December 1952 and sold 11,813 tickets. While Kine Weekly included The Quiet Man in their annual survey of the fifteen highest grossing films, the strong performance in these cinemas indicates that it was disproportionately popular in Belfast.68

Table 4.4. Exhibition of The Quiet Man in Belfast.

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Further Irish-themed films were popular with Belfast audiences throughout the period under review. ‘Thousands besieged the Classic’ at its first showing of Belfast-set Odd Man Out (UK, 1947) and the audience’s reaction ‘seemed to promise a profitable future for the production’, reported the Irish Independent.69 This was the first major film to deal with the conflict in Northern Ireland, featuring James Mason as a member of an ‘illegal organisation’ shot during an armed robbery. The presence of the Royal Ulster Constabulary at the film’s premiere prevented it from becoming a Republican rallying point and no major incidents were recorded.70 John Ford’s previous film, Rio Grande (US, 1950), was more controversial than the The Quiet Man and city centre managers had to display sensitivity to Belfast’s political divisions. In 1952, Royal Hippodrome manager Basil Lapworth ‘saw trouble brewing’ and removed part of the reel containing footage of the nationalist ballad The Bold Fenian Men.71 Captain Boycott held long-lasting appeal and, in 1956, the Regent and the Broadway exhibited it as the supporting feature for The March Hare (UK, 1956), advertising it as ‘an excellent all-Irish programme’. In January 1958, Kine Weekly reported that The Story of Esther Costello (UK, 1957) was ‘doing exceptional business’ in its fourth week at the Regent and that ‘added to its gripping content is the fact that part of it is set in Ireland’.72 In July 1958, a double feature programme of Rooney (UK, 1958) and a reissue of Belfast-set Jacqueline (UK, 1956) did ‘exceptional business last week at the Gaumont despite the fact that the weather was brilliant and most people were preparing for holidays’. It added that Jacqueline, which performed well in its first run, ‘is still setting the box-offices jingling. Which just proves that there are horses for courses and that anything with a bit of Irish flavour is lapped up greedily in the North as well as the South’.73 Other films with Belfast links were popular and, before the release of Titanic drama A Night to Remember (UK, 1958), one report suggested that ‘since the Titanic was built in Belfast and since the film has many Ulster actors, cinema people are prophesying broken records with this Rank release’.74 After its release, one reported stated it was ‘doing first-class business at the Royal Hippodrome’.75

1952–3: changing habits

In 1952–3 the records of thirty-four Belfast cinemas reveal a total of 16.46 million admissions. As Belfast’s population was 443,671, this equates to an average of thirty-eight cinemas admissions per head. Browning and Sorrell calculated that, in 1950, there were twenty-eight cinema admissions per head in Great Britain and thirty-seven admissions in towns with a population of over 100,000. Belfast’s figure is similar to British cities such as Edinburgh (thirty-seven), Sheffield (thirty-nine) and Leicester (thirty-six).76 In Great Britain, the average ticket price rose from approximately 1s 5d in 1949 to 1s 8d in 1952.77 In 1952–3 the average ticket price in the five cinemas was 1s 9d and this ranged from 1s 2d at the Troxy to 2s 5d at the Ritz. The Ritz’s comparatively high prices distort the figure for average ticket price and it is likely that the figure for all cinemas in Belfast was lower than the average calculated by Browning and Sorrell. It was only in 1960 that price increases meant that prices in Northern Ireland became ‘more or less comparable’ with prices in similar areas in Great Britain.78 In 1949, the Northern Ireland government raised the minimum threshold for the payment of Entertainments Duty from 3d to 5d. In September 1952, it raised it further to 7d, causing twenty-five Northern Ireland cinemas to alter their admission prices.79 The Broadway, the Regent and the Ritz increased their most expensive ticket prices. The Ritz, for instance, increased its dress circle prices by 3d from 3s 9d to 4s.

In Belfast, the greatest number of admissions were recorded at the Ritz (1,252,019), the Gaumont (998,429) and the Royal Hippodrome (827,874). The lowest figure was recorded at the Arcadian (60,333), though it is likely that many of its admissions fell below the minimum threshold for Entertainments Duty payments and were not recorded. From 1948–9 to 1952–3, gross box-office revenue decreased at the Broadway and the Troxy, yet increased at the Regent, the Ritz and the Strand. The most significant increase was at the Ritz, where gross box-office revenue increased by 21 per cent from £129,610 to £156,302. Payments to Entertainment Duty, however, increased by 26 per cent from £51,151 to £64,409. In 1952–3, across the five cinemas, 34 per cent of gross revenue was spent on Entertainment Duty. Again, this figure varied widely between cinemas from 28 per cent at the Troxy to 41 per cent at the Ritz. The fact that Northern Ireland cinemas did not contribute to the British Film Production Fund (also known as the Eady Levy) provided some relief. In 1952, cinemas in Great Britain received gross takings of £109.9 million, paid £38.1 million in Entertainments Duty and a further £2.9 million to the British film production fund. This meant that they paid 37 per cent of gross takings in tax.80

In spite of anxieties about the price sensitivity of audiences, cinema proprietors risked charging higher prices for special performances. The Ritz held an annual St Patrick’s Day charity midnight matinee, which often featured advance screenings, premieres and personal appearances of film stars. Prices were higher than at normal screenings and special late-night transport was arranged for patrons. In 1952, the Ritz held the Northern Ireland premiere of The African Queen in aid of the Cinematograph Trade Benevolent Fund. While normal evening prices ranged from 1s 10d to 3s 9d, prices for this screening ranged from 5s to 21s. The Belfast Telegraph reported that ‘every seat was occupied’ and the evening featured a personal appearance by film star Michael Denison and a ‘stage show with local and cross-Channel artists’.81 The African Queen was then exhibited at the Ritz for two weeks from 14 April and the sale of 52,098 tickets generated £6,588. The 1953 midnight matinee featured the screening of The Prisoner of Zenda, the appearance of John McCallum and performances by comedian Jimmy O’Dea, the Dixilanders and the Metro Five.82 ABC also organized New Year’s Eve midnight matinees in the Majestic, the Ritz and the Strand. In 1952, for instance, the Strand’s ‘Grand Midnight Matinee’ attracted a capacity crowd for Annie Get Your Gun (US, 1950), the Strandtown Silver Band and the finals of its amateur talent contest.

Though children’s matinee screenings and programmes targeted at younger audiences generated less box-office revenue, they were an important part of the cinema programme. Browning and Sorrell estimated that attendances at special children’s performances accounted for 4 per cent of all cinema admissions and about one-fifth of all children’s admissions.83 In 1946, the Gaumont-British Junior Club began at the Classic and, on 10 September 1949, over 2,000 children attended the first ABC minor’s club matinees at the Strand and the Majestic.84 Films were often accompanied by personal appearances and stage performances. In June 1952, Arthur Lucan demonstrated his intergenerational appeal, appearing onstage as his Irish washerwoman character Old Mother Riley, where he ‘was given a tremendous reception by the kiddies before being besieged by their equally enthusiastic parents outside the theatre after the show’.85 In August 1953, ventriloquist Edgar Bergen appeared with ‘Charlie MCarthy’. The ABC News stated that children in care were invited from the Victoria Homes and Glendhu Hostel and ‘a highlight of this enormously popular visit was the ceremony of making Charlie McCarthy an A.B.C. Minor. Charlie was presented with an A.B.C. Coronation Cap and Coronation Badge’.86 The fact that the Strand paid no Entertainment Duty on children’s matinee tickets means that they cost under 6d. In 1952–3, admissions to children’s matinees generated £1,227 in box-office revenue and constituted 3 per cent of the total box-office revenue.

In 1952–3, the Ritz and the Strand opened on Christmas Day. Over the Christmas period, the Ritz targeted its programme at children and family audiences and, in the week beginning 29 December, it exhibited Jack and the Beanstalk (US, 1952), supported by the Roy Rogers western Trigger Junior (US, 1952). It was the seventh highest grossing programme of 1952–3. The sale of 866 children’s matinee tickets was more than double the amount in any other week. Noel Spence was born in 1944 and recalled his first cinema-going experience:

My Mother took us … to the Ritz in Belfast to see Abbott and Costello in Jack and the Beanstalk and the damage was done, you know, we were so absorbed by the whole experience. This huge big dark cinema and the giant and the colour pictures and the excitement, the music, and the atmosphere and the thrills, the whole – the film now, when you watch it now, is absolutely awful. But we were absolutely hooked then.87

Jean McVeigh was born in 1943 and recalled that trips to the cinema with her two brothers were ‘always part of our Christmas activities’. She remembered that ‘on Boxing Day they had a children’s programme in the Ritz. The day after Christmas everybody was off school … I don’t know if somebody took us, or whether we just went by ourselves’.88

The Regent hosted a variety of special children’s screenings. On 18 October 1952, the BBC organized a private screening of Alice in Wonderland (US, 1951) and Beaver Valley (US, 1950) for its Junior Critic Circle. Patrons aged from eight to eighteen were asked for their views on the film, which were then broadcast on the Home Service’s Children’s Hour.89 Other films were used for educational purposes and, on 25 October, the Regent held a private screening of Orson Welles’s Macbeth (US, 1951) at which ‘many teachers from local schools and colleges attended’.90 It was then shown in the week beginning 4 November, which saw 12,132 admissions. The film’s success was aided by the fact that special morning matinees for children were held at 10 am, with admissions priced 1s and 1s 6d.

Cinemas hosted multiple audiences and films aimed solely at adults were often successful. On 16 January 1951, the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC) wrote to the Belfast Corporation Police Committee and informed them of the new ‘X’ certificate ‘to cover films which were wholly adult in theme or treatment and from which children under sixteen should be excluded’.91 By July 1951, the BBFC had awarded an ‘X’ certificate to seventeen films.92 However, in October the Northern Ireland Ministry of Home Affairs ruled that existing arrangements were satisfactory and ‘that it was not intended to exhibit category “X” films in Northern Ireland’.93 These comments were ill-informed and, in March 1952, the ABC district manager wrote to the Police Committee stating that Murder Incorporated (US, 1951) and A Streetcar Named Desire (US, 1952) were booked for exhibition at the Ritz, Majestic and Strand.94 The Committee held private viewings of these films and granted permission for both to be shown under the conditions of the ‘X’ category certificate. This contrasted with the Irish Republic, where film censor Richard Hayes made twenty-seven cuts to Streetcar.95 In the week beginning 5 May 1952, the Ritz exhibited Streetcar and the 27,140 viewers made it the ninth most successful film in 1952–3. In June 1952, the 24,435 admissions recorded for Murder Incorporated was almost identical to the weekly average of 24,445. Large cinema chains in Britain generally avoided screening ‘X’ certificated films and Steve Chibnall has argued that ‘powerful exhibition circuits were suspicious of a certificate which would exclude much of their regular audience and thus reduce their ticket sales’.96 Harper and Porter further noted that ABC ‘relaxed its policy when it found that Warners’ Murder Incorporated and A Streetcar Named Desire … did better business in the big cities than elsewhere’.97 In Belfast, these ‘X’ certificated films performed better in the Ritz than they did with suburban audiences at the Strand, where A Streetcar Named Desire and Murder Incorporated generated £292 and £386 respectively, well below the cinema’s average of £443.

1956–7: declining fortunes

From 1953 to 1957, the introduction of television, population shifts, the rise in consumer culture and greater affluence meant that UK cinema admissions fell by 29 per cent from 1,285 million to 915 million.98 In Northern Ireland decline was less precipitous and admissions fell by 15 per cent from 28,374,000 in 1953 to 24,123,000 in 1957.99 Belfast cinemas fared better than Northern Ireland as a whole and recorded admissions fell by just 7 per cent (see Table 4.5). This meant that in Belfast the annual attendance per head of population of thirty-four was almost twice as high as the figure of eighteen for England, Scotland and Wales.100 Cinema attendance declined unevenly across Belfast and the greatest proportional decline was experienced at the Ambassador, where admissions fell by 26 per cent from 386,583 to 287,213. At the Royal Hippodrome and the Crumlin Picture House, admissions even increased by 10 per cent and 8 per cent respectively. Of the two first-run city centre cinemas under review, the decline at the Ritz was far greater than at the Regent and admissions declined by 12 per cent and 6 per cent respectively. The Troxy suffered a greater decline than the Broadway or the Strand and admissions fell by 14 per cent. The extent of this decline, in part, is attributable to the opening of the Lido in March 1955, which was located less than a mile away from the Troxy, and operated by the same company, Troxy Cinemas Ltd.101

Table 4.5. Dutiable admissions at Belfast cinemas, 1952–3 and 1956–7.

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A direct comparison between the first-run Broadway and the second-run Regent shows the impact of changes in cinema attendance on different cinemas that were part of the same circuit. From 1952–3 to 1956–7, admissions at the Broadway fell by 7 per cent from 489,899 to 455,199. Increases in ticket prices meant that box-office revenue fell by only 4 per cent. Admissions at the Regent fell by 6 per cent from 473,564 to 443,273, yet gross box-office revenue increased by 5 per cent. Table 4.6 shows the tickets sold at the Broadway and the Regent in each seating category. It shows that from 1952–3 to 1956–7, the most significant decline in ticket sales occurred in the cheapest front stalls seats. The fact that admissions for balcony seats increased, despite falling attendances, demonstrates that while many former patrons were no longer attending the cinema, those who remained had greater amounts of disposable income and were willing to spend more on admission. The Regent charged much higher prices than the Broadway, and while this meant that it paid a larger proportion of its gross box-office revenue in Entertainments Duty, its net revenue was still much greater.

Table 4.6. Dutiable admissions at the Broadway and the Regent, 1952–61.

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These changes allowed the Regent to increase its earning potential. For example, in the week beginning 6 August 1956, the Broadway screened Safari (UK/US, 1956), and yielded £711 from the sale of 10,083 tickets; 3,912 admissions were for the front stalls, 4,220 for the back stalls and 1,951 for the balcony. In the week beginning 16 July, the Regent screened Picnic (US, 1956) and yielded £1,145 from 10,011 admissions. The proportion of cinema-goers purchasing tickets in each price category was also broadly similar and it sold 3,459 admissions for the front stalls, 4,660 for the back stalls and 1,802 for the balcony. Despite almost identical ticket sales, the Regent paid £423 in Entertainments Duty compared to the Broadway’s figure of £200.

Ticket prices at the Regent were far higher than at the Broadway, yet they incurred greater amounts of Entertainments Duty. In the Broadway, evening tickets ranged from 1s in the front stalls to 2s 6d in the balcony, and these tickets incurred 1.75d and 1s Entertainments Duty respectively. In the Regent, the equivalent tickets cost 1s 6d (5.5d) and 3s 6d (1s 5d). This again shows that cinemas which charged exponentially higher prices for their more expensive seats were better placed to take advantage of the changes in audience composition discussed in previous chapters.

The decline in US cinema admissions meant that Hollywood produced fewer films and the number of feature length films registered in the UK declined from 260 in 1950 to 200 in 1955, and then to 142 in 1960.102 Consequently, many US distribution companies closed their provincial film offices. In October 1956, Paramount Film Services closed its Garfield Street office and transferred all dispatch arrangements to their Shankill Road depot.103 In November, MGM closed its Northern Ireland office and stated that ‘there are fewer films to handle and the general condition of the film industry demands economies’.104 This meant that it became more difficult for cinemas further down the distribution chain to fill two double feature programmes every week – a 1958 report stated that many exhibitors ‘feel that a film is often taken away from a cinema before it has drawn its maximum audience’.105 Meanwhile, larger cinemas increasingly relied on a smaller number of event films that allowed them to generate greater amounts of box-office revenue from extended runs. The same report suggested that the problems involved in extended runs ‘are indeed great, and it is easy enough for administrative apathy to regard them as too great’. There had been an increasing number of ‘films being released outside the normal pattern and a substantial trend in this direction may have already started’.106 The exhibition of War and Peace (US, 1956) at the Ritz in March 1957 provides an example of this trend. Attendance figures and box-office data exist only for the first of its three-week exhibition, though they demonstrate the potential for creating extra revenue through the policy of charging higher admission prices for certain films. In March 1957, evening prices at the Ritz ranged from 2s 4d in the front stalls to 4s 3d in the dress circle. For screenings of War and Peace ‘special’ raised prices were introduced which ranged from 2s 9d in front stalls to 5s 3d in the dress circle. 125 patrons paid as much as 6s to book circle reservations. In its first week of exhibition, the Ritz generated £3,940 from the sale of 22,385 admissions. These screenings were non-continuous and there were two separate performances at 2.50 and 7 pm. 16,740 tickets were sold for evening performances and 5,520 for matinee performances. The film was exhibited for a further two weeks, though from 25 March, the Belfast Telegraph advertised the film as ‘3¾ hours of entertainment at normal prices’.107

Trade journals often foregrounded the weather as a key determinant of cinema attendance. On 5 July, for instance, Kine Weekly reported that the beginning of the holiday season ‘was preceded by a spate of unusually good weather’.108 In the week beginning 25 June, the Ritz recorded only 13,280 admissions. This was the second lowest figure in 1956–7 and well below the average of 20,899. On 26 July, Kine Weekly reported that a run of good weather meant that only three programmes attracted good crowds: Picnic (US, 1955) at the Regent, The Court Jester (US, 1955) at the Royal Hippodrome, and The Man with the Golden Arm (US, 1955) at the Imperial.109 In 1956–7, Picnic screened for four weeks and was the second most successful film at the Regent, generating £4,528 from the sale of 39,567 admissions.

Public health concerns also had an impact on cinema attendance. In October 1957, the Belfast Telegraph claimed that, due to a recent global influenza epidemic, ‘audiences in Belfast were down by between one third and a half, and that, in the larger cinemas, box-office revenue declined by up to £2,000 over the past four weeks’. It added that a ‘few years ago a similar ’flu epidemic would not have had such a serious effect on the entertainment industry. But now with the counter attraction of television many people prefer to remain at home when there is a possibility of infection’.110 In December 1957, Kine Weekly reported that attendances were still struggling after the influenza epidemic and exhibitors were ‘hopeful that the approach of the Christmas season will see a swing back again to full houses and queues outside the cinema’.111

Long-term structural changes in employment also contributed to declining admissions:

Shipbuilding, upon which a larger proportion of the Belfast population depends for livelihood, is in healthy condition, but has hit a bad patch and pay-offs in the aircraft industry, with the suggestion of more to come, have directly affected the entertainment industry. A major exhibitor said that the good pictures – well backed up with exploitation – were still playing a pretty tune at the box-offices. The proportionate fall-off was much worse with the poorer features.112

In January 1958, Kine Weekly reported that the ‘holiday season brought the crowds back to Belfast cinemas after a period of several months during which receipts dropped badly’.113 By June 1958, a cut in Entertainments Duty, the settlement of an eleven-week shipyard strike and the arrival of several ‘good box-office pictures’ meant that Belfast’s cinema industry was in a healthier state.114 The Young Lions (US, 1958), for instance ‘gathered queues at the Belfast Imperial for five weeks and so justified George Lodge’s “new look” policy in the cinema’.115

Alan Burton and Steve Chibnall have argued that, as cinema admissions declined, British cinema exhibitors intensified their promotional activities. Trade journals such as Kine Weekly encouraged exhibitors to compete for the most effective promotional campaigns and distributors issued campaign books suggesting ways for exhibitors to exploit films through the use of localized promotions with neighbouring businesses. They argue that ‘foyer displays and front-of-house publicity became the most frequently used means of exploitation’ as these added an experiential dimension to cinema-going. Street-stunts were also an important advertising tool, and, ‘as with shop-window and foyer displays – certain themes and genres readily offered themselves for interpretation and exploitation’.116 Promotional activity increased during the 1950s and the most outlandish promotional stunt was the appearance of ‘Buck Alec’ Robinson’s lion to promote A Lion is in the Streets (US, 1953) at Belfast’s Majestic. Patrons were assured they should not fear for their safety and were ‘advised that rifles are not necessary. Certain precautions are being taken’.117 Over 1,000 people came to see the lion and the Northern Whig reported that ‘the more he growled and snarled, the more the young members of his audience enjoyed it, as they perched on parents’ shoulders, hung from convenient lampposts, stood on nearby walls, sat on top of the furniture van or milled closely round the cage itself ’.118

Strong promotional campaigns often led to high attendance figures and mitigated the impact of external factors on cinema attendance. In July 1956, Royal manager C. M. King stated that, despite the good weather, its first double horror bill in twelve months performed ‘surprisingly well’ and the use of a forty-five-foot poster outside the cinema helped to increase admissions.119 In January 1957, Kine Weekly reported that Columbia’s Zarak (UK, 1957) and MGM’s Guys and Dolls (US, 1955), ‘both heralded by plenty of publicity … opened in Belfast to exceptional business’ at the Regent and the Ritz respectively.120 In 1956–7, Guys and Dolls was the third most popular film at the Ritz and Zarak, meanwhile, was the third most popular film at the Regent. Its manager, Frank Murray, was described as ‘one of the most enterprising cinema managers in Belfast’. To promote The Solid Gold Cadillac (US, 1956), he arranged for a 1928 Cadillac to tour the city with posters claiming that ‘this vintage Cadillac may make you smile, but “The Solid Gold Cadillac,” a 22 carat comedy … is guaranteed to make you laugh’.121 The film performed well and in the two weeks beginning 12 November 1956 attracted 16,318 viewers. To promote The Eddy Duchin Story (US, 1956), Murray ‘organised a singing and piano playing competition in conjunction with the Plaza ballroom’.122 Newspaper listings advertised an Eddy Duchin wedding cake competition and asked pianists to ‘enter for Eddy Duchin Piano Trophy at Plaza Ballroom’.123 In the four weeks beginning 8 October, it sold 37,400 tickets and was the fourth best attended film of the year.

1960–1: changing exhibition

In 1960, the chancellor of the exchequer abolished Entertainment Tax in Great Britain. Despite pressure from cinema exhibitors, Northern Ireland finance minister Terence O’Neill did not follow suit and, in May 1960, stated that ‘the first £20 of duty payable by a cinema in any week will be remitted, so that a small cinema which does not reach £20 of duty in a week will pay no tax at all and the bigger cinemas will be relieved at the rate of £1,040 a year’.124 He claimed that large city centres were still performing well and that ‘the concession is aimed specifically at helping the cinema which is in the greatest difficulty’.125

These changes in the rates of Entertainments Duty mean that many admissions were no longer documented and the records for 1960–1 provide a less reliable indication of audience preferences. They are most accurate for the large city centre cinemas that charged higher prices. Box-office data for the Ritz is incomplete and covers only the weeks from 21 March 1960 to 23 April 1960, 30 May 1960 to 2 July 1960, and 20 March 1961 to 27 May 1961. Nonetheless, they provide a rough indication of the decline in admissions. In the five weeks beginning 19 March 1956, admissions totalled 103,297. This number fell to 70,562 in the five weeks beginning 21 March 1960. Its city centre rivals experienced similar declines and admissions at the Gaumont fell from 939,457 to 676,938. The records for the Broadway and the Regent are extent for the period from 21 March 1960 to the abolition of Entertainments Duty on 27 May 1961. At the Regent, the same price categories are recorded in 1956–7 and 1960–1 and admissions fell from 443,273 to 353,958. From 1956–7 to 1960–1 recorded admissions at the Broadway fell from 455,119 to 218,309. The fact that matinee tickets from the Troxy’s 1960–1 records are excluded mean that the 67 per cent decline in attendance is exaggerated.

Although attendances were in decline, cinemas were still able to generate large amounts of revenue from individual films. In March 1958, Kine Weekly reported on the excellent performance of Columbia’s Bridge on the River Kwai (UK/US, 1957): ‘It is collecting handsome queues outside the Belfast Gaumont every day’. The film was helped by positive media coverage and its selection as film of the week by BBC Northern Ireland.126 Even smaller inner-city cinemas reported record attendances and, in January 1959, Crumlin Picture House manager H. W. Bell claimed that Rock-a-Bye Baby (US, 1958) broke five records in a single week: ‘[b]est ever six-day take; the best ever Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday take; best Thursday, Friday and Saturday take; best individual day and best attendance for a six-day film’.127 In 1960, reporter Martin Wallace stated that while city centre centres were still doing good business from films with wide appeal such as Gigi (US, 1958), South Pacific (US, 1958) and The Nun’s Story (US, 1959), ‘it is difficult to say what makes a success – and safe to say that only a few films hit the jackpot’.128

A case study of Ben-Hur (US, 1959) demonstrates that large cinemas increasingly relied on longer runs, separate screenings and advanced seat booking. On 21 March 1961, ‘clergymen of all denominations’ attended a preview of Ben-Hur at the Ritz and members of the press were then entertained by MGM’s Richard Hawkins and ABC executive Stanley Mills. The Belfast Telegraph informed readers that the film ‘begins with an extended season there with a gala premiere on April 10 … Booking has already begun for the film, which will be shown daily with matinees on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Arrangements have been made to accept party bookings of 50 to 2,100 patrons’.129 Prices were increased for Ben-Hur and reserved seats ranged from 5s in the front stalls to 10s 6d in the front circle. Normal prices were 2s 6d in the front stalls and 4s 6d in the front circle. These price increases did not deter patrons and the films was exhibited for nine weeks. During its first seven weeks of exhibition, it generated £24,394 from the sale of 71,575 tickets. Evening performances were substantially more popular than their matinee counterparts. On 17 April, for instance, the Ritz generated £200 from the matinee and £713 for evening exhibition. Attendances decreased significantly during its exhibition. In the week beginning 10 April, 12,324 admissions were recorded and this fell to 6,374 in its seventh week of exhibition. The emphasis on greater amounts of box-office revenue from a smaller number of films continued and, in March 1962, The Young Ones (UK, 1961) set a new box-office record at the Ritz in its first week of exhibition. This beat the previous record, set for This is the Army (US, 1943) in the Second World War.130 Both large chains also adopted more flexible booking patterns. In November 1961, Odeon (NI) introduced a ‘run by results’ policy where a film was booked for a specific length of time that was extended if it was successful. In October 1962, managing director R. V. C. Eveleigh claimed that this new policy led to an 88 per cent increase in box-office revenues.131 In March 1962, ABC introduced occasional first-run films at the Strand and the Majestic and Kine Weekly believed that the ‘two main circuits, Odeon and ABC are now both broadening their service to the public’.132

These exhibition strategies contrasted with the smaller exhibitors who struggled to provide two double feature programmes every week. In 1960– 1, the Broadway targeted a younger family audience by exhibiting Darby O’Gill and the Little People (US, 1959) at both Christmas and Easter. In the three days beginning 26 December 1960, it was the highest grossing film of the year and yielded £565. The Broadway brought the same film back on Easter Monday and generated a further £321 in box-office revenue. The Broadway filled its schedule with a greater number of foreign language films, and, according to Harper and Porter, many suburban second and third-run cinemas at the end of the distribution chain resorted to continental films to fill their booking schedules.133 In 1960–1, the Broadway screened a range of European films, including Babette Goes to War (France, 1959), Tamango (France/Italy, 1957), Paris, Palace Hotel (France/Italy, 1956) and Battle Inferno (Germany, 1959).

The Troxy responded to the absence of good films by returning to cinema’s music hall roots with stage shows and cine-variety. It advertised performances by hypnotist Edwin Heath and illusionist Mandrake, and hosted ‘international wrestling’ with ‘stars of TV’. From February to March, comedian Frank Carson presented a ‘discoveries of 1961’ talent competition and the finals were held at a St Patrick’s Day Midnight Matinee. On Friday 14 April, 675 patrons then attended ‘Late Nite Cine Variety’ featuring Carson and the prizewinners. In December 1961, ‘a shortage of top-class films’ led the Troxy to stage a Christmas pantomime of Little Red Riding Hood. The Belfast Telegraph commented that it was ‘a brave and pleasing effort … and one which obviously delighted the very young in last night’s audience’.134 In January 1962, it reported that the Lido was following the Troxy and ‘experimenting with live presentations to combat the lean days of attendance’. Manager John McKeown stated that if the show was a success he would consider cutting films on Tuesday night and replacing them with live variety shows.135 The Troxy also resorted to nudist films, for example screening The Nudist Story (UK, 1960) in February 1961. In October 1962, Kine Weekly claimed that the Troxy was ‘instrumental in introducing nudist films to the Ulster public’. It added that, while West End Jungle (UK, 1961) was playing at the Troxy, ‘the Belfast public is no longer as easily led by an X certificate or by a nudist poster, and some observers say that the demand for sensational films, particularly of the nude variety, is already on the wane’.136 From 1964, the Troxy hosted theatre productions presented by the Lyric Opera Company and the Ulster Theatre Company. This diverse programme could not save the cinema from the general decline in admissions. It finally closed in September 1965 and a month later reopened as the Grove Theatre.137

Conclusion

In his 1961 Budget statement, O’Neill responded to pressure from cinema exhibitors and abolished Entertainments Duty on all films. Following its abolition, the Ministry of Finance no longer kept records of cinema admissions in Northern Ireland. This was a source of concern for exhibitors and, in 1962, Kine Weekly reported that the ‘Northern Ireland cinema trade is following closely present efforts aimed at encouraging the Ulster government to publish a wider range of research statistics on the Province. A number of commentators have felt the need for annual or even more frequent figures on the state of the cinema industry’.138 It is fortunate then that the implementation of Entertainments Duty leaves a paper trail of attendance data from 1948 to 1961. Given the popularity of cinema-going, records of individual cinemas are surprisingly rare and the weekly returns provide a set of empirical data that facilitates in-depth scrutiny of the changing nature of cinema-going in the period, showing the struggles of exhibitors and the reasons behind audience engagement. By combining these records with programme listings we can establish the practices of Belfast exhibitors and the popularity of certain films. A clear benefit of the detailed qualitative evidence provided by oral testimonies, newspapers and trade journals is that it shows how receptive exhibitors were to local social and economic conditions.

These findings expand our understanding of cinema attendance across the UK and challenge existing ideas about audience tastes. For instance, in their study of British cinema of the 1950s, Harper and Porter claimed that the ‘stratification of taste by region, which had been such an important feature of the 1930s and 1940s, disappeared completely in the 1950s’.139 The popularity of Irish-themed films such as The Quiet Man or Captain Boycott, which in some way depicted audiences sense of their own identity, directly challenges Harper and Porter’s statement and suggests the continuation of place-specific audience preferences within the UK into the 1960s. At the same time, declines in cinema attendance and the consequent shift in cinema-going from a ritual practice to one of occasional attractions should be placed in a broader international context. John Sedgwick, for instance, has shown that in the US there was a greater focus on big-budget films that were more attractive to increasingly younger and more selective audiences with greater amounts of disposable income.140 Hollywood retained its dominant position by producing big-budget spectaculars, such as War and Peace or Ben-Hur, which disproportionately benefited the proprietors of the larger and more expensive cinemas in Belfast, such as the Ritz. These proprietors, however, had to attract a shrinking audience base while satisfying local tastes and negotiating a more stringent system of taxation than the rest of the UK.

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1 Belfast Telegraph, 7 May 1945.

2 K. Rockett with E. Rockett, Film Exhibition and Distribution in Ireland, 1909–2010 (Dublin, 2011), pp. 125–40.

3 PRONI, FIN/16/6/A-D, Ministry of Finance records of Entertainments Duty.

4 For instance, see J. Sedgwick, Popular Filmgoing in 1930s Britain: a Choice of Pleasures (Exeter, 2000); S. Harper, ‘A lower middle-class taste community in the 1930s: admissions figures at the Regent cinema, Portsmouth, UK’, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, xxiv (2004), 565–87; ‘Fragmentation and crisis: 1940s admission figures at the Regent Cinema, Portsmouth, UK’, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, xxvi (2006), 361–94; R. James, ‘Cinema-going in a port town, 1914–1951: film booking patterns at the Queens Cinema, Portsmouth’, Urban History, xl (2013), 315–35.

5 For instance, see H. E. Browning and A. A. Sorrell, ‘Cinemas and cinema-going in Great Britain’, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, cvxii (1954), 133–70; Political and Economic Planning, The British Film Industry (1952); Political and Economic Planning, The British Film Industry 1958 (London, 1958), pp. 132–70.

6 Belfast Telegraph, 7 May 1945.

7 Kinematograph Weekly, 31 Jan. 1946.

8 Belfast Telegraph, 13 Sept. 1948.

9 James, ‘Cinema-going in a port town’, p. 316.

10 Rockett, Film Exhibition, p. 82; Kinematograph Weekly, 13 Jan. 1944.

11 Kinematograph Year Book 1948 (London, 1948), p. 446.

12 M. Open, Fading Lights, Silver Screen: a History of Belfast Cinemas (Antrim, 1985), pp. 25–6; Rockett, Film Exhibition, p. 124.

13 J. Doherty, Standing Room Only: Memories of Belfast Cinemas (Belfast, 1997), p. 52; Kinematograph Year Book 1948 (London, 1948), p. 446.

14 Rockett, Film Exhibition, p. 76.

15 Kinematograph Weekly, 13 Jan. 1944.

16 Interview with Noel Spence, Comber, Co. Down, 26 March 2014.

17 Doherty, Standing Room Only, p. 43.

18 Kinematograph Weekly, 13 Jan. 1944.

19 Interview with Eric Lennox, Belfast, 2 May 2014.

20 R Farmer, Cinemas and Cinema-Going in Wartime Britain: the Utility Dream Palace (Manchester, 2016), p. 240.

21 PRONI, FIN/15/6/A/12, Ministry of Finance, reduction in rate of Entertainments Duty, 9 June 1958.

22 Browning and Sorrell, ‘Cinemas and cinema-going in Great Britain’, pp. 162–3.

23 S. Harper and V. Porter, British Cinema of the 1950s: the Decline of Deference (Oxford, 2003), p. 7.

24 Browning and Sorrell, ‘Cinemas and cinema-going in Great Britain’, p. 144.

25 Political and Economic Planning, The British Film Industry (London, 1952), pp. 201–2.

26 Political and Economic Planning, The British Film Industry (London, 1952), pp 143–4.

27 Interview with Noel Spence, Comber, Co. Down, 26 March 2014.

28 Kinematograph Weekly, 19 Dec. 1946.

29 Harper and Porter, British Cinema of the 1950s, p. 7.

30 Political and Economic Planning, The British Film Industry 1958 (London, 1958), p. 162.

31 The Ultimate Film: the UK’s 100 Most Popular Films (London, 2005), ed. R. Gilbey, pp. 71–2.

32 Northern Whig, 18 May 1948.

33 The Ultimate Film, pp. 24–9.

34 M. Glancy, Hollywood and the Americanization of Britain: From the 1920s to the Present (London, 2014), pp 36–7.

35 The Economist, 25 Feb. 1950.

36 For further information, see I. Jarvie, ‘British trade policy versus Hollywood, 1947– 1948: “food before flicks”?’, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, vi (1986), 19–41; M. Dickinson and S. Street, Cinema and State: the Film Industry and the British Government 1927–84 (London, 1985), pp. 170–89.

37 Irish Independent, 11 Aug. 1947.

38 Kinematograph Weekly, 21 Aug. 1947.

39 Belfast Telegraph, 13 Feb. 1948.

40 Belfast Telegraph, 18 Feb. 1948.

41 Kinematograph Weekly, 15 Apr. 1948.

42 Monthly Film Bulletin, xiii, no. 12 (1946), 172–3.

43 Belfast Telegraph, 6 Dec. 1948.

44 Belfast Telegraph, 19 Apr. 1951.

45 Belfast Telegraph, 25 Oct. 1951; 29 May 1952.

46 Irish News, 14 June 1954.

47 Kinematograph Weekly, 26 Dec. 1946.

48 Northern Whig, 16 Dec. 1948.

49 Browning and Sorrell, ‘Cinemas and cinema-going in Great Britain’, p. 147.

50 D. Biltereyst, R. Maltby and P. Meers, ‘Programming, popularity and film: Introduction’, in The Routledge Companion to New Cinema History, ed. D. Biltereyst, R. Maltby and P. Meers (Abingdon, 2019), pp. 269–70.

51 The Times, 30 July 1947.

52 Kinematograph Weekly, 18 Dec. 1947.

53 Belfast Telegraph, 29 Nov. 1947.

54 Belfast Telegraph, 24 March 1948.

55 Belfast Telegraph, 22 March 1948.

56 Belfast Telegraph, 27 March 1948; Northern Whig, 28 Apr. 1948.

57 Belfast Telegraph, 27 March 1948; Belfast Telegraph, 29 March 1948.

58 J. Campbell, ‘Movie-house memories’, Causeway: Cultural Traditions Journal, i (1994), 9–14, at p. 11.

59 A. Frazier, Hollywood Irish: John Ford, Abbey Actors and the Irish Revival in Hollywood (Dublin, 2011), pp. 205–38; L. Gibbons, The Quiet Man (Cork, 2002); D. MacHale, The Complete Guide to The Quiet Man (Belfast, 2000).

60 Belfast Telegraph, 14 Aug. 1952.

61 Belfast Telegraph, 23 Aug. 1952.

62 Northern Whig, 19 Sept. 1952.

63 Belfast Telegraph, 2 Sept. 1952.

64 Belfast Telegraph, 15 Sept. 1952.

65 The 1952–3 Motion Picture and Television Almanac (New York, 1952), p. 924.

66 The Ulster Year Book: the Official Year Book of Northern Ireland (Belfast, 1953), p. 35.

67 Campbell, ‘Movie-house memories’, p. 11.

68 The Times, 18 Dec. 1952.

69 Irish Independent, 4 March 1947.

70 K. J. Donnelly, ‘The policing of cinema: troubled film exhibition in Northern Ireland’, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, xx (2000), 385–96.

71 Kinematograph Weekly, 13 March 1952.

72 Kinematograph Weekly, 23 Jan. 1958.

73 Kinematograph Weekly, 17 July 1958.

74 Kinematograph Weekly, 4 Sept. 1958.

75 Kinematograph Weekly, 6 Nov. 1958.

76 Browning and Sorrell, ‘Cinemas and cinema-going in Great Britain’, pp. 138–40.

77 Browning and Sorrell, ‘Cinemas and cinema-going in Great Britain’, p. 134.

78 Kinematograph Weekly, 18 Aug. 1960.

79 Hansard (Northern Ireland), Parliamentary Debates, xxxvi (28 May 1952), col. 994; PRONI, FIN/15/6/A/1, alterations in full rates of Entertainments Duty.

80 Browning and Sorrell, ‘Cinemas and cinema-going in Great Britain’, p. 34.

81 Belfast Telegraph, 18 March 1952.

82 Belfast Telegraph, 18 March 1953.

83 Browning and Sorrell, ‘Cinemas and cinema-going in Great Britain’, p. 147.

84 Irish Times Pictorial, 28 Sept. 1946; Belfast Telegraph, 10 Sept. 1949.

85 Northern Whig, 9 June 1952.

86 ABC News, Aug. 1953, p. 2.

87 Interview with Noel Spence, Comber, Co. Down, 26 March 2014.

88 Interview with Terence and Jean McVeigh, Belfast, 2 Apr. 2014.

89 Belfast Telegraph, 18 Oct. 1952.

90 Belfast Telegraph, 25 Oct. 1952.

91 Minutes of the Belfast Corporation Police Committee, 25 Jan. 1951, p. 128.

92 Harper and Porter, British Cinema of the 1950s, p. 221.

93 Minutes of the Belfast Corporation Police Committee, 6 Oct. 1951, p. 185.

94 McClay Library, minutes of the Belfast Corporation Police Committee, 6 March 1952, p. 210.

95 K. Rockett, Irish Film Censorship: a Cultural Journey from Silent Cinema to Internet Pornography (Dublin, 2004), p. 132.

96 S. Chibnall, ‘From The Snake Pit to The Garden of Eden: a time of temptation for the board’, in Behind the Scenes at the BBFC: Film Classification from the Silver Screen to the Digital Age, ed. E. Lamberti (London, 2012), pp. 29–52, at p. 35.

97 Harper and Porter, British Cinema of the 1950s, pp. 221–2.

98 BFI Film and Television Handbook, ed. E. Dyja (London, 2004), p. 39.

99 PRONI, FIN/15/6/A/12, reduction in rate of Entertainments Duty, 9 June 1958.

100 Political and Economic Planning, The British Film Industry 1958 (London, 1958), p. 136.

101 Open, Fading Lights, Silver Screen, p. 145.

102 Harper and Porter, British Cinema of the 1950s, p. 245.

103 Belfast Telegraph, 4 Sept. 1956.

104 Belfast Telegraph, 17 Oct. 1956.

105 Political and Economic Planning, The British Film Industry 1958 (London, 1958), p. 166.

106 Political and Economic Planning, The British Film Industry 1958, p. 166.

107 Belfast Telegraph, 25 March 1957.

108 Kinematograph Weekly, 5 July 1956.

109 Kinematograph Weekly, 26 July 1956.

110 Belfast Telegraph, 19 Oct. 1957.

111 Kinematograph Weekly, 5 Dec. 1957.

112 Kinematograph Weekly, 5 Dec. 1957.

113 Kinematograph Weekly, 2 Jan. 1958.

114 Kinematograph Weekly, 19 June 1958.

115 Kinematograph Weekly, 17 July 1958.

116 A. Burton and S. Chibnall, ‘Promotional activities and showmanship in British film exhibition’, Journal of Popular British Cinema, ii (1999), 83–99, at pp. 90–1.

117 Belfast Telegraph, 23 July 1955.

118 The Northern Whig, 26 July 1955.

119 Kinematograph Weekly, 5 July 1956.

120 Kinematograph Weekly, 24 Jan. 1957.

121 Kinematograph Weekly, 6 Dec. 1956.

122 Kinematograph Weekly, 6 Dec. 1956.

123 Belfast Telegraph, 8 Oct. 1956.

124 Hansard (Northern Ireland), Parliamentary Debates, xlvi (24 May 1960), cols. 1703–4.

125 Hansard (NI), xlvi (25 May 1960), cols. 1766–8.

126 Kinematograph Weekly, 20 March 1958.

127 Kinematograph Weekly, 22 Jan. 1959.

128 Belfast Telegraph, 5 Oct. 1960.

129 Belfast Telegraph, 21 March 1961.

130 Kinematograph Weekly, 1 March 1962.

131 Kinematograph Weekly, 25 Oct. 1962.

132 Kinematograph Weekly, 22 March 1962.

133 Harper and Porter, British Cinema of the 1950s, p. 246.

134 Belfast Telegraph, 27 Dec. 1961.

135 Belfast Telegraph, 6 Jan. 1962.

136 Kinematograph Weekly, 18 Oct. 1961.

137 Belfast Telegraph, 12 Sept. 1965.

138 Kinematograph Weekly, 25 Oct. 1962.

139 Harper and Porter, British Cinema of the 1950s, p. 264.

140 J. Sedgwick, ‘Product differentiation at the movies: Hollywood, 1946 to 1965’, The Journal of Economic History, lxii (2002), pp. 676–705.

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