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Cinema History
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Number Crunching - Visits to the Cinema
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Cinema Visits
In 1946 during the World War Two period, at the peak of the large screen’s popularity, 1.6 billion visits were made to cinemas in the UK. High employment, the popularity of war newsreels and the need for escapism, are possible explanations*.Forty years later visits had decreased rather dramatically to 75.5 million. Television viewing and videos were largely responsible. By 2012 however, matters had improved and cinema audiences more than doubled to 172.5, despite the fact that people were now able to view films in many other ways apart from a visit to the cinema. For more on annual admissions to cinemas in the UK see:
- The Cinema Exhibitor’ Association Ltd. data: UK Cinema Annual Admissions 1935-2012 http://www.cinemauk.org.uk/facts-and-figures/admissions/annual-uk-cinema-admissions-1935-2012/
- The BFI Statistical Yearbook
http://www.bfi.org.uk/education-research/film-industry-statistics-research/statistical-yearbook - * Olympic Britain: Social and Economic Change since the 1908 and 1948 London Games by Gavin Thompson et al. House of Commons Library, 2012, p119-120 statistics on cinema attendances http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons/lib/research/olympic-britain/olympicbritain.pdf#page=1
- Look at statistics on ‘Cinema Admissions’ in Social Trends published by HMSO, TSO
and then Palgrave. Some editions are available online from 2000 at
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/social-trends-rd/social-trends/social-trends-40/index.html
Earlier editions are available at Bedford Library.
Page last updated: 23rd January 2014