SLUMP IN PICTURES

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 15, 19 January 1933, Page 10

SLUMP IN PICTURES

104 THEATRES CLOSE

SMALLER TOWNS HIT

Special reference to the slump as it is being felt by the picture theatres i« made in the annual report of the New Zealand Motion Picture Exhibitors 1 Association. ■ "Dnring the period under review the process^of adjustment to the new low economic levels has steadily proceeded/ states the report., "Decreased earning and spending power of tha masses means decreased revenue to the picture theatres, and few businesses, if any, have suffered from the depression to the extent ours has. No fewer than 104^ picture shows have gone out o? business within the last two years' and a half; of these, 96 were in the smaller towns. In the year just ended, nine closed down as compared with 33 the previous year, this seeming to indicate that the point of stabilisation has nearly Jbsen reached. During this latter period there have been six new "shows started, thus leaving a net decrease of 98 theatres, in the two years and a half. "The total number of picture theatres at present showing in New Zealand is 316, and if to. these are added 18 circuits comprising 110 small towns show-ing-pictures regularly at intervals varying from once per week- to once per. month, there arc 426 theatres and halls where pictures are screened regularly on a commercial basis. In addition, the'ra are 14 institutes such as schools, Eanatoriums, etc., where pictures are shown regularly, mating a grand total of 440 places where pictures are regularly;, screened."