Cinema admissions and key events, 1954–74
Select the thumbnail (left) to go to the main diagram
|
Year
|
Admissions
(m)
|
Population
(m)
|
Admissions
per capita
|
| The first drive-in theatre in Australia
opened at Burwood in Melbourne in 1954 and two years later the
number of drive-ins had grown to 23. The success of drive-ins lay primarily
in the growth in mass car ownership and the rush of marriages and resultant
babies (with the privacy of separate cars, drive-ins were thought to
make cinema-going easier for parents of young children) (Collins 1987,
219-223).
In 1955, Charles Chauvel’s Jedda was the first Australian
feature to be shot and released in colour.
Gone with the Wind (released in Australia in 1940) was the first
major US film to be exhibited in Australia in colour. However, colour
feature film production did not become the norm in the US until the mid-1950s,
in an attempt to win back audiences that were being lost to television
(www.acn.net.au, accessed May 2002; Collins 1987, 214, 240).
The first television station to begin regular transmission in Australia
was TCN 9, in Sydney on 16 September 1956. The rapid decline in
cinema attendances in the late 1950s is attributed largely to the introduction
of television (Shirley & Adams 1983, 210).
|
|
|
|
|
| In 1957, in Victoria
cinema attendances dropped by 5 million and by 1961 had dropped by an
overall 52 per cent compared to admissions in 1956. This was typical
of the trends occurring in the rest of the country (Collins 1987, 226).
In 1959, 33 per cent of Melbourne’s cinemas and 28 per cent
of Sydney’s were reported to have closed (Collins 1987, 229).
By the mid-1960s, cinema attendance figures were once again on
the rise. In 1965, there were more than 1,000 cinemas across the
nation grossing around $50 million per annum. Australia, on a per capita
basis, was one of the leading cinema-going nations in the world (Collins
1987, 231).
|
1957
|
124.0*
|
9.6
|
12.9
|
| 1962
|
66.0*
|
10.7
|
6.1
|
| 1969
|
47.0*
|
12.3
|
3.8
|
| The 1973, a Tariff Board
Report reported that the top evening adult cinema admission price was
at the time around $2.00, rising to $2.50 for special attractions. The
average adult admission price at the drive-in was $1.30, while the average
admission price across all cinemas attendances was $1.40 (Tariff Board
1973, 45).
|
1972
|
53.0*
|
13.3
|
4.0
|
| In 1974, cinema attendances
were reported to be higher than in the previous year, with figures from
overseas indicating that Australia had become the third most important
market for US films after the UK and France (moving up from fifth place
in 1973) (Cinema Papers March–April 1975, 42).
|
1974
|
68.0*
|
13.7
|
5.0
|
Source: See Sources and acknowledgements.
