Motion Picture Theatre in US seating capacity (1 show): 15,000
Average weekly attendance at picture theatre: 7,605,000
Admissions paid annually: 520,000,000
Average number of reels used for 1 performance: 8
Average number of seats in picture theatre: 507
Number of persons employed in picture theatre: 105,000
Persons employed in picture production: 50,000
Permanent employees in all branches of Motion Picture industry: 300,000
Investment in Motion Picture industry: $1,250,000
Approximate cost of pictures produced annually: $200,000,000
Salaries & wages paid annually at studios in production: $75,000,000
Cost of costumes, scenery, and other materials and supplies used in productions annually: $50,000,000
Average number of feature films produced annually: 700
Average number of short reel subjects (excluding news reels) annually: 1,500
Taxable Motion Picture property in US: $720,000,000
Percentage of pictures made in California: 84%
Percentage of pictures made in New York: 12%
Percentage of pictures made elsewhere: 4%
Foreign made pictures sent here for sale: 425
Foreign made pictures sold and released for exhibition: 6
Theatre running 6-7 days per week: 9,000
Theatre running 4-5 days per week: 1,500
Theatre running 1-3 days per week: 4,500
Lineal feet of film exported in 1921: 140,000,000
Lineal feet of film exported in 1913: 32,000,000
Percentage of American films used in foreign countries: 90
Film footage used each week by news reels: 1,400,000
Combined circulation of news reels weekly: 40,000,000
Number of theatre using news reels weekly: 11,000
Amount spent annually by producers and exhibitors in newspaper and magazine advertising: $5,000,000
Hospitals and charitable institutions in US equipped to show pictures (as of 1/1/23): 7,000
Number of schools and churches in US equipped to show pictures (as of 1/1/23) almost equals the number of theatre.
- appeared in 1924 Film Daily Year book. Source: That Marvel- the Movies by Edward S. Van Zile, 1922, G.P. Putnam's Sons.
Many thanks to Mike Blake!
More pages of facts…
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Want to talk like a Shiek or a Sheba? Learn the lingo of the teenagers of the Twenties
A list of directors' salaries in 1926
The typical cost of a big-budget production in 1920
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