Associated British Cinemas

Associated British Cinemas ( ABC Cinemas ) was a chain of cinemas in Great Britain that existed from 1927. Its founder was the Scottish film producer John Maxwell , who initially invested in The Prince's Cinema in Glasgow in 1912 and operated a total of 29 theaters when ABC Cinemas was founded. In July 1929 there were already 80 cinemas, and by the end of 1931 the chain had expanded to 160 theaters.

ABC Cinemas and the production company British International Pictures (BIP) founded by Maxwell in 1926 were soon transferred to a joint holding. Their name was changed to Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC) in 1933 . After Maxwell's death in 1940, the American Warner Bros. Company acquired some shares in the company, and a cooperation was also entered into with the company in the distribution of the films.

In 1951 ABC Cinemas had around 400 theaters, but in the following years more cinemas were closed or sold than (newly) opened, until in 1965 only 267 cinemas were operated. ABC Cinemas' market share in that year was around 13 percent; compared to 1951, the group was able to grow compared to others because they had to close fewer cinemas than other providers. ABC Cinemas had a high proportion of large cinemas (each with 1,500 seats or larger) and was therefore able to bring it to a proportion of around 20 percent of the cinema seats. The venues were also concentrated in London and other larger cities in Great Britain, in small towns and in rural areas ABC Cinemas was comparatively little represented.

Overall, the ABC Cinemas were considered the most powerful cinema chain in Great Britain, alongside the Rank Organization with its Odeon chain, well into the 1970s .

literature

Monopolies Commission (Great Britain): A Report on the Supply of Films for Exhibition in Cinemas, p. 17 ff . 1966 ( online ; PDF).

Web links

Early documents and newspaper articles on Associated British Cinemas in the 20th Century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

↑ Kevin Brownlow : The War, the West and the Wilderness . Knopf, New York 1979, ISBN 0-394-48921-7 , p. 162.
^ Peter Miskell: The Film Industry in Twentieth Century Britain: Consumption Patterns, Government Regulation, and Firm Strategy . In: Richard Coopey, Peter Lyth (Eds.): Business in Britain in the Twentieth Century . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2009, ISBN 978-0-19-922600-9 , p. 312.
↑ cf. Stories we tell ourselves. The Cultural Impact of UK Film 1946–2006 , p. 47, a study by Narval Media, Birkbeck College and the Media Consulting Group for the UK Film Council , on the British Film Institute website (accessed April 21, 2012; PDF ; 2.2 MB)

[1] Kevin Brownlow : The War, the West and the Wilderness . Knopf, New York 1979, ISBN 0-394-48921-7 , p. 162.

[2] Peter Miskell: The Film Industry in Twentieth Century Britain: Consumption Patterns, Government Regulation, and Firm Strategy . In: Richard Coopey, Peter Lyth (Eds.): Business in Britain in the Twentieth Century . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2009, ISBN 978-0-19-922600-9 , p. 312.

[3] . Stories we tell ourselves. The Cultural Impact of UK Film 1946–2006 , p. 47, a study by Narval Media, Birkbeck College and the Media Consulting Group for the UK Film Council , on the British Film Institute website (accessed April 21, 2012; PDF ; 2.2 MB)