A History of the Ministry of Information, 1939-46
IV. THE CINEMA AUDIENCE
From the results given in Sections I and III, it is possible to build up a rough picture of the civilian cinema audience. These two sections showed how often different groups of adults and children visited cinemas, and from the figures given an approximate idea of the average number of cinema attendances per month for each group may be derived.
It will be remembered that some informants were classified as going to the cinema “occasionally” and others as going “more than twice a week”. It is not, therefore, possible to work out a precise average but some indication may be obtained.
A further limitation of the data is that there is no information about the habits of children aged over 14 who are still at school. These were not included in the sample of adults, and mothers were asked only about their children aged from 5 ~ 14. School children aged over 14 however, form only a small section, between 1% and 2% of the civilian population aged 5 and over. Their exclusion is, therefore, not of great importance.
The average number of cinema attendances per month was calculated as follows:
| Frequency of Cinema attendance | Estimated number of attendances per month |
| Don’t go to cinema | 0 |
| Occasionally | 0.5 |
| Once a month | 1 |
| Once a fortnight | 2 |
| Once a week | 4 |
| Twice a week | 8 |
| More than twice a week | 10 |
The averages given below must be regarded as only approximations to the actual averages, but they make it possible to compare the habits of different groups by means of a single measure.
It will be remembered that information was obtained from mothers of about 1013 children. Where results are given for adults and children together the results for children have been weighted so that they are correctly represented in the whole sample of adults and children.
Table 24
Average Number of Cinema Attendances per Month
| Average | ||
| Adults | 2.1 | |
| Children aged 5 - 14 | 2.7 | |
| Adults and children | 2.2 | |
| Sex | Men | 1.9 |
| Women | 2.3 | |
| Age | 14 - 17 | 5.5 |
| 18 - 40 | 2.9 | |
| 41 - 45 | 1.7 | |
| 46-65 | 1.2 | |
| Over 65 | .4 | |
| Economic Group | ||
| (Adults) | Lower | 2. 3 |
| Middle | 1.8 | |
| Higher | 1.3 | |
| Economic Group | ||
| (Children) | ||
| Lower | 2.9 | |
| Middle and Higher | 2.1 | |
| Education | 2.1 | |
| (Adults) | Elementary | 2.3 |
| Secondary or technical | 2.0 | |
| University | 1.3 | |
| Occupation | ||
| Housewives | 1.6 | |
| Heavy manufacture | 2.4 | |
| Light munitions manufacture | 3.4 | |
| Other light manufacture | 2 8 | |
| Agriculture | 1.0 | |
| Mining | 2.5 | |
| Building and Transport | 2.0 | |
| Clerical | 2.6 | |
| Distributive | 2.8 | |
| Miscellaneous | 2.8 | |
| Managerial and professional | 1.5 | |
| Retired and unoccupied | .9 | |
| All factory workers | 2.9 | |
| * Other manual workers | 2.0 | |
| Clerical and distributive workers | 2.7 | |
| Town Size | ||
| (Adults and Children) | ||
| Large | 2.7 | |
| Medium | 2.6 | |
| Small | 2.2 | |
| Rural Areas | 1.1 | |
By calculating the total number of visits made to the cinema per month by each group, the composition of the civilian section of cinema audiences may be shown.
In the diagrams below, the percentages of cinema attendances accounted for by different groups of the population are compared with the distribution of the population amongst these groups.
The diagrams on the right may be taken as representing “the average civilian cinema audience” in the summer months of 1943.
Table 25
| % Civilian Population aged 5 and over | % Civilian Cinema Attendances (June 1943) | ||
| Men | 37% | Men | 32% |
| Women | 47% | Women | 48% |
| Children 16%(5 – 14) | Children 20% (5 – 14) | ||
Children are well represented in the cinema audience and men somewhat under represented.
| % Civilian Population aged 5 and over | % Civilian Cinema Attendances | ||
| Age | Age | ||
| 5 – 14 | 16% | 5 - 14 | 20% |
| 14 - 17 | 5% | 14 - 17 | 11% |
| 18 - 40 | 36% | 18 - 40 | 46% |
| 41 - 45 | 11% | 41 - 45 | 8% |
| Over 45 | 32% | Over 45 | 15% |
Children from 5 -17 account for nearly a third of cinema attendances but only for about a fifth of the population. Those aged over 45 account for a third of the population but only for 15% of cinema attendances. The 18 - 40 age group is well represented in the cinema audience.
| % Civilian Population | % Civilian Cinema Attendances | ||
| Economic group | Economic Group | ||
| Lower | 75% | Lower | 81% |
| Middle | 20% | Middle | 16% |
| Higher | 5% | Higher | 3% |
The lower economic group is better represented in the cinema audience than are the higher groups.
| % Civilian Population | % Civilian Cinema Attendances | ||
| Town Size | Town Size | ||
| Large | 27% | Large | 32% |
| Medium | 25% | Medium | 28% |
| Small | 32% | Small | 31% |
| Rural | 16% | Rural | 9% |
People from rural areas are under represented in the cinema audience, but people from all sizes of town are well represented.
Factory workers and clerical and distributive workers account for 43% of civilian cinema attendances but only for 34% of the population aged 5 and over. Housewives, the retired and unoccupied, and managerial and professional workers together account for 35% of the population but only for 24% of the cinema audience.
The above results may be summed up as follows:
Comparisons with Other Publicity Media
It is of interest to compare the public reached by the cinema with the public reached by other kinds of publicity media. In Wartime Social Survey reports * “Newspapers and the Public” and “M.O.I. Publications” information is given about the extent to which different groups in the population read daily newspapers and other types of publication.
Where results show a trend, as for instance in analyses by age or economic groups, the direction of the trends shown for different types of publicity may be compared.
In Table 26 the average cinema attendances per month for different groups are compared with:
(a) The percentage who saw a morning newspaper “yesterday”
(b) The percentage saying they buy “weekly or monthly magazines or papers about matters of public interest”
(c) The percentage saying they buy “small books (of the Penguin or Pelican type) about matters of public interest”
Table 26
The figures in brackets show the rating.
Sex
Newspapers and books show a contrary result to cinemas, the figures for men being higher than those for women. About the same proportion of both sexes buy magazines.
Age
Younger people go to the cinema much more often than old people. With newspapers and books the figure for the middle age groups is highest, the young and the old seeing these less. In the case of magazines, as with cinemas, the figures for older people are lower, but the middle age groups buy magazines as much or rather more than the youngest group.
Economic Group and Education Group
The cinema figures are highest in the lower groups but a trend in the opposite direction is shown in the case of the other three publicity media.
From these comparisons it is clear that the cinema can be a valuable publicity medium in that cinema publicity is likely to reach particularly some of those groups in the population which are less open to the influence of other media, women, the younger age groups, the lower economic groups and those with elementary education.
The lower economic and education groups are numerically more important than the higher, and it may be said that cinemas reach a wider public than other media.