A History of the Ministry of Information, 1939-46
I. FREQUENCY OF CINEMA GOING
Informants were asked in October 1946: “How often do you go to the cinema at this time of year?” and if their visits to the cinema were not made regularly were asked to say how often they went “on the average” at this time of year.
Some analyses of the results are given in the tables below:
TABLE 1
TABLE 2
TABLE 3
| ECONOMIC GROUP | |||
| Lower | Middle | Higher | |
| % | % | % | |
| Once a week or more | 26 | 36 | 30 |
| Less than once a week | 32 | 41 | 48 |
| Not now, never | 42 | 23 | 22 |
| Sample: | 779 | 1352 | 946 |
| (60 not classified by economic group) | |||
Informants were classified into economic groups depending on the weekly wage rate or salary of the chief earner in their families, or if there was no wage-earner on the pensions or other income of the head of the family. The intervals used were as follows:
Lower group: up to £4 per week
Middle group: over £4 to £5.10s. per week
Higher group: over £5.10s. per week.
TABLE 4
| EDUCATION | ||
| Elementary only | Some higher education | |
| % | % | |
| Once a week or more | 32 | 31 |
| Less than once a week | 38 | 49 |
| Not now, never | 30 | 20 |
| Sample: | 2414 | 689 |
| (34 not classified by education) | ||
TABLE 5
The most marked difference between groups is shown by the age group analysis, younger people visiting the cinema very much more frequently than older people. It may be noted that 45% of the 16 to 19 years group went to the cinema twice a week or more often, as compared with 24% of those in the twenties and 13% of the whole sample. 14% of those in the thirties went twice a week or more often. It was shown also by the inquiry made in 1943 that young people went to the cinema very much more frequently than older people. Thus it appears that the habit of extremely frequent cinema going in youth tends to fall off in the twenties and thereafter diminishes more slowly as age increased.
Women go to the cinema rather more than men but the difference is not very great. It is clear that age is a much more important factor than sex in its effect on cinema going.
A higher proportion of the lower economic group than of the middle and higher groups do not go to the cinema at all. In the higher economic and education groups, and amongst managerial and professional workers, relatively high proportions of those who go to the cinema go less than once a week as compared with once a week or more often.
Amongst the occupation groups factory operatives and clerical and distributive workers are the most frequent cinema goers. Workers in transport, building, mining, agriculture and miscellaneous occupations, classified above as “other manual workers”, and housewives conform to the average pattern. As might be expected the retired and unoccupied, being mainly old people, do not go to the cinema much.
No separate analysis was made in this inquiry of the answers given by those living in large and small towns and in rural areas, but it may be noted that the inquiry made in 1943 showed that the people living in large and medium sized towns (i.e. over 50,000 population) go to the cinema more frequently than those living in smaller towns, and that people living in rural areas go less than those living in small towns.
CHILDREN
The results given above relate only to persons aged sixteen and over. In the inquiry made in March 1946 mothers of children of school age or under were asked how often their children went to the cinema. There were 432 mothers in the sample and these had between them 762 children about whom information was collected.
TABLE 6
TABLE 7
Boys and girls go to the cinema equally frequently. The proportion of school children aged ten and over going to the cinema once a week or more is similar to the proportion of young people aged sixteen to nineteen doing so. However 28% of the school children went twice a week or more often as compared with 45% of the young workers. It appears that adolescence is the peak age for cinema going. The difference between the two groups might be due to the fact that the young workers are earning whereas the school children would mostly be dependent on pocket money from their parents for paying for their seats and might not therefore be able to go to the cinema as often as they would like to.
TABLE 8
| ECONOMIC GROUP | |||
| Lower | Middle | Higher | |
| % | % | % | |
| Once a week or more | 46 | 48 | 29 |
| Less than once a week | 19 | 19 | 34 |
| Not now, never | 34 | 33 | 37 |
| Sample: | 263 | 311 | 185 |
| (3 not classified by economic group) | |||
Children in the lower and middle groups went to the cinema about the same amount but those in the higher group went much less frequently.
A further analysis showed that there was no considerable difference in the frequency with which children living in towns of different sizes went to the cinema, but as might be expected town children went more often than country children. 48% of children in urban areas went once a week or more as compared with 29% children in rural areas.