Abstract
This chapter (‘Turnover’) looks at the trading performances of film exhibition companies and a selection of individual cinemas in this period. Data concerning the dissolution of joint-stock companies reveals that cinema ventures with good capital subscription and low borrowing levels tended to be long-lived. Profitability levels within the sector are shown to be generally quite poor, however, and the reasons for this—along with some striking exceptions to the rule—are considered. The chapter concludes with an examination of a range of surviving box office records from the 1910s. These figures suggest that larger cinemas were competing for, and reliant upon, patrons whose weekly attendance patterns were not unselective or particularly frequent (a very large proportion of business being done on Saturdays and public holidays).