FOREIGN FILMS IN U.S.

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28630, 5 July 1958, Page 10

FOREIGN FILMS IN U.S.

Growing Signs Of Popularity

(By a Reuter Correspondent) NEW YORK.

France’s Brigitte Bardot and Britain’s Alec Guinness have between them helped to give foreign films an impact on the American scene which, like that of European cars, is small but growing in a spectacular fashion.

An estimate made recently of the box office receipts for foreign films shown in the United States during 1957 put them at 32,000,000 dollars, which represents only 3.5 per cent. of the 910,000,000 dollars from the Hollywood product, but is more than 50 per cent, up on the 1956 figure. These figures are calculated on the basis of a box office take of roughly twice what was paid for the rental of the films.

Among the rentals paid in 1957, Britain made nearly twice as much as her nearest rival, with 6,347,201 dollars paid for 93 films. Mexico, whose films are chiefly shown in their original untranslated versions to the. large Span-, ish-speaking population of New York and other big eastern cities, was next, with 3,205,753 dollars from 116 films. France was a close third with 3,176,146 dollars from 61 films, and Italy fourth with 1,768,120 dollars from 160 films.

But, with the current foreign film boom, these figures are expected to be greatly exceeded in 1958. The impact of the saucy French star, Brigitte Bardot, on American screens, felt only as a tremor last year, has in recent months attained the dimensions of an earthquake. No fewer than five of her films were running simultaneously in New York cinemas earlier this year, and one, “And Gotf Created Women,” will almost certainly be the biggest box office film ever to come from abroad. “Guinness Firm Favourite” Alec Guinness has long been a firm favourite with the more sophisticated audiences of New York and Boston. But his star, too, is only just beginning to rise for the rest of the country. His Academy Award for his role in the British-made “Bridge on the River Kwai,” which will be among the top money-making films from any source in 1958. only confirmed the admiration of the patrons of “art cinemas,” where most of the foreign films are shown. But an Academy Award speaks to all filmgoers, and already cinemas in New York and its suburbs, which would normally regard British films as “longhair stuff,” are showing double bills of Guinness’s old films.

The trend in favour of films from abroad is reflected in many ways. It has been suggested that it is probably their very difference from television, and the sort of old American films which take up so much space on television screens, which has contributed chiefly to the popularity of the “off-beat” film from abroad.

Exhibitors say '■’t their patrons find the foreign produce “more realistic, down to earth and outspoken" than films from Hollywood, and that these qualities are attracting people in increasing numbers.