BRITISH CINEMA RIVALRY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22356, 29 February 1936, Page 12 (Supplement)

BRITISH CINEMA RIVALRY

£3,000.000 FOR NEW THEATRES

Rivalry among the great cinema chains of Great Britain, already keen, will be intensified by an agreement signed recently between Mr. Arthur Segal and Union Cinemas, Ltd. They have agreed to build a series of important new cinemas throughout the country, and over 40 sites in leading towns have already been acquired. It is the declared policy of the company to build a large, up-to-date cinema in every town where one does not already exist. , , . Forty-seven new theatres are being erected at an estimated cost of £3,000,000. Mr. Fred Bernhard, managing director of Union Cinemas, has already acquired properties said to bo worth £5,000,000, and when the new construction programme is complete Tfnion Cinemas will have a circuit of over 200 houses. This includes the Reed Circuit, in which Mr. Segal has a large interest, and other interests recently acquired by Union Cfnemas in Scotland and other parts of Britain. Mr. _A. H. Reed is joining Union Cinemas in an important executive capacity. Union Cinemas are now the third largest circuit in the country, the leaders being the Gaumont-Britisb (P.C.T.) group, with a total of about 400 houses, and the British International Pictures (A.8.C.) chain, which now numbers 267 and is expected to reach 300 this year. " With Mr. Oscar Deutsch and Mr. C. J. Donada also controlling largo interests, the movement of the British cinema industry toward what may be called 'trustification' is becoming more pronounced every day," was the comment of a prominent figure in the industry.