EXTENDING CHAIN

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17450, 24 December 1930, Page 5

EXTENDING CHAIN

WILLIAMSON FILMS (N.Z.) THREE MORE THEATRES Following- n» rapid tour by the managing director, Mr. Beaumont. .Smith, Williamson Films (N.Z.) Ltd. have completed negotiations for the V-ontrol ol three more theatres iu the boulh Island. Tim lease of a fourth is under consideration. In Christchurch the company has taken over the management of tlm Civic Theatre (Municipal Concert Hall), temporarily, and of the Strand .theatre tor a long period. In Dunedin the Octagon Theatre has been amalgamated with the Regent Theatre, under the company’s control. The fourth theatre, is in another centre of the South Island. This extension, it is understood, has been made partly to, improve tlm company’s circuit, and partly as a practical declaration of its independence in the picture theatre business in New Zealand. It- already lias leases of the Theatre Royal , Ch ristrhurch; Regent Theatre, Dunedin ; the Civic and Regent Theatres, Invercargill, in the South Island, and of an important chain of theatres in tlm north. The sale of Hoyt's interests in Australia to the Fox Film Corporation (U.S.A.) has not, in the least affected Williamson Films (N.Z.) Ltd., iu which ther Australian firm did not- have a share. Tlm New Zealand company will continue to act. independently, and has already purchased llm New Zealand rights of the outputs of the Paramount, United Artists, and British Dominion film companies.