Boxoffice-July.04.1960

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Montreal Boxoffice
Holding Good Pace
MONTREAL—Leading cinemas here reported
sustained good boxoffice results
with some of the outstanding holdovers
such as Can-Can, The Story of Ruth, Ben-
Hur and Carry On. Nurse. However, reflecting
the many other events, such as a
hotly contested general election throughout
Quebec province and the celebration
of French-Canada's patron St. John Baptist,
with its now world-famous parade,
attendance at the various theatres tended
slightly lower than in recent weeks which
had shown decided firmness. Counterbalancing
the decrease in motion picture
attendance by the local population to some
extent, there was noticed increased U. S.
tourist trade.
Alouette Ben-Hur (MGM), 26th wk
Excellent
Avenue Corry On, Nurse (20th-Fox),
7th wk
Excellent
Capitol The Giant of Marathon (MGM),
2nd wk Good
Imperial—Windjommer (NT&T), 17th wk Good
Loews The Story of Ruth (20th-Fox),
2nd wk Excellent
Palace Our Man in Hovana (Col), 2nd wk Good
Con-Can (20th-Fox), 9th wk Excellent
Seville
Hard-Ticketers Hold
Strongly in Vancouver
VANCOUVER — The two hard-ticket
films on the local scene, "Ben-Hur" and
"Can-Can," held steady. The Johansson-
Patterson fight films helped business at
the Orpheum where "The Giant of Marathon"
was the feature.
Capitol The Greatest Show on Earth (Para),
revival Fair
,
Cinema Gangster at Boy (SR); Battle Hell (SR).Poor
Orpheum The Giant of Morathon (MGM);
plus Johansson-Patterson Fight (UA) Good
Plaza Conspiracy of Heorts (Para) Average
Stanley Ben-Hur (MGM), 15th wk Good
Strand Can-Con (20th-Fox), 2nd wk Good
Studio Block Orpheus (SR), 3rd wk Good
Vogue Bobette Goes to War (Col) Poor
'Apartment,' 'Crack in Mirror'
Vie for Toronto Honors
1 05
TORONTO—Favorites of the week were
"The Apartment" and "Crack in the Mirror."
The latter was shown at the Imperial
Theatre, where the Johansson-Patterson
fight films were an added attraction. "The
Unforgiven" moved into the Uptown after
three weeks at Loew's.
(Average Is 100)
Corlton Flome Over India (20th-Fox), 2nd wk. ..110
Hollywood Suddenly, Last Summer (Col)
8th wk 00
Hyland
1
Carry On, Constable (20th-Fox), 3rd wk. 100
Imperial Crock in the Mirror (20th-Fox);
Johansson-Patterson fight films (UA) 115
Loew's The Apartment (UA) 115
Nortown Sergeant Rutledge (WB)... 100
Tivoli—Con-Con
Towne
(20th-Fox), 1 3th wk
The Battle of the Sexes (IFD),
120
.100
4th wk. .
University Ben-Hur (MGM), 27th wk 120
Uptown The Unforgiven (UA),
1 st wk. of moveover
'Suddenly, Last Summer'
Impressive in Wiimipeg
WINNIPEG—"Suddenly, Last Summer,"
with very strong weekend patronage, was
top city grosser while "Five Branded
Women" also showed to oversized audiences.
Other first runs produced average
or below business in the face of continued
warm weather and public preference for
out-of-doors activities.
Capitol The Mouse Thot Roared (Col). 100
Gaiety Chance Meeting (Para), 2nd wk. 95
Garrick The Gallant Hours iUA) 90
Lyceum, Starlite dnve-ins— Killers of Kilimanjaro
(Col); Face of o Fugitive (Col) 90
Met, Pembina drive-ins Five Branded Women
(Para) ,25
Odeon Suddenly, Lost Summer (Col) 140
HEAD QUEBEC PIONEERS—Art Bahen was elected president of the Quel)ec
division of the Canadian Picture Pioneers at the annual meeting in the Sheraton
Mount Royal. Left to right: William Deveault, treasurer; W. H. Giles, first vicepresident
and chairman of the finance committee; President Bahen; Nat Gordon,
second vice-president of the Welfare committee, and Mori Provost, elected
secretary.
Norman McLaren Heads
Montreal Festival
MONTREAL—The film festival to be
held in August at Loew's Theatre is headed
by one of the outstanding pioneers in the
field of film, Norman McLaren, whose fame
is worldwide as the originator of so many
prize-winning films.
McLaren was born in Scotland and during
his days as a student at the Glasgow
School of Fine Arts, he made many experimental
films, painting the image directly
by hand onto the film.
In 1937, at the invitation of John Grierson,
the world famous producer, he joined
the GPO film unit and worked with Cavalcanti.
He produced documentary films and
started experimenting with new forms of
expression.
McLaren was already with the National
Film Board of Canada in 1941. In 1955,
"Blinkity Blank" won the grand prize for
short films at the Cannes festival; in 1956,
his "Rhymetic" also took the first prize in
Berlin; in Venice in the same year "A
Chairy Tale" won the first prize for short
movies, and the following year "Le Merle"
won a top award at the world film festival
at Brussels.
In 1953, an outstanding production of
McLaren's, "Neighbors," won an Oscar
from the Motion Picture Academy of Arts
and Sciences in Hollywood.
At the Art Centers
TORONTO—"Black Orpheus," a Cannes
festival winner made in France with Portuguese
dialog and English titles, was a drawing
card at the International Cinema. The
Christie, Odeon's art film center, featured
"La Strada," which played on an adultsonly
basis, while Vic Simone's Radio City
had a Soviet program topped by "Don
Quixote."
Installs 35/70 Arc Lamps
CALGARY, ALTA.—The Uptown Theatre
has installed Strong 35 70 Special projection
arc lamps on Victoria X projectors for
the showing of 70mm productions.
Balaban's TV Views
Sent to FPC Owners
TORONTO—President J. J. Pitzgibbons
of Famous Players Canadian Corp. has
sent to 8,400 shareholders copies of a
statement by Barney Balaban. president
of Paramount Pictures Corp., on Telemeter
and its prospective meaning for the motion
picture industry as a whole. Balaban, who
is a director of FPC of which Trans-Canada
Telemeter is a division, gave an analysis
of the number of subscribers, on a
percentage basis, who had paid to see ten
film features in the home. The best showing
was made by "The Ten Commandments,"
for which 50 per cent of the subscribers
put $1 in the coin box. Balaban
said he was intrigued by the possibility
that "pay television can add a sum that
goes into nine figures to the motion picture
industry's grosses from the domestic
market."
The Telemeter system in suburban Etobicoke
joined with ten local Famous Players
theatres in the day-and-date playing
of the Johansson vs. Patterson heavyweight
championship fight picture, starting on
June 23. The fight film had saturation
bookings throughout Ontario.
Dark at Elliot Lake
TORONTO—The northern Ontario mining
town of Elliot Lake has fallen on evil
days because of the disappearance of
orders for uranium from the United
States, the principal market. A result has
been the closing of the Strand, one of the
two theatres, there. The Strand was
opened in February 1959 when the uranium
boom appeared to be permanent. Although
many of the miners and their families
have departed for new pastures, the
Lake, a 500-seat unit of Allen's Premier
circuit, Toronto, continues to operate
while diversified local industries are
sought.
United Artists and the Popsicle Co. have
set a national merchandising campaign for
"The Alamo."
BOXOFFICE July 4, 1960
K-1