how long did movies play in the movie theaters in the 1950s?
please answer, thanks!
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with Live action films as little as 3 or 4 weeks due to the studio system in full swing. as for animated films its hard to say
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Depends how big the film was. most films it was 1 week! However, in the early fifties you had the widescreen explosion and this required roadshow presentations meaning a film could play at one cinema continuously for years.
shareNo not for yrs much as BEN HUR played for over a yr at the LOEW'S CAPITOL in NYC.
and not as short as a week either most new films would play in major cities for a month or more & then go to more houses and then more on to local theaters
Disney would almost always get longer runs at neighborhood houses.
Now don't forget back then we also had the double feature(s)
Then in 1962 UNITED ARTISTS started the premier showcase concept
where a film would open at theaters all over town in NYC for example a UA film would open 1 house in each borough.
Next when they went to more houses they would then double feature 2 films
ex: THE MAGIC SWORD & Geronimo
One Disney feature SLEEPING BEAUTY & another film
Tarzan's Greatest Adventure shared a billing TGA introduced some guy name SEAN CONNERY
In the UK that was standard release. One week. Goldfinger was the first film to have a 2 week run at local cinemas.
Road show releases would play for longer at special cinemas.
Doctor Zhivago ran for 2 years continuous
Ben Hur 2 years.
Lawrence Of Arabia 2 years
even Ryan's Daughter and Amadeus ran for over a year.
South pacific ran for 4 years.
Most of the time this meant you couldn't see the film at your local cinema until it had finished it's Road Show presentation, so although Zhivago came out in 1966 many local cinemas didn't get it until nearly 1968.
It wasn't until the 70's that local cinemas held onto films for longer than 2 weeks. Most cinemas only had 1 screen therefore the turnover of product had to be quick and the average cinema in the UK seated 2000 people. When cinemas started to be chopped up in the 70's cinemas were able to hold onto films longer plus the massive decline in the amount of films Hollywood (and the UK) film industry made.