Jazz Age Chicago -- Movie Theater Index

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Movie Theater Box Office Receipts

The following table summarizes the average weekly box office revenue (in dollar amounts) for the city's major motion picture theaters during the 1920s and 1930s. The averages are based on weekly box office figures published in Variety, the national show business trade journal. Although these figures indicate the relative size of and year-to-year changes in each theater's business operations, they do not reveal, as the underlying data do, the degree to which theater revenues could vary from week to week. Weekly variations were often dramatic and fluctuated for many reasons. Factors affecting weekly revenues included changes in theater operations or amenities, the quality of the movies shown, the number of weeks a movie had been showing at a given location, the weather, and, perhaps most significantly, the quality and types of amusements offered to supplement the feature motion picture.

Year	Chicago	McVickers	Roosevelt	Oriental	State- Lake	United Artists	Orpheum	Monroe	Woods	Garrick	Randolph
1922	28,300	27,000	14,600	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	5,900
1923	42,000	25,600	19,200	-	-	-	8,700	5,600	9,800	-	6,000
1924	45,000	24,900	16,800	-	-	-	8,100	4,900	10,400	-	4,600
1925	43,300	26,700	17,500	-	-	-	8,300	5,000	-	-	4,300
1926	41,400	24,100	19,200	47,700	19,600	-	9,800	5,000	-	-	5,700
1927	46,100	22,700	13,800	43,400	18,200	-	8,700	6,500	13,300	13,300	7,300
1928	47,200	30,400	16,800	39,600	18,800	22,600	9,600	4,500	9,800	13,900	-
1929	52,200	31,100	20,800	36,700	25,400	26,000	8,500	4,500	-	-	-
1930	46,400	26,000	20,100	33,500	22,600	21,500	6,400	4,200	-	-	-
1931	41,100	23,500	14,200	30,100	20,200	20,100	-	-	-	-	-
1932	34,900	18,900	11,900	22,600	12,600	16,700	-	-	-	-	-
Notes: 1. Box office revenues have been compiled from data published each week in Variety, the national show business trade journal. 2. Data were not available for all weeks. 3. Some theaters did not exhibit motion pictures every week. Last updated: 23 June 2000

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