Cinema: A Summer Business

Despite numerous signs of prosperity in Hollywood, Eric Johnston, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, announced that the movie business has been hit with another box-office recession. Domestic income has fallen so sharply (up to 20% since spring) that for the first time in movie history foreign revenues will add up to about 50% of the year's total movie gross. "We will simply have to face the fact that we are in for a leveling off in the future because of the public's driving habits and television," Johnston said. Movies, he added, are becoming "a summer business," with about 7,000 drive-in theaters now operating, compared to 351 ten years ago.