What were cinemas like between 1890-1920s in Britain?

Answer 1

Hmmm....

I'll have a crack.

Quiet? Due to the technical challenges of synchronizing sound tracks with the movie, silent movies were the only kind of movies until the late 20s, of course, they were black and white too.

As it was a silent movie, and everyone was reading the subtitles, I wonder if it was okay to chat?

Another reason they might have been quite quiet is the economic downturn- known as the great slump which started before the American great depression. With high unemployment, and things very tight for most people, movies may well have been extremely cheap (to attract customers) and /or the theatres very empty.

Answer 2

They didn't have sound or color yet, although sometimes they added color artificially (it didn't look very convincing). Also, it was thought that audiences wouldn't sit through what we would today call a feature-length film. Thus, films were under twenty minutes in length. It was The Birth of a Nation in 1915 which proved that a film could be over two hours and still be successful.

An important event in film history did happen in 1910 itself. At that time, most movies were filmed in New York, but D. W. Griffith went on location to film In Old California. Just outside Los Angeles, he found the perfect filming location in what was then a sleepy hamlet called Hollywood, making In Old California the first movie to be filmed in Hollywood.