Cinemas 1905
In the USA, 'permanent' Nickelodeon film theatres appeared from 1905. In the UK the travelling film/slide lecturer gradually disappeared, though fairground Bioscope shows accommodating hundreds of fairgoers, with steam organs and paraders enticing the crowds inside, were very popular. In British towns rented shops were converted to show films, and the practise of exhibitors buying film prints gave way to rental arrangements.

Cinemas 1914
By 1914 permanent cinema theatres, frequently several in competition, were a feature of every town of any size in the USA (Nickelodeons, or picture theatres), UK and much of Europe. Films had largely disappeared from variety halls, and in Britain, from the outbreak of war, the travelling fairground Bioscope show went into decline.

Feature films made motion pictures respectable for the middle class by providing a format similar to that of the legitimate theatre, and was suitable for the adaptation of middle-class novels and plays. This new audience had more demanding standards than the older lower-class one, and producers readily increased their budgets to provide high technical quality and elaborate productions. The new viewers also had a more refined sense of comfort, which exhibitors quickly accommodated by replacing their storefronts with large, elegantly appointed new theatres in the major urban centres. Known as "dream palaces" because of the fantastic luxuriance of their interiors, these houses had to show features rather than a program of shorts to attract large audiences at premium prices.