Groups of new arrivals, tons entering during a film (7)
I believe the answer is:
intakes
'groups of new arrivals' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both acts as well as being plural nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'tons entering during a film' is the wordplay.
'tons' becomes 't'.
'entering' is an insertion indicator.
'during' becomes 'in' (e.g. during February means in February).
'film' becomes 'Kes' (I've seen this before).
'in'+'a'='ina'
't' inserted within 'ina' is 'inta'.
'inta'+'kes'='INTAKES'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for intakes that I've seen before include "squads of new recruits" , "Where air is drawn in" , "Groups of recruits; amounts consumed" .)