Boxoffice (Oct-Dec 1963)

RELEASE LINEUP REVEALED AT SALES MEETING Universal Charts 14 Films For First Halt of '64 NEW YORK — Universal will place 14 new features and two rereleases into domestic distribution during the first six months of 1964, Henry H. “Hi” Martin, vice president and general sales manager, told the company’s branch managers and sales executives at the opening of the formal sessions of the week-long sales meet Henry “Hi” Martin in^ at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, Wednesday (2). The pictures, which are the company’s own releases, produced either by Universal or in association with independent producers, represent “the greatest boxoffice potential in the history of the company,” Martin pointed out. Leading off the list is “Charade,” the Stanley Donen production in Technicolor, starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, which will have Christmas prerelease openings in key cities, following its world premiere at the Radio City Music Hall in New York. This will be followed by “Young and Willing,” produced by Betty E. Box and directed by Ralph Thomas, and “Dark Purpose,” the Brazzi-Barclay-Hayutm production in color, starring Shirley Jones, Rossano Brazzi, George Sanders, Micheline Presle and Georgia Moll, which was produced by Steve Barclay in Italy. Then will come “The Dream Maker,” a musical in Eastman Color, starring Tommy Steele, followed by “Man’s Favorite Sport,” the Howard Hawks-Gibraltar-Universal coproduction in Technicolor, starring Rock Hudson, Paula Prentiss and Maria Perschy. “Hide and Seek,” produced by Hal E. Chester, starring Curt Jurgens, Janet Munro, Ian Carmichael and Hugh Griffith, will be followed by “Captain Newman M.D.,” in Eastman color, starring Gregory Peck, Tony Curtis, Angie Dickinson, Bobby Darin and Eddie Albert. Martin noted that this last will have an Academy Award qualifying engagement in Los Angeles, starting at Christmas time. Martin then listed “He Rides Tall,” the Gordon Kay and Associates film, starring Tony Young, Dan Duryea, Jo Morrow and Madlyn Rhue; “The Brass Bottle,” the Universal-Starus production in color, starring Tony Randall, Burl Ives and Barbara Eden, and “Nightmare,” a Hammer Film production, produced by Jimmy Sangster, with David Knight, Marvin Redman and Brenda Bruce. Then will come “The Chalk Garden,” the Ross Hunter production, in Technicolor, based on the stage play by Enid Bagnold, starring Deborah Kerr, Hayley Mills, John Mills and Dame Edith Evans; “The Raiders,” an outdoor drama; “Wild and Wonderful,” the Harold Hecht production, Universal Sets a 26-Week Drive in Honor of Martin New York — A 26-week sales drive among domestic regional sales managers, branch managers, salesmen and bookers will be conducted by Universal Pictures during the first six months of 1964. The event will be in honor of Henry H. “Hi” Martin, vice-president and general sales manager, who, next year, will be observing his 30th year with the company. The “Hi Martin Sales Drive” was announced at the concluding sessions of the company’s national sales meeting on Friday (4). The slogan of the campaign will be “Universal Has More in Store for ’64 than Ever Before.” in Eastman Color, starring Tony Curtis and Christine Kaufmann and, finally, “Bedtime Story,” previously titled “King of the Mountain,” a Stanley Shapiro comedy, in Eastman Color, starring Marlon Brando, David Niven and Shirley Jones. The rereleases will be two record-breaking comedies, “Operation Petticoat” and “Pillow Talk,” a package with Cary Grant, Tony Curtis, Rock Hudson and Doris Day as stars. The merchandising of motion pictures today requires custom-handling of each individual picture, David Lipton, vice president in charge of advertising and publicity, pointed out in outlining promotion plans on this product Friday (4). “Advertising cannot do the job alone,” he reminded the sales and promotion executives. “In today’s market, where our motion pictures compete for the public’s time, dollars and interest with the great leisure-time activities that are part of our daily routine, it takes more than advertising dollars to sell an audience. Today, our advertising budgets are effective only if they are part of a total marketing plan conceived for the needs of and the audience for each individual picture. A carefully constructed marketing plan is the key to successful merchandising of motion pictures, for it provides publicity, promotion and advertising realistic objectives,” Lipton told the assembly. Lipton pointed to the marketing and promotion plans on “Charade” as an example of the publicity and promotional opportunities made available through longrange planning and the resultant preselling impact at the local level on the mass motion picture audience for the Christmas holidays. He recalled that the advance screening campaign started in mid-July, when the first rough cut print was screened for the editors of national magazines who work far ahead, assuring unprecedented coverage in the NovemberDecember issues on both Grant, Miss Hepburn and the picture. With the first opening of “Charade” still two months away, there was a continuing flow of national newspaper publicity through syndicated columnists and feature writers. The merchandising promotions include the campaign on the Mancini music, record albums, the Audrey Hepburn fashions, publisher tieups on the special edition of the paperback book and a series of promotional activities for the key city openings, Lipton said. Lipton stressed the national magazine advertising, which will have “Charade” in three issues of Life and Look, two issues of the Saturday Evening Post, the Ladies Home Journal and Redbook, as well as single issues of Good Housekeeping and Seventeen, Parents’ and fan magazines. Lipton told the distribution executives that the same kind of intensive advance advertising, publicity and promotional planning was underway on “Captain Newman, M.D.,” with months available for advance work, and he urged the distribution representatives to stress these pre-selling opportunities to their exhibitor customers with advance lobby displays, teaser trailers and local level theatre tie-ins. Hetzel Answers Times' Editorial on U.S. Films NEW YORK — An editorial in the New York Times, claiming that American films were not artistic or thoughtful, were referred to as “product” and that the industry had an “aura of contempt for the public” brought a reply from Ralph Hetzel, acting head of the Motion Picture Ass’n of America. In a move to set the record straight, Hetzel, in a letter to the Times, said that the editorial did not conform with the facts and that the editorial writer had added to the “oversupply of misinformation about so-called art films.” He wrote that foreign producers had no monopoly on films of special quality and interest and that only outstanding pictures made abroad were seen in the United States. “A look at the facts,” Hetzel said, “will show that American producers and distributors turn out as high a percentage of quality films as any country in the world. Of course, there are many run-of-the-mill films produced here, just as there are hundreds of books and plays of small stature produced in any given year. “Every year many American films are produced that equal or surpass the best imported films by any standard, not forgetting the basic quality of entertainment.” Hetzel then listed a group of pictures which had been recognized as outstanding in their respective categories, such as “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “Hud,” “Days of Wine and Roses,” “A Child Is Waiting,” “Cleopatra,” “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Nine Hours to Rama,” “Freud,” “David and Lisa” and “The Manchurian Candidate.” He pointed out that there used to be a certain snob appeal in remarks in some circles that people only saw foreign pictures. Such a statement today, Hetzel said, could only reflect a narrow and uniformed criticism. 6 BOXOFFICE :; October 7, 1963