Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1950)

BULLETIN Volume 18, Number 8 April 10, 1950 IVetvs iutud i St fOfl SMITH SETS FIRST EIGHT IN NEW GROUP SELLING PLAN It read like an exhibitor's dream block booking with a 100 per cent cancellation privilege. Implementing his promise of a group .selling program for the convenience of exhibitors, Andy W. Smith, Jr., vicepresident in charge of domestic distribution for 20ih Century-Fox, announced a package of eight releases for the three month period from April through June, as an experimental feature of the 20thFox sales policy. The sale of any one feature will not be dependent upon that of any others, and all films not trade shown are subject to cancellation by the contracting exhibitor. Also, each picture will be sold individually to each theatre, in line with the demands of the industry anti-trust case decree. The experimental factor was emphasized by Smith because of the decree's requirements. ' We think the idea of group selling is safe and sound but do not know how far we can go with it," the sales executive said. The purpose of the plan, Smith explained, is to enable exhibitors to know sufficiently in advance the films they will play in their theatres so that they can apply maximum promotion efforts in line with the showmanship boom instigated by 20th-Fox. Licensing of all eight will give exhibitors the prerogative ,of running the company's institutional ads in which the films are listed. ihe octet includes: "Under My Skin," "Cheaper By the Dozen," "Wabash Avenue," "The Big Lift," "Ticket to Tomahawk," "Three Came Home," "Night and the City" and "The Broken Arrow." 20th SHOWS $12,415,000 PROFIT FOR '49; GROSS UP I Twentieth Century-Fox, in 1949, virtualy duplicated its net for the preceding year -ith a profit of $12,415,000. The 1948 net as $12,509,000. Figures represent conolidated earnings of 20th-Fox and all subidiaries, including National Theatres orp. and Roxy Theatre, Inc., after all bharges, including Federal taxes, for the 53 weeks ended Dec. 31, 1949, as compared .vith the 52 weeks ended Dec. 25, 1948. I After deducting dividends on the prior Preferred and convertible preferred stocks, ■onsolidated net earnings amounted to 54.28 per share on the 2,769,137 shares of Common stock outstanding, compared vith $4.29 per share on the 2,769,107 shares )f common outstanding in 1948. For the 14 weeks ended Dec. 31, 1949, he consolidated net came to $4,215,000, compared with the 13 weeks in 1948 when ?arnings came to a net of $3,389,000. Gross from film rentals and theatre receipts for 1949 were $169,518,000, more nan $6 million better than the 1948 figure )f $163,395,000. The tax bite came to > 57,225,000 last year, $7,800,000 the year » ■ f ore. ANDY W. SMITH, JR. Dream Package LOEW'S 28-WEEK NET UP; NUDGES $5 MILLION MARK A 20 per cent increase in Loew's net earnings for the 28 weeks ended March 16, 1950, over the corresponding period last year brought the profit figure almost to the five million dollar mark, according to a report issued last week-end. Net income for the period was $4,986,963, after all charges including Federal taxes. This compares with $4,117,117 for the 28 weeks ended March, 1949. Bulk of the increase came from the sale of capital assets which netted $808,020 after taxes. Gross sales and operating revenues for the 28 weeks were $95,618,000, compared with $94,115,000 for the similar period in the preceding year. For the 16 weeks ended March 16th last, net income after all charges was $3,334,314, compared with $3,095,961 in '49. The former figure includes $110,791 profit after taxes on sale of capital assets. Gross sales and theatre revenue for the 16 weeks totalled $57,600,000, compared with $55,455,000 in the corresponding period a year earlier. The profit report bore out the statement made by vice president J. Robert Rubin that earnings for the first 28 weeks of the current fiscal year were expected to exceed the results for the same period last year. Addressing the annual meeting of stockholders on March 23, Rubin pointed out that during the past 26 years of operation, the company's book value had increased to $138,782,000 or $26.99 per share at Aug. 31 last, from $29,242,000 or $7.35 per share. He also reported that there has been paid in this period more than $132,500,000 in cash dividends to stockholders. Earnings during the 26 years, "by conservative estimate" came to $231,800,000 after taxes. LOEW'S APPEAL CLAIMS FULL DIVORCEMENT UNNEEDED NOW Loew's was still struggling to remain in the theatre business. In an appeal request filed with the New York Federal District Court, the only company which has indicated thai it would not seek a settlement with the Department of Justice in the industry anti-trust case reiterated its stand that total divorcement was not necessary. Partial divestiture, the brief claimed, will eliminate whatever is left of the monopoly found by the Statutory Court and upheld by the U. S. Supreme Court. The company placed itself in a position apart from the other theatre-holding defendants, pointing out its comparatively small number of theatres as compared with the others and maintained that exhibition of its films in its own theatres restricts distributor competitors in less than 3.2 per cent of the market, and exhibitors in less than ten per cent of available first-run product. Loew's claimed the test prescribed by the Supreme Court as to a "vertically integrated enterprise" — "Loew's power by .reason of its integration to exclude competition in exhibition and distribution" — was not considered by the District Court in its final decree. "Since vertical integration of production-distribution and exhibition is legal per se," the brief declared, "then it must follow, if divestiture of individual theatres is to proceed, that a cutting down of the extent of a vertically integrated company's activity in the exhibition field could bring it within the protection of this mandate of the Supreme Court." Loew's also charged that the lower court had not taken into considerati m developments since its findings in 1945, including the Paramount and RKO c > v sent decrees. The latter removed vast numbers of theatres from the category of "affiliated" theatres, it was held, and "presumably standards of competition compatible with the Sherman Act have been established with respect to these two formed defendants. Consequently, in determining the existence or non-existence of monopoly power on the part of the defendants, it is of first importance that now there are only one-half as many 'affiliated' theatres as formerly existed." Its own divestiture plans, in combination with prescribed divestiture already agreed to by the other theatre holding distributors, "will place the defendants in a position where the vertical integra i Continued on Next Page) REVIEWS in This Issue Cheaper by the Dozen !) Our Very Own <> Ala and Pa Kettle (io to Town ;> Wabash Avenue 10 House by (be River 10 Boy from Indiana 10 i he Lawless 12 Comanche Territory L2 Twilight in the Sierras 12