Year book of motion pictures (1925)

Opinions on the Foreign Outlook A WORLD RESUME I believe that it is generally the consensus of opinion among those engaged in the distribu Hon in foreign countries of American motion pictures, that the outlook for the coming year generally speaks for the American producer of first class attractions, increased husiness. I say "for the American producer of first-class attractions" because Europe is becoming more critical in the matter of the production that it is going to accept, and it is not going to readily accept, as it has done to quite an extent in the past, as many of the inferior productions, regard less from what source coming. This is due in a large measure to the campaign of education that has been carried on by the producers of worthwhile productions to educate the exhibitor to become more critical for the purpose of increasing the business in the industry as a whole. When it is also realized that Europe has just commenced during the past year to rehabilitate itself, it isn't' hard to prophesy that the motion picture industry there has of necessity been travelling on a lower plane than it would experience with rehabilitated commercial conditions. Taking the foreign countries categorically — Scandinavia, which consists of Norway, Sweden and Denmark, will slightly increase. Norway will probably remain at a standstill due to the existence of communistically-owned theaters, which precludes investment of private capital in theater operations while there is no disposition on the part of the government to itself build theaters. T look for no theater activity of anv conse quence in Sweden, as Sweden is quite well pro vided with first-class theaters. However, a rehabilitated Europe should have its reaction upon commercial conditions in Sweden for the betterment of the motion picture business. This will also operate in the following manner. It will be noted that the Swedish rate of exchange has been practically normal throughout all the troublesome period of Europe, while the rest of Europe has had a depreciated currency. The fact that the Swedish rate of exchange has been normal while that of Europe has been depreciated has very materially retarded Swedish exports and to that extent lowered commercial conditions. As Europe rehabilitates itself and its currency mounts, it is bound to react to the advantage of Sweden. Denmark will show no decided improvement but should show no retrogression. There will be very little theater building in Denmark but improved general commercial conditions should have their effect upon the motion picture industrv there. The United Kingdom of Great Britain, Ireland and Scotland should improve considerably. There is quite a bit of activity there on the part of the exhibitors, not so much in building new theaters as renovating and enlarging the present ones, which indicates the optimistic feeling on the part of the British exhibitor toward better conditions. In addition, economic conditions in the United Kingdom have been slowly improving — slowly, it is true, but improving. No decided improvement can be looked forward to in Spain, Italy and Portugal for the reason that those in the business in those particular countries have not yet awakened to the advantages to be reaped from enlightened progressive policies of operation. The caliber of the theaters is poor, the method of operation is poor. In addition] the customs of the country, and that goes for all the Latin countries, are not as propitious to the motion picture business as are the Nordic. Germanic and Anglo-Saxon countries. The fact that in countries like Spain it isn't considered proper for respectable women and girls to be seen upon the street unchaperoned precludes their attendance in many cases from theaters, especial')' matinee performances. The habits of the people, that matinees should start at six o'clock and regular evening performances at 10:30 with respect to legitimate theaters, variety and vaudeville performances, has ingrained habits and customs upon the people that are not conducive to the motion picture business and will not be so until some radical change is made. Germany is apt to be the spot of Europe where, throughout the coming year, we are apt to find the greatest advancement in the motion picture business. Germany is on the verge of coming back — and coming back strongly, and the habits and temperaments of the German people are more favorable to the motion picture business than are the Latin races. In addition, Germany is intensely an industrial and economic nation, and once the wheels of industry commence to grind in Germany and commercial conditions get on the rise, the motion picture business there is going to have its share of it. However, there are certain hindrances and limitations that will retard this advancement unless removed. One is the restriction upon building of theaters, which requires that if a certain amount of capital is invested in a theater a like or proportionate amount must be invested in dwelling houses, and the other is the present pernicious Kontingent system which there prevails. The Kontingent system is a system whereby the number of imports of motion pictures are limited to a certain percentage of German produced productions. These permits, which are called "kontingents," are the authority for the importation of a subject and are handed out regardless of the need for importation of the recipient. Consequently they are speculated in to a great extent and the distributor desirous of importing productions and one who has need for them must buy from the competitive market, which means that a considerable flow of money passes into the hands of non-essential factors in the business. Russia, for some time, has shown activity and there is considerable buying going on for Russia. Due to the policy of the Russian Government in sending out various trade delegations to various parts of the world with unlimited authority, the spheres of activity of these trade delegations overlap and conflict. This produces more or less disorganization and confusion, as all motion pictures that go into Russia are either purchased eventually by the Russian Government or by quasi companies in which the Russian Government is interested with private capital, and as these concerns are not disposed to pay cash — in fact, the Government does not pay cash but issues warrants, there must of necessity be several hands through which the productions pass before they reach the ultimate buyer in order to provide the cash money which the American distributor demands before turning over its productions for that market. In other words, bankers and private speculators with ready money to pay and willing to accept the Government's warrants, act as middle men and exact a profit that really should be divided between the seller and the ultimate buyer. At the present time there does not seem to be any indication of improvement of this situation, although, as I have previously stated in this article, buying activities in Russia during the past year have increased and show no sign of diminution for the coming year. Turning our attention to the Orient, Japan has very quickly recovered from the catastrophe that destroyed about 40% of its theaters, and there is reason to seriously believe but that the motion picture business there should hold its own and pursue a natural evolution of improvement. However, the American motion picture production never will command the hold in Japan it has gained in some of the foreign countries, like Europe, for the reason that on account of the extreme racial differences between the Caucasian and the Japanese, the Japanese production of motion pictures, which is quite an extensive business in Japan, need not fear any fatal competition from either American or European productions. 659