Harrison's Reports (1959)

IN TWO SECTIONS— SECTION ONE Entered as second-class matter January 4, 1921, at the poet eflice at New York, New York, under the act of March 3, 1879. Harrison's Reports Yearly Subscription Rates: 1270 SIXTH AVENUE Published Weekly by . _ „. Harrison's Reports, Inc., United States $15.00 New York 20, N. Y. Publisher U. S. Insular Possessions. 16.50 „.,.„,„_.. , iflrn . « ™ . t, j , c , P. S. HARRISON, Editor Canada 16.50 A Motion Picture Reviewing Service AL pjcoULT Mexico, Cuba, Spain 16.50 Devoted Chiefly to the Interests of the Exhibitors Managing Editor Great Britain 17.50 Australia, New Zealand, Established July 1, 1919 India, Europe, Asia 17.50 its Editorial Policy: No Problem Too Big for Its Editorial 35c a Copy Columns, if It is to Benefit the Exhibitor. Circle 7-4622 A REVIEWING SERVICE FREE FROM THE INFLUENCE OF FILM ADVERTISING Vol. XLI SATURDAY, JANUARY 3, 1959 No. 1 THE NEED FOR MORE REALISTIC playing time." The report adds that "strangely SALES POLICIES justice of what many in exhibition complain,1' and _ , , . 1 1 • that "privately there are exchange managers who In his letter that is published elsewhere in this hdd ^ the termg fch demand and su£xeed ^ £S,Ue' *K,B S^f ' °Yntr l , a ftre m gating frequently are not realistic and lead to incor Chowchilla, Calif which he is closing on January rect rtin or the red t of adiustnients » 4, states that his theatre would nave been able to . ^ , survive if it had obtained top pictures at reasonable In exhibition, continues this New Orleans cor terms and prices respondent, there is the feeling that distribution is „ « i i j i c • r»M ■ out for all it can get and ruthlessly is cutting down What has happened to the bierra lheatre is, as .i .i . „ rS, . c ,. , ' , ° . , , ev -ii rr« the theatre man. This feeling has gotten to be almost most of you know, not an isolated case, lhe uncon „ i • „ j? «.u uuv ui , , ' i j jjr i ii personal in many cases with the exhibitor blaming sdonable rental terms demanded from the small-gross ^ local exchan ma for condltlonS) clairmn° ing theatres on top pictures have caused several ^ he ^ QUt tQ make a6record for himsdf and ^ thousand of them to close their doors during the ff hg f ht for ^ wher£ the exhibitQr had past few years and it threatens to force the closing a j itimate comphmU swlvel chair exeCutives in of thousands of other small-town and neighborhood Ngw Yofk and Holl d would eventuall have theatres, many of which now are on the verge of tQ [dd tQ ^ jud t of their field men_» bankruptcy. ' r, , j ■£ a. • Other published reports can be cited, but suffice Current trade paper reports verify the precarious . . *\ . % , £ , ' r . state of the smaller exhibitors. Film Daily, for ex 11 % Say, that dl c0?firm th\ that most of the ample, reports that in the mid-west, "the first six ^ller theatre operators are struggling for survival, months of 1959 may give the answer to the fate of all °ne does not have to be a mastermind to realise that motion picture theatres in cities and towns of less tne motion picture industry as a whole can ill afford than 15,000 population and whether there is any hope the closing of more theatres, and that such closings for the smaller houses in big metroplitan areas." can be retarded, if not stopped altogether, if the film The report goes on to state that thousands of comPanies Wl11 adoPt more realistic sales policies on theatres are operating strictly on a cash basis; that their ?>P P^tures so that the smaller exhibitors may their films are being sent C.O.D.; that they have no PlaV them w^le are still reasonably fresh in the bank connections; that their number is constantly Publlc s Imnd and at term' 'that wlU §ive them a fair growing; and that most of them are living in the °PPortunity to earn a P^t. hope that conditions will improve. In the St. Louis Since the distributors either own or control the exchange area, adds the report, the number of con pictures, it is their right, of course, within legal lhni ventional theatres has dropped from 616 in 1949 tations, to set whatever terms they desire for their to 340 in 1958. exhibition. On the other hand, the exhibitors can In another report on the New England area Film eith.er mef these terms> demand a better deal or do Daily's Boston correspondent states that "the year wlthout the pictures. Such a relationship between 1958 will go down in the annals of the industry as \>uVer and sell.er mi§ht be satisfactory in normal times, one of discouragement and disappointment, with but today> when the motlon picture business is in a only a few bright spots on the horizon," adding that deP/essed state and the number of pictures available "many small theatres were forced to close while * [decidedly limited, the one thing that will prolong others were put on a week-end policy as the only th([ dePression> hold back recovery and force more means of survival." The report adds that 40 theatres exhlbltors out of business is for the distributors to closed during 1958 in the five New England states, contmue to demand for their top pictures exorbitant exclusive of Connecticut, and that 26 of these etiher renfals and oncrous terms, which leave an exhibitor have been converted into dance halls, supermarkets, Wlth scant or no ™nce t0 earn a Profit torn down or merely abandoned. The decline in theatre attendance is a common In a report on the Gulf States, Film Daily's New disaster and the hardships resulting from the current Orleans' correspondent states that exhibitor-distribu slump should be shared by all and should not be tor relations in the territory are at their worst in the borne mainly by exhibition. The small exhibitor s last twenty-five years, and that the situation "arises Problem today is the lack of proper merchandise. The from bitterness on the part of exhibition over rental movie-going public has become more selective than terms, including demands for preferred and extended ever and a steady diet of run-of-the-mill pictures no enough, many in distribution locally agree with the (Continued on bac\ page)