Harrison's Reports (1959)

January 3, 1959 HARRISON'S REPORTS 3 A VICTIM SPEAKS HIS MIND The following letter has been sent to this paper by R. B. Smith, owner of the Sierra Theatre, Chow chilla, California, together with a front-page newspaper clipping dealing with his announcement that he will close his theatre on January 4 because of decreased attendance and the high cost of operation: "The enclosed clipping, all too dramatically, demonstrates the truth of your statements made in the last paragraph of your editorial in the November 22nd issue of Harrison's Reports. "This theatre would have been able to survive with top pictures at a reasonable price. The equipment is good (full stereophonic sound, although I have had very little to run on it). The closest competition is sixteen miles, so I should have had access to top pictures from all companies. Yet, I have had to pass up a great many of the big ones because I would not go for the seven or fourteen day runs or the 50% or 60% terms. 7\[or would I play them after they had been mil\ed dry and the public had lost interest in them. This is an example of my buying problem. I have played only 25 pictures from Warner Bros, since January 1954. These were played at the rate of four to nine pictures a year in an attempt to 'get together.1 Of the 25, 10 were percentage so Warners could have a 'look at my grosses.' Even then, these pictures did not include the 'blockbusters.1 Grosses were not good, still I received no help. As a result, I have not played a single Warner picture for 19 months. In that time, no attempt has been made to sell me a single V/arner Bros, picture. Previously, I called on the Sales Manager, in his San Francisco office, in an effort to negotiate a deal. I was forced to do this at times to off -set squeeze plays by other companies. "A big picture, even if it does not gross, must have big money because it is a big picture. A little picture, if it does gross, must have big money because it does gross. Big pictures are held for high film rental accounts for Thanksgiving — you can't play a percentage picture between Thanksgiving and Christmas and you can t buy them flat at a price you can afford to pay. Therefore, the bigger pictures that are held up for Thanksgiving release are not available to a little theatre until Christmas — then, of course, there are no prints available. We can play them, after everyone has lost interest in them, at the tag end of January and in February or March, which is the very worst time of the year in my situation — top terms, of course. If a drive-in pays more film rental than you do, he gets a print first. He might charge $1.00 per car load and run the feature with two or three other features. You are expected to still pay top film prices and charge 90c loges, 7">c general, and 25c for children. (Reduced admissions or family night do not help, I tried it.) Circuits demand, and get from some film companies, under the counter (no prints available) clearance, because they have buying power. "This is what I hit when I tried to book my December calendar. It was then and there that I decided that I had had it. I decided to go through December because, as a rule, this is a busy season for this cotton growing community. What does New York know .or care about this? They have a policy and that's that. "Buying film used to be a challenge, a game with high stakes. I used to be pretty good at it too. But I can't cut the mustard when the cards are stacked against me like they are today. Film buyers, circuits in particular, have helped stack these cards by buying film at outlandish prices. They can't see that buck tomorrow for looking at the dime in the till today. Yet with the advantages they have, they have been able to exist. The time will soon be here when they will have complete control of whole territories such as mine. Then I hope they readily tighten the screws on the distributors. Perhaps this is their intention, for the 'little fellows' certainly get no consideration from exhibitor organizations that are run by the 'big boys' — for the 'big boys.' See Harrison's Reports, October 29, 1955. Nothing has changed. "If anything comes out of ACE for the small town exhibitor, it will be because both distribution and the exhibitor representatives have been made aware through your efforts, that small independently operated theatres still exist. That they still furnish an outlet for product and are about the only means by which tomorrow's generation is given the chance to 'get the movie habit.' "I feel that you are being kidded a bit by Fox ('Why the Secrecy?', Harrison's Reports, February 2, 1957; '20th-Fox Lends a Hand to the Little Fellow,' January 26, 195 8 — also see what Mr. Skouras had to say as reported in Harrison's Reports, November 12, 1955). I'll admit Mr. Skouras tal\s a helping hand. "One last word before I bow out. You will notice from my clipping that I had 50,000 admissions (less than half what I had before T.V.). Most of these people are under 20 years old and are not going 16 miles to any other theatre. It is certain they and their children will turn to bowling, boating and other forms of recreation or — 'just watch TV.' One thing for sure, they will never get the movie habit that way. "I shall continue to subscribe to Harrison's Reports. After 32 years in this business, I will still want to know what goes on." A LETTER TO THE EDITOR Dear Sir: We have unfortunately lost track of Harrison's Reports No. 29, and as our records are complete back to 1929, and we have each year bound, we would appreciate it if you would send No. 29 to us so that this year will be complete when we have it bound. — V. J. Clouston, Exhibition Manager, Kerridge* Odeon Theatres, Auckland, J^ew Zealand. ORDER YOUR MISSING COPIES Because of the holiday rush, one or more of your copies of Harrison's Reports may have been lost in the heavy Christmas mails. Check into your files and if you find the copy of any issue missing, write to this paper and it will be supplied to you promptly free of charge. A sufficient number of copies of many back issues is kept in stock for just such a purpose.