Motion Picture News (Oct-Dec 1929)

O c to be r 5 . 1 9 29 : 1215. A popular form of merchant-theatre co-operation is the fashion show Merchants Survey Shows Value of Movies to Business of Local Retail Stores WHAT is the effect in dollars and cents of the motion picture theatre on the business of local merchants in the larger towns of the country? It is pretty generally accepted that the major type motion picture theatre increases property values in the neighborhood of its location, and that crowds drawn to the theatre brisk up the business of confectionary stores, restaurants, etc., within that neighborhood. Some of the more progessive merchants of a town of the larger type will quite frankly admit that they frequently have had demonstrations of the effectiveness of direct tieup advertising with theatres along special lines. But while international bankers, and even statesmen, are declaring that "trade is following the films," there seems to be a lack of awareness of the value of motion picture theatres to the retail shops on the part of the merchants themselves. Much of the indifference to the situation that actually exists is demonstrated in the resistance which many stores offer to propositions looking toward co-operative advertising, window displays, etc., put up to the local merchants by theatre managers, and often the exploitation representatives of national distributors. An important phase of the survey conducted in Watertown, N. Y., by the Curtis Publishing Company — quoted in an article on out-of-town theatregoing that appeared in this department last month — was an investigation of the influence of the motion picture theatre on local business. The representatives of the Curtis Company had been told by the advertising manager of the Avon Theatre in Watertown, that the best theatres co-operated with the best merchants in helping each other bring more of the much-desired outof-town purchasing to both groups. For the purpose of checking conditions on this point, and to determine whether the leading merchants were conscious of the benefits derived directly or indirectly from the theatre, the men who conducted the survey canvassed 37 merchants in Watertown with questionnaires designed to collect accurate data on this phase of motion picture theatregoing.' The individual questionnaires as presented in the Curtis report on the Wat Movie stars used to attract attention to window displays of merchandise ertown survey are especially interesting for the thoughtful general opinions and advice given by business men whose aims are close to those of the exhibitor. However, only their general conclusions will be given here. Most important is the fact developed by the merchant questionnaires that business increases were directly ascribed to the crowds brought to town by the motion picture theatres. Twelve of fourteen merchants who measured their business increase in percentage had an average improvement in volume of 22.6 per cent during the week of the showing of "Wings" with sound accompaniment. As set forth in the article last month, the Curtis Company selected Watertown out of 200 trading areas in the United States as the most typical of national conditions when it was decided to make a survey for the purpose of determining the effect of sound pictures on theatre business. The survey was conducted the week of December 1 to 8. 1 28, for the reason that the attraction then at the Avon Theatre, the largest house in Watertown, was showing "Wings" with souypl effects. This was a special showing, 'Into the fact that it was the first presentation of "Wings" with sound, and pro vided the needed opportunity to obtain data regarding the amount of out-of-town patronage brought to Watertown — larg est town in the trading area — from the surrounding territory. Every effort was made to secure through this survey an outline of conditions that obtain with re