Variety (Jan 1949)

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Wedpesdafy January S, 1949 Forty-third US'RIETY Annivet^ry punrvRES DA Prez's Cynieal, Clinical Closeup on Stale of the Biz By GRADWELL L. SEARS (President, United Artists Corp.) colossus. Grad Sears I know now why .there is an annual pre-Christmas slump in the motion picture business. About this time every year, any joker who has ever made mpre than a buck- and-a-half a week feels himself pecul- iarly qualified to tell all the other jokers what's wrong with business. Every body's got ideas—and time enough to write them out. ,v . , . ■: , ■ It those man-hours were ap- plied to business, maybe our pain would not be so deep. Maybe this rash ol prophecy is necessary to the season. I still like the duck season better. For myself, I don't know what's wrong with picture business. If 1 did, I wouldn't publish it for free in Variety; there are plenty of '> buyers around. All I do know is, as the poker-player says, "We can't win for losing." In the corset business or the banana business or organized vice, there's the same intense competi- tion for the customer's money, But somehow if any other business finds itself under fire, the attack becomes a unifying, a welding foi:ce. The competitors may hate Bach others' guts, but they'll join in mutual protection against outside •..attack;. Now consider our racket: , Production says, "If those dam- fools in the Sales Department had any ability at all, we could bail out the banks* Distributioo is sabotag- ing us." Distribution says, "If those thieving exhibitors wouldn't insist on keeping all the profit, maybe we could pick up a dollar. They steal the pictures. Then they steal at the boxoffice. Otherwise how could they all winter in Florida and owii hotels and keep buying more theatres.'' Exhibition says, "Hollywood isn't making any more decent- pictures. And when one does come along, those high-binding salesmen right away insist on 50%. We can't af- ford it." So the exhibitor organizations pass resolutions condemning the distributors and producers. The distributing companies hold sales meetings and cuss out the exhibi- tors. And the producers sit in Never-Never land, hating every- body, ducking the bank and mak- ing the best films they can. The industry, as an industry, does nothing. So what? ^ So maybe we've reached the point where we must stop kicking each other's brains out. Of course, I'm no longer naive enough to be- lieve that anything could be ac- complished by an industry meeting or a "public relations" plan. I've sat in on that kind of meeting too many times. They always wind up in glowing tradcrpaper announce- ments. And everyone goes back to industrial flagellation. There's a Vast 55% Domestic Market to Woo Instead of Worrying About lost' Foreign B. O. By LEONARD cH. COLDENSON (Vice-President, Paramount Pictures) a new medium of enter* tainment which can be more things to more men than movies can. Video .- won't replace motion pic- tures. It won't have to. If it only takes away 20% or even 10% of our present audience, it has dealt a crippling,: albeit, unwittingj blow. I ' don't recommend.- trying to whip 'television. "If you can't whip 'em, jine .'em.'? There's a formula somewhere for harnessing the two i industries. Video is going to need | film, We're specialis.ts in making : It. I£ we make the right kind of v film for. video, there will still be ai waiting market for our product in theatres. ■ Television hurt' movies? It's done so already. /Don't let anyone kid you. As'advertised, at this season, any joker can tell any other joker what's wrong with business. Only tlie swwrt guy can tell you what to do about it. You'll find that on another page. ' To try to predict the couKe of the motion picture industry iiKthe New Yej^r is too hazardous a game for me, so shortly after our na- t i o n a 1 elec- tions: which proved. that even the wisest can; be wrong. I'm confident of 0 n l.y one thing — that the New Year can be a great New Year for the m o ti o n picture indus-. try. It can be a great New ■ Year it only we who are in the in- dustry realize that it Is. time to stop' analyzing the Great Slump and begin, to chart The ".Great Offensive. It is time to shake off the lethargy that we fell heir to: during good / old 1946 and . re- examine—^ put to the test—'Our Ions - standing assumptions, our trade coiiiinandmenls. Ijeonard H. Goldenson i Of course, there are hurdles. There always have been. There always will. be. But there has never been a period in the history of motion picture exhibition when we were better equipped to sur- mount them. In our comparatively new. industry we still have the pio-: necrs Who had the vision, the fore- sight and the acumen to bring our industry through the successive stages of the penny arcade, the nickelodeon store show, the. silent pictures, sound and Technicolor, And to that solid foundation we have added the finest younger minds. What better combination can there be to surmount any hurdle? But all this talent mufst be properly directed to surmounting the hurdle rather than bickering about who won the- last race. If England is not going to be the source of income it used to be^ must we" just sit back and feel sorry for ourselves? Isn't the great untapped audience in our own backyard almost as large as the entire population ot England? And shouldn't we be devoting tlie great ; talent in our industry to: tapping I that vast audience? Surely we all agree that the motion picture pro< vides the best entertainment in: the ■ world. Certainly it is the most reasonable in price.: Why . not, then, sell this—the best value in the world^to the 55% of the : { people, who are not: buying it I rathei" than waste our energy bick- . ering over who shall sell it to the 45% who are already buying. ' It was all very well and good, when we could say that: run- I ning a theatre was merely a mafc- ■ i ter ol "opening the door and get-. I ting out of the way of the stam- 1 pede." But now that that time has ■ passed, what are we doing to keep up that stampede? What can we i do about "mechanizing" our thea- I tres, about improving our. theatres ' for our patrons' comforts, about I our public. relations, about having' our theatres take their rightful place in the communal life?. Thesfe are the> probelms that raise a chal« lenge to us. There^s No Ceiling on Showmanship No- matter what else happens in our business, we are always sure of one thing. People are seeking entertain- ment. Our job is to give them the best enter- tainment: pos- sible. In the past: few years a decided tran- sition in meth- od of produc- tion necessari- ly took place,, due mostly to economic con- ditions which N. I. Blumberc were neither created by us nor which were controlled by us. The time has arrived when the motion picture industry must re- appraise its position in relation to these new conditions. We all realize that pictures nov^ must be made at a cost commensu- rate with present market condi- tions, rurtheimore, these pictures must have the benefit of all the good and tried showmanship, par- ticularly in their exhibition. No longer, can the distributors carry the advertising load. Exper; I Dated Distribution Methods? | Perhaps our distribution system is out of date. It could be. The tact that we have always distrib- uted under oiir present system doesn't make it right. Maybe we don't need all our exchanges. Maybe «ome facilities could be combined; Maybe. we're carrying top much of the exhibitor's right- ful load. Maybe we're no longer showmen. Maybe we've taken a nickel-and-dime business too far from the nickel-and-dime audience. Maybe. Frankly, I don't know. And maybe we'd better do some- thing about Video besides watching It. I've read the ostrich-like state- ments of various exhibitor groups that "Television will have no ef- fect on the boxoffice." Maybe these guys actually believe that nonsense. I don't. I think that, given enough of a headstart. tele- : vision will kick the living blazes out of movies. '.. To itiy mind, video is a todding By N. J. BLUMBERG .< President; Universal Pictures) rience proves that the best adver- tising results can' b&. obtained at the point of sale. * V This means that exhibitors must get back into: the: advertising and exploitation business. : It is evident that theatre opera- tors can no longer just open the doors and expect the crowds to come in as they did during the lush periods. The pictures themselves are just as good as always. What is lacking is the proper spotlight for the pic- tures. The public's demand for good pictures is greater than ever. The success of "Hamlet" disproves the theory that the public lacks the feeling or taste for extraordinarily good motion pictures. The most gratifying experience of the year is the hearty acclaim; given to -this picture, and also the substantial interest shown in it by exhibitors who have the vision to- know that this picture is a fine public relations vehicle for the en- tire industry. I cite this point to prove that showmanship is not confined to any particular type of picture and. also, to Indicate that ;if pictures are giveti the specialized treatment they deserve,: a market is readily. established. : The day has passed when exhib- itors can take the : point of view, that there is such a thing as a "nat- ural;" The day has arrived when every picture must be analyzed and appraised on the basis of its con- tent, and it's up to the exhibitor to get this information before the public. . To those who are : concerned about various competitive forces, such as Television as well as the traditional competition to our busi- I ness, let me say that the only way I to meet this competition is to give I the public good entertainment ana I to have the exhibitors create ihe feeling that the picture house is still the place where : me entire family can have, the .most fun for the least amount'of: money* . The-exhibitor should make every effort to institutionalize his theatre as well as to" sell the specific at* tractions. If we all take off our coats and I roll up our sieves and get down to 1 hard work, so that we may take 1 pride in our accomplishments, 1949 I should be a most healthy and pros- I perous year for all of us. These Are Prod. Problems BETTY BUTTON Production problems? Certainly there are production problems. The immediate loss of revenue through the reduction of foreign markets and rising costs made tre-. mendous readjustments necessary. [But our studios, too, are run by I skilled men who know how to meet I problems which arise, and I think I that we can look to them to make I whatever adjustments, are >necos- sary. They can and they will make I pictures-^pictures as good and bet- . j ter than were ever made before-— : at costs that will show them profits^ j We, as exhibitors, need only bring i in the grosses that we know are to Ibe had. Even now, production .staffs arc engaged in streamlining I their operations; using every ad- vanced technique to maintain qual- ity and yet reduce costs. . But why must we, as an industry,-herald ' this readjustment, which we know is so vitally; necessary, to the pub- lic at large as a disintegration of our industry. Does it help us as an industry or, more immediately, does it help our grosses to spread the very false impression . that movies are on the verge of becom- v ing extinct? Why not tell the full truth—^that we- have met our prob- - I lems and are conquering them? ■ : I Harness Television for Theatres | j Television? Do you. remember 1 the day "they said" the talkies pre- i sen ted insurmountable hurdles? And that "color" was impractical? ! And then "they said" the radio was I really the end. In spite of our I fears and our frights and our wail- ing-in-public, it took each one of : these progressions to get us where we are today. We, at Paramount, firmly believe that television is just another fine, strong peg in tlie . structure of entertainment of which the motion: picture theatre ' is an integral part. Let us use: tel- evision for our purposes in the home. Let us use television to make the attractions to our thea* : tres even more attractive. The. audience at the New York Par- amount theatre, seeing the Louis- Walcott fight on full screen tele- vision, had an experience not a member of that audience will ever forget. It was a greater experience than if they had seen the fight tele- vised in their homes, even a great- er experience than if thev had seen the fight at Yankee Stadium. We are passing through an era of turmoil. It takes work, and pain, and heartache to survive tur- moil. But turmoil means change, and out of change comes progress, if only there is the will to go for- ward. Many have been predicting disaster for our industry—but we know that forecasts can be ;so very; wrong. We have no'right to be so stridently sure that our future is a declining one. I, for one. will have no more of that not-even-defensive, beaten attitude. It's easier, more I fun and more effecjtive and makes more sense to fight offensively. We; have moaned in public until we. have invited loss of respect and trust in our business and product. We need an offensive front, one.we believe in, abide by, and rely on. That happy solution is ours if W* fight for it.