Boxoffice (Oct-Dec 1961)

ALLIED CONVENTION REPORT HOLDING OF BIG Long Wait for Roadshows By Smaller Theatres Is Criticized by Allied By AL STEEN MIAMI BEACH — The practice of delaying availabilities of roadshow caliber pictures and some regular-release features to the subsequent-run theatres “smacks of illegality,” Allied States Ass’n declared at its convention here this week, and said it intends to do something about it. The association, however, hopes to bring an end to this policy on a plane of negotiation with the film companies, rather than resorting to legal channels. RESOLUTION IS DRAFTED When the matter came to the floor of the convention Tuesday ( 5 ) , there was an initial tendency to make a bee line for the Department of Justice to obtain a clarification as to the legality of the practice and, at the same time, call on company heads in an effort to change existing policies. The i-esolutions committee was instimcted to draft a resolution to that effect. However, when the resolution was presented to the convention at the final session, immediate objections to the procedure came from many delegates. This was not the “new Allied,” running first to the Justice Department and the courts, some of them declared. Apparently, there had been a misunderstanding among the exhibitors as to what the original resolution provided. At the Thursday (7) session, Alden Smith of the Michigan affiliate rose to complain that adoption of the original resolution as it pertained to the Justice Department would defeat all the progress made by Allied at the convention, and would “set the organization back ten years.” Leonard Leventhal of the Upper New York State unit said he regarded it as the “only sour note” of the meeting. At this point it was decided to change the resolution so that Allied’s national officers would merely obtain a “legal opinion” concerning the handling of special-release pictures but still proceed with meetings at the homeoffice level, rather than putting it on a Dof J basis. ORDERLY RELEASE PLAN The convention also called for improved procedures in establishing orderly release of feature pictures, and instructed the board of directors to formulate a plan for a proper territorial release of all pictures. Trade practices held the spotlight throughout most of the convention and speakers from the floor leveled their attacks on the bunching of product and lack of orderly release, shortage of prints, dearth of suitable product for kiddie shows, compulsory competitive bidding and the National Screen Service-Columbia Pictures controversy over trailer and accessories production. BACK AVAILABILITY ONES' CHALLENGED Skouras Warns Toll TV To Be Taken Seriously Miami Beach — Exhibitors are not taking the threat of toll television seriously enough, Spyros P. Skouras, president of 20th Century-Fox, warned exhibitors at the Allied States Ass’n convention here this week. “If it ever gains a foothold, it could wipe out the investment of most theatres in the United States,” he declared. Skouras, who made a surprise, last-minute appearance, spoke at a luncheon hosted by National Screen Service Thursday (7). The 2C'th-Fox president urged theatremen to police themselves against the showing of immoral motion pictures, warnings that the quick-buck activities of a few exhibitors eventually will bring a loss of attendance in all theatres. He said he was opposed to classification of films because this would bring on a flow of adult pictures by irresponsible producers willing to trade on the tag “for adults only.” As for the Saturday night showings on NBC of 20th Century-Fox pictures, Skouras said surveys showed they did not injure attendance at theatres. In each instance. Allied will pursue a course of action to correct the various practices which the members asserted were abusive. Committees will be appointed to handle the many phases. It was generally conceded that the withholding of important product from the subsequent -runs posed one of the most dangerous facets of theatre operations today and that the practice must be stemmed. The initial convention session started off with much of the fiery display that used to mark the Allied conventions of several years ago. The criticism of distribution’s handling of roadshow pictui*es stemmed from Marshall Fine’s keynote address in which he said that the film companies were losing revenue in withholding the pictures from a normal subsequent run release pattern. “Ben-Hur” and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer came in for severe critical remarks, the charges being that the smaller theatres could not buy the picture on any tenns. It also was felt that by the extended engagements of the prior nms, the picture had been “milked” by the time it reached the subsequents. It was further charged that the handling of “Spartacus” by Universal, “Exodus” by United Artists and “Can-Can” by 20th Century-Fox had resulted in poor perfonnances in the subsequent runs, financial loss to exhibitors and less return to producers and the distributing companies. Wilbur Snaper of New Jersey, a fonner Allied president, opened the discussion by stating that when MGM was in trouble a few years ago, the exhibitors had rallied to its assistance in various ways, but now many of those same exhibitors were imable to cash in on “Ben-Hur.” Ben Marcus, board chairman of Allied, said he was not opposed to special handling of pictui’es but that it was a mistake not to handle them in an orderly fashion. He said the mishandling of them had caused the companies to miss out on between $10,000,000 and $15,000,000 in additional revenue. ASKS TO CHECK LEGALITY Irving Dollinger, also of New Jersey, suggested that AlUed seek legal advice as to what the legal status of the withholding of the pictures might be and his remarks led to proposals that Alhed go to the Department of Justice on the matter. There were others who preferred to meet first with the sales managers and then go to the government if no satisfaction was obtained. And still others favored doing both — query the Justice Department while confeiTing with the sales heads. A show of hands revealed that the delegates appeared to be evenly divided on the matter and it was refeiTed to the resolutions committee. The bunching of product by the distributors was criticized by most of the speakers who charged that distribution released impoi-tant pictm’es during holiday periods and then withheld pictures which exhibitors could use at other times. Marcus said this was the only industry that held back merchandise from customers willing to buy and that the policy was driving patrons away from the theati’es. It was pointed out by others that film was just as perishable os vegetables and that pictures must be delivei'ed when they were fresh. There also were implications that inability to obtain prints on contracted pictures was artificial because, it was alleged, there appeai'ed to be plenty of prints for the larger situations but they disappeared when the smaller situations needed them. An instance was cited wherein there were 460 prints available on a picture one November but there was a shortage in December when smaller theatres wanted the picture. But they strangely became available again in January. MARCUS MAKES PROPOSAL As predicted in last week’s issue of Boxoffice, the matter of a new system of releasing was proposed by Marcus, a subject which first was discussed at the 1957 Allied convention in Kiamesha Lake, N. Y. This called for the distributors to split up the countiT into zones and then stagger the releases of a number of pictures among the zones. This would mean that one section of the country would be playing a new picture, while others would be playing other new pictm’es. The prints then would 4 BOXOFFICE :: December 11, 1961