Exhibitors Herald (Jan-Mar 1920)

EXHIBITORS HERALD -INCREASED RETURNS FROM FEWER PRODUCTIONS" The Answer of John S. Woody, General Manager of Realart Pictures Corporations, to the Universal Question : "What Is the Future of the Film Industry? During the past two months there Ms been a series of rapid changes in the motion picture industry. Hardly a week has passed in which some important merger or expansion has not been announced. Throughout the entire industry there is a premonition that something bigger — something astounding — is about to happen. In every important exchange center there is a new rumor for every new day. J. S. Woody, general manager of the Realart Pictures Corporation, has been in close touch with every phase of the industry for years. In the following interview, he takes cognizance of the general feeling and then gives his own interesting ideas of what the future holds: Communists of motion pictures. Nor is this much of a prediction. Motion pictures have profited in spite of alleged extravagance. But even the successful prodigal, when he comes back home after a period of wandering in regions where JOHN S. WOODY "I heard a wonderful theory the other night about the Great War toward which all things in the motion picture industry presumably are being shaped. "According to the story it is to be a three-cornered fight of extermination — a fight in the main between two groups of producing organizations, with a third group standing aloof at the outset, but really only awaiting a slip on the part of one of the fighters before rushing to the aid of the other side. "This Great War, it seems, is imminent. Mobilization of forces even now is under way. And what a clean-up it is to be for Mr. Exhibitor! Cheap and then cheaper rentals! Wonderful service! Free paper! Free lobby display! Nobody to pay but house employees and the landlord! "The reason? Competition; desire to monopolize; Hunnish dreams of benevolent domination; capitalistic Bolshevism. Situation Is Growing Tense "In proof of the accuracy of the dream, a score of preliminary skirmishes are cited. The situation hourly grows more tense; it is only a matter of time now until the call of the fife and the drum shall be heard throughout filmdom — until the first battle shall be raging in all its fury. "That's one side of the picture. And while it is colorful, and perhaps interesting from a purely conjectural point of view, my own opinion is that the trend of the industry is in a direction quite different. "I foresee war, but war of another sort — war on disorder and waste and extravagance. These are the Bolsheviki and the financial trails are blind and lonely, must conform himself to family regulations. And the old folks, never having tasted the joy of ten o'clock rising, aren't going to uproot ingrown household traditions merely to gratify an erring son — not under the present banking system, at any rate. "Motion picture production has been pretty persistently criticized on the score of wastefulness. Increase of expenditure is said to have kept pace fairly well with the development of new ways of utilizing money — with the eradication of mechanical or technical limitations to spending. Hence it has come to pass that a picture which does not cost from $75,000 up — mostly up — would now be promptly unsprocketed by any self-respecting projection machine. Merchandising Methods Needed "But not being a production man, the truth or falsity of accusations regarding extravagance in picture making is not for me to argue. We can leave that to be proved after the fuzing fire under the financier's crucible has melted the dross of the industry. "The most vital improvement of the immediate future in the motion picture business, in my opinion, will be along merchandising lines. "The cost of every product a motion picture concern turns out is, comparable to the cost of installation of important machinery in the plant of a manufacturer. But when the manufacturer invests from $75,000 to $500,000 in equipment he expects it to be a source of production and revenue for many years. The strange thing about the average motion picture is that its market value steadily declines after the first few months, while the potential value of the negative remains unchanged. Comparatively few people have seen even such a notably successful production as 'The Birth of a Nation.' "The motion picture manufacturer puts into every one of his products an amount surpassing the actual investment of many a large manufacturer in his whole plant. The producer's returns ought to be proportionately large, and one reason why they are not is because there has not been the proper intensification of selling. I presume that no motion picture ever made has been sold to one-half the exhibitors of the country. Over Production at Fault "An important obstacle in the way of intensifying sales is overproduction. This holds true in many individual cases, as well as in the aggregate. The tendency of the producer who has many pictures to offer, when he does undertake close cultivation of his field is to oversell a comparatively limited number of exhibitors. And the tendency of sales organizations, when not being driven under spurs, is to follow the course of least resistance — to give most attention to subjects which are the easiest to sell. This is logical, reasonable and inevitable. "The problem of getting full value out of a picture is affected also by the number of theatres available. The number is growing, but it does not follow that this calls for, or even justifies, increased returns from fewer productions. Theatre expansion should afford a wider market for each picture rather than a field for additional pictures, and it is along this line that I anticipate the greatest development of the industry in the immediate future. The more theatres there are, generally speaking, the fewer should be the number of pictures essential to profitable maintenance of a producing or releasing concern. I mean by this that increasing the number of theatres broadens the opportunity for increasing the revenue from each individual picture. "Adjustment of the number of releases which an organization will make is one 49