Exhibitors Herald (1927)

12 EXHIBITORS HERALD December 31, 1927 EXHIBITORS HERALD Qhe independent Qjradc ^ aper Martin J. Quigley, Publisher Editor Published Every Wednesday by Quigley Publishing Company Publication Office: 407 So. Dearborn St., CHICAGO, U. S. A. Martin J. Quigley, P resident Edwin S. Clifford, Secretary George Clifford, Asst. Treasurer Member Audit Bureau of Circulations Copyright, 1927, by Quigley Publishing Company All editorial and business correspondence should be addressed to the Chicago office Other Publications: The Chicagoan and Polo, class journals; and the following motion picture trade publications published as supplements to Exhibitors Herald: Better Theatres, every fourth week, The Studio, every fourth week, and The Box Office Record & Equipment Index, semiannual. Vol. XXXII December 31, 1927 No. 3 The Prospect for 1928 THE industry finds itself at the dawn of 1928 in a position that is more secure than at any time in the previous history of the business. The coming year should be a banner one and it will be a banner one if the experience of the past two or three years is allowed to hear fruit. The industry during the past three years has been going through a decided transformation, although, as we stated last week, the evidences of the transformation have not always been plainly visible on the surface and for this reason the change that actually has taken place with respect to many major matters in the industry has not been realized in various quarters in the business. Until recently the industry lacked stability and this lack of stability was a most threatening figure on the horizon. We never expect to see the motion picture industry become a routine and mechanized business — the nature of its effort forbids this— but during the past three years developments have taken place which have completely dispelled, for all practical purposes, the old unstable, fluctuating and haphazard characteristics of the business. In every important consideration the business has become stabilized; its oldtime insecurity has been thrown off and today it stands as a thoroughly entrenched and permanent factor in the modem world of business. *• •» •* ON the distribution side the oldtime insecurity of the business has been shaken off through the elimination of incompetent units. A severe weeding out process has swept over the distribution branch of the industry and firms and individuals who could not measure up to present standards have fallen by the wayside. In production a similar process has been at work. The inexorable law of survival has purged production of incompetency to a very considerable extent. Some have called this process a scheme of monopolists, but it does not bear up under such a test. Production has constantly been becoming confined to fewer and still fewer units for the very simple reason that the sort of demands now being placed upon production organizations can only be met by that limited number which are experienced, competently manned and adequately financed. The exhibition branch of the business has been subject to greater study and more constructive effort than has either of the other two major branches of the business during recent years. Out of this study and effort has come a thoroughly comprehensive transformation of the exhibition field. Here, too, incompetency has been lessened; the theatre requirements of localities have been more carefully analyzed; a practical degree of business efficiency has been introduced in connection with the operation of theatre properties; economical consolidations and combinations have been effected. The theatre field, which must prosper or else nothing in the business can prosper, is now in a decidedly more promising condition. These, roughly, are the facts of the transformation that has taken place. The results of this transformation are vast and far-reaching! Every business or industry of any important size must enjoy public financing. For many years the motion picture industry was compelled to struggle through on private and individual financing, but the new order that has come about has established motion picture securities in the public mind and has made film finance propositions welcome in the highest financial circles. This has come about through no accident and it has not been merely a mechanical happening. In its earlier days the industry could not get public financing because it was not entitled to it. But with the new stability and security it has been able to achieve it has earned the right to offer its securities to the public. * THE industry as a business now enjoys a changed reputation in the public mind. Its old name as a get-rich-quick proposition has passed away and the business is now regarded as a legitimate commercial undertaking which is serving a major necessity of the public. We predict for 1928 a year of solid and substantial prosperity. General business conditions are such as to offer this prospect to every essential business which is properly ordered; and the film business is now thoroughly entitled to rank in that classification. The industry has gained a vast experience. This experience has been costly but it is now in hand to be the guide to future profits. The tightening up and settling down processes through which the business of motion pictures has been going have all been with sound economic justification. The most profitable eras for the industry are certainly ahead. There is cause only for apprehension or alarm in those quarters where concerns and individuals have been unable to keep pace with developments; where they are still thinking and acting along the lines of five years ago. Five years is not a great span in any other important industry but the past five years in the picture business have created such a gap that it cannot be bridged by companies and persons who may just now be waking up to the present requirements and responsibilities of the industry. The film business and every business will always have its current problems and perplexities, but the film business may approach the New Year with the most confident of expectations as to the degree of prosperity that is within its reach. Studio experience, together with the reformation in studio practices which has been effected, is bound to lead to better pictures at lower rather than higher costs. Every sound exhibition proposition can consider itself practically under a guarantee of profitable operation for the coming year. The prospect for 1928 could not be more promising. Intelligent and aggressive effort, backed by appropriate enthusiasm and courage, is all that is necessary to insure its fullest realization.