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9>tdeaendeti£ IXHIBITO
F I L M BULLETIN
VOL. 2, No. 50
WEDNESDAY. AUGUST 12. 1936
PRICE 10 CENTS
Things We Dislike For 936 '37
{--Or Most Any Season/}
For the dubious honor of heading this list there is some rivalry between the new season selling terms of RKO and Metro. By reason of the fact that RKO's '35-'3G product was so conclusively worse, the honor is their's.
We heartily dislike RKO's terms because they have raised them despite the fact that their program for the season now ending is almost universally acknowledged to have been the poorest of any major company. Because, when a company fails as miserably as this one did and shows little or no prospect of improvement in the new season, it should reason that the customers who were stuck last season are entitled to a "break," a chance to get something back for their losses.
We can't dislike Metro for failing to deliver product, for they undoubtedly did give theatres many of their strongest attractions. But, it must be noted that there was a let-down in this company's consistency, a tendency to slip thru more "quickies" than in previous years. Especially, therefore, is Metro's demand for higher PERCENTAGES unfair to the exhibitor. On outright sales, the general improvement in boxoffice receipts would entitle a successful producing company to a reasonable increase, but not to "hog" the profits by jacking up the PERCENTAGES on the money makers.
Paramount deserves a worthy spot on this list of dislikes for pretty much the same reason that RKO is so prominently present. A poor product, a public admission by a paid investigator (see Joseph P. Kennedy's report) that the prospects for '36-'37 are no brighter than
the season past, and yet this outfit unblushingly steps up and asks for more than it got previously
A scallion or two to those supposedly powerful moguls who are so helpless in their "efforts" to prevent their own film stars from creating competition for exhibitors by appearing on radio programs. Only a single individual or two like Jack Cohn of Columbia have had the temerity to take the initiative in checking this practice. The mighty Hays Organization, which is ever so ready to take up any fight against reform of industry evils, is twiddling its collective thumbs. They could stop this form of "homemade" competition by merely voting to do so.
We have a well cultivated hate for exhibitors who furtively admit that all exhibitors are double crossing fiends at heart — except themselves. They either refuse to enter into negotiations with their opposition on matters tha^ affect their business mutually, such as prices, premiums, product, clearance, etc. Or, if they can be persuaded to discuss their problems they do so with distrust and insincerity. It is this attitude of stupid suspicion more than anything else that makes exhibitors, as a body, the least respected members of the industry.
As a matter of fact, we're not quite sure but what we dislike most of all the theatre owner who cries the blues like a veteran, but is a novice when it comes to protecting himself by paying two dollars a week to support an organization.
MO WAX.
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