Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1952)

(Continued from Page 3) be? For his company it will be a policy of producing fewer pictures, selecting subject matter that will appeal to adult, international audiences, and bringing costs into line with the potential of today's market. Undoubtedly, he had devoted some reading time to president Spyros I'. Skouras' annual report to the stockholders a couple weeks before. He was aware that the shareholders had been promised a reduction in expenditures "to a level in keeping with our income". Mr. Skouras had talked of cutting costs from the $1,370,000 per picture average last year to $1,260,000 this year. In 1950, the average was $1,634,000. Fifty, but looking a lot younger, despite his problems, Zanuck talked like a man who had spent a lot of his time abroad studying the past and pondering the future. He sounded like a man ready to discard the costly caprices of the lush days and determined to write a new set of rules to meet today's problems in the movie world. Too much has been spent on "invisible" qualities in picture making, he said. From now on, the money put into films must be visible on the screen. By way of "factual substance" to his plan for carrying through a program of topflight product, Zanuck cited a list of imposing properties, some completed, others in various stages of work. "The Robe", which he anticipates will be one of the most important undertakings of his career, should start rolling by October. "Snows of Kilimanjaro" is ready to be premiered. Casting is being completed on the best-seller, "My Cousin Rachael". Among the big films being prepared are Irving Berlin's "There's No Business Like Show Business" and the two smash stage musicals, "Call Me Madam" and "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes". Close to completion are "Stars and Stripes Forever" and "Tonight We Sing", which could be Ezio Pinza's first film success. Darryl Zanuck summed up in this manner: "We are in business to stay in business, and we can only stay in business if we can make a program of pictures of this type. And (here he paused)— and this is a BIG 'and'— if we can make them at a sensible price." JUNE 16, 1952 TV Settling ttotvn * Warner Never has optimism in the future of the motion picture industry been expressed so fervently than in the address delivered by Jack L. Warner in London before the British Film Producers Association. Never was it more needed. The 50-year history of the motion picture, the Warner studio chief said, is only a "curtain-raiser for a fine future". There was a sound basis for Mr. Warner's bright tone. His company, in contrast to some of the other major film organizations, showed a most encouraging financial report for the six months ended March 1, 1952. WB profit: $3,750,000, compared to $3,827,000 for the same six months in preceding year. Not bad in this depressed market. Some other quotes from the Warner speech : "We know now, from every type of poll, research table, and box-office survey, that there is nothing that can take the place of a fine motion picture." "Remember this — our industry is great. The various competitions that rise and fall and plague us for a while are interesting briefly, diverting briefly. They make inroads for a short spell. But they never have the penetrating, pervading reach of the motion picture JACK L. WARNER ' A Fine Future' theatre screen. And they benefit us by stimulating greater effort to meet the new competition." "We saw television begin to settle down, to level off. We learned that like radio, it has a place in entertainment. We also learned it has weaknesses as well." Referring to the recent announcement that 82 per cent of the next 30 Warner releases will be in color, J. L. foresaw the "day when the screen will be entirely in color almost without exception — features, short subjects and newsreels." Unquestionably, there is a crying need for the sort of optimism Jack Warner preached in London. It is an attitude, which, if practiced persistently by every film man and exhibitor extant, and combined with good product and hard work, will convince the public, as well as ourselves, that the movie industry is on the way back. They'll Pay To Fly hi on TV Just one year ago, only nine movie houses were available to participate in the introduction of commercialized large-screen television. To capacity audiences, that small group of theatres brought, via closed channel, the bout between a couple of aging heavyweights, Joe Louis and Lee Savold. Last summer other bouts were shown exclusively in theatres, and this new phase of show business reached a window-smashing crescendo late last season when huge throngs turned out to jam theatres for the RobinsonTurpin fight. The movie industrv seemed to have found an answer to one phase of TV competition. Then, exclusive theatre television went into eclipse and some were saying that it would never amount to anything. Now, it's back again, and how it has grown over the winter! On the night of June 23, 36, and possibly one or two more, theatres in 23 cities will project on their large screens the light-heavyweight championship fight between champ Joey Maxim and challenger Sugar Ray Robinson. According to Nathan Halpern, president of Theatre Network ( Continued on Page 20)