Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1956)

TV HAS ITS TROUBLES, TDD Win 1 1 Purpose in HolluwooiVs Backlog Buildup (Continued from Page II) over their own medium except in the purely technical sense. Those who keep their noses close to the ground say there is a possibility — though not yet a probability — that within the next few years TV programming will move into the film industry's control, though the processes of transition are by no means apparent. It could be brought about by, for example, viewers and advertisers demanding more and newer backlog films — the post-1948 features, for instance. If, by any lucky chance, the televising of "oldies" within the next twelve months were to so whet the public appetite that the drift back to the movie theatres developed momentum, more than one of the major companies might be tempted to provide an additional prod by releasing to TV small packages of pictures made in the 1948-52 period. Better Days Ahead As to the exhibitor's position in this rapidly shifting scene, it matters not to him whether more, or later, films go on TV if the result be to increase his own boxoffice income. The only doubtful element is whether, in fact, it wou'd increase. Opinion on this question is sharply divided for, as noted above, no-one can say with any degree of assurance whether the box-office pick-up recently noted is due to the slumping quality of this season's TV offerings, or the stronger public appeal being made by today's Hollywood product. It may be a combination of both factors. There can, however, be little doubt that if the present trend towards Hollywood programming for TV continues, it will bring about a vast upsurge of production activity, and an end of the product famine. It would be foolish to assume that this added production must flow into TV. Television still cannot provide more than a fraction of the revenues to be derived from worldwide theatrical distribution. This hard fact represents a veritable Rock of Gibraltar to the exhibitor. Any industrial economist familiar with the workings of show business can tell you that TV does offer Hollywood a wonderful market — but a market purely ancillary to the motion picture theatre. In other words, a film's value as a TV revenue earner begins after its theatrical release. Instead of substituting one source of profit for another (and an inferior one, at that) the producer uses TV for skimmin^-off an additional, secondary income. In reverse the tame does not hold good, as recent experience has amply proved in such cases as "The Constant Husband", "Richard III" and "Davy Crockett". The natural economic laws which govern the entertainment industry, therefore, are such as to suggest that the more successful Hollywood becomes in "planting" its backlog pictures on TV, the sooner will the product shortage end, for the simple reason that the producing companies must constantly be restoring their deplenished backlogs. OPENING PRODUCT FLOODGATES 20th Century-Fox President Skouras, v.p. Kinjeld Making Announcement of Production Setup. If this is to be the new pattern of popular entertainment, the exhibitor is likely to find himself with a far wider range of first-run films from which to choose. Moreover, if those films are subsequently to find a home on television, when their theatrical release value has been spent, Hollywood will need to take more cognizance of popular trends and tastes in entertainment and to cast some of its timeworn formulae overboard. A Transformation in One Year If some of the thoughts recently expressed by Spyros P. Skouras, president of Twentieth Century-Fox, could be compressed into a single statement of policy they would probably emerge as follows: "We live in a world of change, and speed, and variety. If a film company is to do its job thoroughly, it must offer the public a program of wide variety — in story, location, stars, music: everything. "Its overall aim must be to entertain all segments of the people, from the cultured middle-aged person, to the young housewife, and the enthusiastic 'teen-ager. "Its planning must be fluid enough to provide not only costly, carefully-planned properties, but films with relatively modest budegts made quickly because they catch the mood of the moment — like Elvis Presley's 'Love Me Tender'. "These somewhat less expensive pictures have often in < Continued on Page 231 P*q« 12 Rim BULLETIN November 24, 1956