Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1958)

FINANQAL BULLETIN By Philip R. Ward THE FOUR YEAR TREADMILL. December, 1953, is a significant date to investors in the motion picture industry. It was then the dawning of a new time and a new deal in the technological affairs of the industry — a time such as when the spoken word first became a standard appurtenance of the movie. It was the beginning of the big screen era, and all major contrivances had made their bow and won their spurs in the measure of a then ascendant boxoffice. It was a happy and a promising time. And in the stock market movie shares, which had toppled from staggering post-war highs to equally staggering post-war lows, began suddenly to heave and stir like polar ice coming unlocked. At the close of trading December, 1953, the Film BULLETIN Cinema Aggregate recorded the following results: FILM COMPANIES THEATRE COMPANIES 1115/8 223/4 At the close of trading December, 1954, this reading was seen: (Net gain (Net gain FILM COMPANIES or loss) THEATRE COMPANIES or loss) llSVi 4 60'7f 403/8 +77% One year later, December 31, 1955, and this result: (Net gain (Net gain FILM COMPANIES or loss ) THEATRE COMPANIES or loss) 158V2 "11% 37 -8% At the close of 1956, this: ( Net gain FILM COMPANIES or loss ) 13078 -17% ( Net gain THEATRE COMPANIES or loss) 311/4 -15% Thus from December, 1954, the high-tide point, to December, 1956, the equity in film companies had dwindled 26%, in theatre companies, 22%. 1957 was no comeback year, as the following avers: (Net gain FILM COMPANIES or loss ) 112 -14% (r\et gam THEATRE COMPANIES or loss) 291/8 -7% Figuring 1957 losses, the descent from the close of 1954 to the close of 1957 is 37% for film companies and 28% for theatre companies. O Almost as painful is the comparison of bald Cinema Aggregate results for the four year big screen period beginning with the close of 1953 through December, 1957 — especiallv for the film concerns. Had an in\'estor purchased the representative shares constituting the Cinema Aggregate four years ago and then done a Rip Van Winkle, awakening only at the past New Year's Eve, his net balance would have amounted to a gain of 3/8ths of one point! Over four sometimes lush, sometimes lugubrious years movie company stocks have turned full circle, and investors who have timed their purchases in just such a way have reason to wonder if they haven't mounted a treadmill bound for absolutely nowhere in particular. Yet an explanation or two is in order. Note the performance of film making firms over the 12 turbulent months of 1957. This category, as well as the year's record of the theatre chains are illustrated in the chart below: FilmBULLETIN Cinema Aggregate* FILM COMPANIES THEATRE COMPANIES 'Composed of carefully selected representative industry issues. These points are apparent: 1 ) Film company shares demonstrated a rising, rallying spirit in the first half of the year, ascending from 13078 to a Junt high of 1451/8 2) First half-year gains were marked for the most part by f] pattern of consistent progress, a healthful symptom. Of th( first six months of 1957 five months showed concrete advances 3) Defection in film shares set in at approximately the sam( time as the market at large entered its now newsworthy slump indicating, to some extent, that the market may have been dis counting economic conditions generally rather than film indus try conditions specifically. 0 Beyond the messages of the Cinema Aggregate, other obser vations are possible. Some part of moviedom's 1957 second-hal woes are indisputably connected with a bizarre form of ftiasoch ism that seems to have come over some segments of the indus try. For all the world we are at a loss to explain this indulgenci in self-punishment which reveals itself mainly in two unseeml; practices: a) a sloppy and disoriented system of releasing fea tures that bunches up top-drawer films at a few isolated time of the year and virtually ignores other operating periods: b' the sale of major feature film libraries to TV. By popular con sent the telecasting of important old Hollywood films has cu ^ heavily into boxoffice receipts. (To this thesis the current Valw Line survey of the Amusement Industry takes notable exception Details of that survey appear elsewhere in Film BULLETIN.' The majority will concur that those responsible for the dis tribution of films to theatres and the sale of vintage films t( TV, have chosen the poorest possible time to go amiss on twi burning matters of policy. Certainly, it is bad enough to suffe hard times because of changing competitive conditions, withou adding the insult of self-afflicted abuses to heighten the tren< still further. Page 6 Film BULLETIN January 20, 1958