Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1958)

FULL TEXT OF ADDRESS BY 2DTH CENTURY-FDX PRESIDENT TD NATIONAL ALLIED LONVENTION What Spyros Skouras Told Allied There could be no happier time for me than when I am speaking with my old friends and colleagues since this kind of occasion always brings back happy memories of the days when I was an exhibitor. Because of your kind invitation, I stand ready to speak to you with the feeling that this meeting may very well provide a remedy for some of the problems of our industry. This convention could have no higher purpose than to begin here and now a unified crusade to regain the supremacy of the motion picture industry in entertainment. The American motion picture has a greater purpose and value as an American instrument of expression than at any other time in its history because of the international political situation. In view of the great service the motion picture industry renders the American public on a world scale, as an agency of communication, it should endure for the good of the country. This vital asset should be properly protected by our Government. As a private enterprise the motion picture is the greatest goodwill ambassador any nation could have. The American film penetrates to the smallest village of India or Japan to tell the story of our way of life. This penetration is not true of the English, French, German or Russian motion picture industries, yet practically all the motion picture industries of the world are subsidized by their governments. Lists Problems Faced By All Industry Branches I'm going to speak my mind as I know the conditions which exist today. My purpose is to discuss with you the problems which confront our domestic business. The problems I'll discuss are the problems which I have learned from my own experience and from personal talks with people on all levels — in every department — of our business. Working together, the exhibitors, producers, distributors, and the advertising departments must each analyze the ailments which are common to all of us. This is the only way wetCan find the best means of preserving our livelihood. Let Us Examine The Problems Faced By The Exhibitors. 1. The box-ofiice decline. 2. Television competition. 3. Insufficient good pictures. 4. High film rentals. 5. Competitive bidding. 6. Not enough prints. 7. Exhibition of pre-1948 back-log on television. 8. Complaints against the present clearance system. 9. High admission prices. 10. Unfair drive-in admission practices — such as charging by carloads instead of individually — in competition with conventional theatres. 11. Complaints against checkers. 12. Consent decree provisions not being observed. 13. Last, but no means least, a complete lack of a united front representing all exhibitors. (This does not necessarily mean that exhibitor organizations presently in existence should be dissolved, but that all the exhibitors and all the organizations representing them today should have a single voice or agency to speak in their behalf in Congress and elsewhere.) Distributor Caught Between Exhibitor, Producer Demands The Problems of the Distributor: 1. His inherent predicament as the buffer between conflicting demands of everyone in the industry — principally the producer and the exhibitor. 2. The constant demands from the exhibitor for more and better pictures at lower film rentals. 3. Constant demands from the producer for greater rentals. 4. The exhibitors' complaint that he is losing money. 5. The producers' complaint that he is losing money. (The majority of the films produced are in the red. At least this is the case with Twentieth Century-Fox, where only relatively few pictures are profitable. I can substantiate this with facts.) 6. The distributors' inability to sell his pictures to the full possibilities available. 7. High distribution costs made necessary by the consent decree: (A) Selling of pictures singly; (B) Demands for more prints which are more expensive due to the present trend towards longer films. Before dcreee: 275. After decree: 425-500. 8. The distributors' great concern over the under-reporting of theatre receipts on percentage films and the necessary expenditure for checkers. 9. Persistence of exhibitors to hard-ticket policies. 10. Unfair and oppressive law suits at additional cost to the industry. The Producers' Problems 1. Decline of attendance and grosses. 2. The dearth of sufficient good subject matter to meet the discriminating demands of the public and satisfy the exhibitor's urgent need for more quality product. 3. The highly competitive market due to the Page 10 Film BULLETIN October 27, 1958