Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1962)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

FINANCIAL REPORT (Continued from Page 10) past fornight, many rather heavily. Loew's Theatres skidded off 7% and Paramount was down over 4. Decca Records (Universal parent) the most heavily traded stock (86,900 shares), kept Wall Streeters hopping with its upand-down antics amid rumors of a pending merger with MCA, finally finished off 2I/4, surprisingly after announcement of a hefty profit hike and confirmation of let's unite talks with the vast production-agency firm. M-G-M facing a relatively poor second quarter report, and still waiting patiently for release of its big ones, and Columbia both slid 3^2, but observers were inclined to write this off more to the overall downtrend than to any specific product problem. The slump attacked indiscriminately, striking both companies recently reporting in the black and those submerged in the red. Twentieth-Fox, which announced huge operations losses for '61, was down 2% while Cinerama, which revealed earnings double last year's, also lost a point. Declines were shown by Walt Disney (23/8) and United Artists (2i/g) despite the fact that both companies are currently rich with good grossers. Only TransLux, bolstered by an increase in 1961 net, was up 1, while Columbia preferred advanced Yg. M-G-M 2nd Quarter Down Sharply A sharp downslide in M-G-M's second-quarter earnings attributable to a loss write-off and disappointing returns on "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" and delay in releasing "Mutiny on the Bounty" — failed to dampen the spirits of president Joseph R. Vogel, who said that despite the earnings drop, "it is our firm judgment that our earnings this year will amply suport our $2 annual dividend rate. We feel confident that the pictures to be placed in release for the balance of this fiscal year, and the availability of big pictures for release in fiscal 1962-63 will re-establish the favorable trend of film rentals and earnings." Merto earnings slipped sharply to $380,000 (15c per share) in the second session, ended March 15, from $4,507,000 ($1.78). The firm also reported first-half earnings of $2,553,000 ($1.00), off from $6,684,000 ($2.65) a year ago. Gross revenues in the first half were down from $75,778,000 to $70,766,000. The M-G-M topper said that the decline in second-period earnings was due in part to the write-off of an anticipated loss on the recently-released "Four Horsemen." For the half-year, Metro reported a loss of $499,000 on film production and distribution. According to Vogel, even though "Four Horsemen" is doing well at the boxoffice, "the returns will not match the greatly increased costs of production." He added that "extensive difficulties" were experienced in making the film. Additionally, a contributing factor to scond-period figures was the late completion of "Mutiny," which led to postponement of receipts from the highly-touted picture. An "unusual number of delays and disruptions" because of "unexpectedly unfavorable weather and other mishaps" was seen by Vogel as materially affecting its finish. Slated for fall release, "Mutiny," originally budgeted at $10 million, has almost doubled that figure. But the president said it should be "among the top-grossing pictures of all time," along with "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm" and "How the West Was Won," both M-G-M-Cinerama co-productions. Telemeter Drain Off, F-P Net Up Additional grosses from the opening of theatres on Sundays, trimming of unprofitable houses and lifting of a great drain on the cashbox by Paramount's assumption of all operating costs of the Telemeter pay-TV experiment in Etobicoke — all these according to president and managing director J. J. Fitzgibbon&i contributed to a rise in net profit for Famous Players Canadian Corp., Ltd. for the fiscal year ended Dec. 30, 1961. Final total for last year was $2,423,919 ($1.40 per share), compared to $1,857,251 ($1.07) a year earlier. Fitzgibbons pointed out that the arrangement whereby parent Paramount Pictures agreed to assume, retroactive to Jan. 1, 1961, all Telemeter operating costs "is continuing, and pursuant to it the system has been expanded so as to service an additional 1,000 subscribers in Mimico, which is adjacent to Etobicoke." As for Sunday films: "Sunday operation has provided a net addition to our theatre grosses and has not brought any adverse criticism from the public or the press." The Famous Players topper also took note of an increase in competition from television. "Theatre attendance and receipts," he noted, "were adversely affected in 1961 as a result of the opening of new television stations in many of the important cities either during that year or late in I960." But most of the licenses that can be granted now have been allocated, he added, so the TV threat should begin to level off. See $100 Million Gross for Loew's By the time Loew's Theatres completes its building and renovating program, covering its movie houses and hotels, "we should have an annual gross of between $90 million and $100 million." That was the roseate portrait of the firm painted at a recent press conference by Preston R. Tisch, chairman of the executive committee. A complex of 96 theatres and six hotels in 56 cities is planned, he said, adding that Loew's has its building eye on such "romance-type" cities as San Francisco, New York, Miami and New Orleans. Possibilities center around movie theatres located in or near apartment houses, office buildings or other similar population focal points. Youngstein Sees Cinerama on Rise Cinerama, Inc. earnings in 1961 were approximately double (Continued on Page 19) FILM & THEATRE STOCKS Film Companies Close Close 3/29/62 4/12/62 Change ALLIED ARTISTS ■ ■ 4% 41/2 i ALLIED ARTISTS (Pfd.) . .. 11% 11% i CINERAMA 19 18 -1 COLUMBIA . . . 253/4 221/4 -3% COLUMBIA (Pfd.) ■ ■ 773/g 78 DECCA ■ • 50y4 48 -21/4 DISNEY . . 373/8 35 "23/g M-G-M ... 433/4 4oy4 -31/2 PARAMOUNT . . . 54% 50 -4% SCREEN GEMS ... 21i/2 191/8 -2% 20TH-FOX . . 30% 28 -2% UNITED ARTISTS . . • 33% 311/2 -2% WARNER BROS . . . 18i/4 16% * -1% Theatre Companies * * AB-PT ... 37i/2 36 -IV2 LOEW'S ■ 453/8 38 -7% NATIONAL GENERAL 9 81/4 3/4 STANLEY WARNER .. 29% 29% 3/4 TRANS-LUX .. i4y8 15% + 1 (Allied Artists, Cinerama, Screen Gems, Trans-Lux, American Exchange; all others on New York Stock Exchange.) Pdge 16 Film BULLETIN April 16, 1962