Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1962)

Market for Reissues I am glad to note that M-G-M has found new gold in theatre bookings of old pictures on a reissue basis. Perhaps now at long last we will see the major motion picture companies embark on a consistent pattern of reissuing great films of the past, instead of dumping them on television. The movie business can be pretty stubborn. It wasn't too long ago that the majors rarely would "waste their time'' mounting decent, fresh publicity and advertising campaigns to re-sell worthwhile reissues, and seldom was real sales effort put behind their distribution. Metro appears to have opened a new door for itself and for exhibitors with the aggressive methods it has adopted in peddling its "oldies". When television came along whole catalogs of valuable films were sold at ridiculous quick-cash prices, with nary a thought to the fact that many of these films could still bring in money at the theatre boxoffice. But thank goodness it isn't too late. In one respect the vogue for costume spectacles has been a healthy one. It has given the movie industry big pictures which can be reissued in years to come without seeming dated. But even a dated picture or collection of pictures can be a boxoffice attraction. Harold Lloyd is a sock attraction now, for example, with a potpourri of sequences from pictures more than thirty years old. He probably could have sold his compilation to television. It is my opinion that when he has completed the theatrical run of "Harold Lloyd's World of Comedy" he will be able to sell it to television just the same, if he so desires. 0 Consider the simple statistics. The television audience around the country today consists of close to 45,000,000 homes in the U.S. That's homes, not people. In the New York City television area alone there are more than 3,000,000 homes w ith television sets. This means that in the New York City television area alone there are close to 9,000,000 home viewers. If a motion picture attracts a nationwide theatre audience of 9.000,000 today it is usually a success. If it attracts an audience of 900,000 in the New York City television area — or, in other words, 10% of its entire national audience — it has only made the barest of dents in the potential television audience. Television long ago proved that people will sit up late at home to watch old movies, even when they are not particularly good movies. The film distributors are now discovering that people will pay money at the boxoffice for old movies, carefully selected and well marketed. The key lies in those last phrases — "carefully selected and well marketed." If the various distribution companies will devote their marketing resources to the proper selection and the forceful, expert promotion of reissue product, I firmly believe that they will find not merely an adjunct source of income, but potentially a gold mine. For years the motion picture industry has stood alone in its belief that the only way to find a paying audience for an old property was to remake it. Television's "I Love Lucy" has had more lives than a cat — and its still going strong. Paperback reprints of thirty-year-old books are doing fine. Reissues I old phonograph records — in brand new albums — have bet big at least since "The Jolson Story." But the motion pictu industry continued to regard re-issues as the rag-pickers er of the business. Even after television demonstrated the size i the potential audience, reissues were the industry's last resoi Even in the face of a continuing product shortage, it was co sidered smarter to buy and book junk from abroad (plen of good pictures are made overseas, but plenty of junk fin< its way across the water to us at the same time) than to brir back proven hits of the past. 0 M-G-M's plan for education tie-ins with its slate of reissu is a good start. It gives the pictures a marketing peg. Ho\ ever, I would hate to see the whole idea of reissues become tl darling of the educators. There are plenty of fine films wi absolutely no educational appeal but a great deal of residu boxoffice oomph. It seems to me, for example, that a who series of Greta Garbo's films could be reissued for theatre after an intensive promotional campaign to salute "the gres est actress of our times." Here one basic promotional car paign would serve to create a market for a whole series of filrr I also believe that the major companies could take a Ie from the book >f Harold Lioyd or the proven success of B( Youngson with "new " films which are actually compilations < old footage. "Great Motion Picture Love Scenes", for exar pie, could start with the May Irwin kiss and go right on i to early Brigitte Bardot. "Oh Those Kids" might present f mous portrayals by the kid stars from Mary Pickford Coogan, Cooper, Temple, Baby LeRoy and a dozen others. Tl range of topics is endless. 0 There are many different types of market for old films at tl theatre. Campaigns should be aimed at these various markei The college campus, for example, provides one very defini public — hardly the group at which you would aim a kidd picture, but very ripe pickings for a sophisticated look at a cient comedy. The job that has to be done, in every case, very much the same as for a new picture. The potential ma ket has to be analyzed. A promotional campaign has to 1 mounted, to sell the picture. You can't depend on the fa that some people will remember the film from its origin showing. You've got to sell the picture to people who dor remember it — either because they were too young at the tin of the original showing or because they just weren't that mm interested. You've got to get them interested now. Certain this can't be done with every picture. There are many filr which just won't take a second round of distribution. Filr5] for reissue have to be chosen most carefully. The timing their release is also a key element. For example, I rather doubt that the reissue of Jerry Lew films would do as well in October, when the kids are all school, as during summer vacation. One prime reason for considering each picture carefully that there are often good new sales points which can be foun Perhaps a big current television star, like Vince Edwards, playing a featured role — or one that was not featured in t original, but can now be upgraded as to billing. Recently passed a theatre which noted on its marquee that "TV's Bt| Casey is on our screen in . . ." Perhaps the setting of the p: ture is one that has recently come into the news again. Looking for sales angles in reissues is really no differe, from looking for sales angles in new films. You still have find publicity pegs, advertising themes, theatre front displ material and so forth. And you still have to make an inve: ment of time and money -generally nowhere nearly as gre as for a new film, but of sufficient proportions so that peop know your picture is available. Page 6 Film BULLETIN August 6, 1942