Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1962)

FINANCIAL REPORT Youngstein to Head New Production Organization Substantial financial backing is reported lined up for a new film production company to be launched about the first of the year by Max E. Youngstein and Jerome Pickman. Youngstein, who will be president, is resigning his post as executive vice president of Cinerama, Inc., effective Nov. 2. Pickman, to be executive vice president of the new company, recently resigned as vice president in charge of domestic distribution of Paramount Film Distributing Corporation. According to Youngstein, the as yet unnamed firm aims to have 10 features for release in the first 18 months. The emphasis in the first program will be on "idea" films that lend themselves to aggressive marketing and promotion. Initial plans are for the new organization to function as an independent production unit, much in the manner of the Mirisch Company and Seven Arts, making distribution deals on individual pictures. Later, Youngstein anticipates, the company might establish its own distribution organization on the pattern of Disney's Buena Vista setup. Youngstein's resignation from Cinerama, where he supervised the first two Cinerama productions with stories, "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm" and "How the West Was Won", and helped engineer the recent franchise agreements with United Artists on "The Greatest Story Ever Told" and "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World", was confirmed last week in a statement by Cinerama president Nicolas Reisini: YOUNGSTEIN "On many occasions during the past year, I have been ai proached by exhibitors from all over the world who presentt me with the facts about the tremendous shortage of film produ< available at the present time and in the foreseeable future. Thr film shortage, naturally, represents a disaster for the exhibitor In the course of the conversations, many exhibitors expressed the hope and wish that Mr. Youngstein would devote his effor to producing a quantity of quality pictures each year tj alleviate the situation. At this point in his motion pictui career, Mr. Youngstein felt strongly that he would want veil much to accept the challenge on a long term basis. Our orgai ization at Cinerama, as it now stands, does not permit him l j fulfill his desires and ambitions to meet this challenge . . . feel that this is not an ending to our relationship but the begii ning of a new, continuing relationship that will be of mutu. benefit to each other and our companies." Movies Recover Lost Ground Movie stocks followed the overall trend, edging ahea slowly amid some of the lightest trading seen in some dm Nine companies advanced, seven declined and four remaine unchanged, but the gains far ourweighted the setbacks. Cinerr shares pretty much matched the recovery pace of the Dow Jon< Industrial Average, but finished in better shape, having had f< less ground to regain over the past fortnight. The preferred issues fared handsomely. Columbia, Preferre jumped 2y8 points the day before deadline to close 3 aheac while MCA Preferred continued its march upward, finishin 1 1/2 in front. Twentieth-Fox, buoyed by the successful (hot boxoffice and critical) opening of Darryl Zanuck's "The Lon£ est Day," advanced l1/^. AB-PT led the theatre stocks with 2l/2-point gain. An indication of the relative mildness of th losses is offered in the fact that the severest setback was suffere by Stanley Warner, which dropped only 1 point. Cinerama, always an active item, was the only heavily trade stock, on a turnover of 111,300 shares. AA Reports Loss for '62 Now that "El Cid" grosses have started to roll in, operatior of Allied Artists Pictures Corp. in the first quarter ended Sep 29 produced a profit, but, as predicted previously, the fin ( Continued on Page 14 Blockbuster Policy Creates "Monsters9 To Plague Movie Companies — I'alue Line In striving to meet the competition of television, virtually every established film company in the U.S. has dumped the once-traditional policy of turning out a full season's "program" of movies to fill the needs of theatres, and has turned its attention to the production or acquisition of an occasional "blockbuster" that might hit the $20 million-and-up grossing jackpot. How well has this race for the super-colossal release worked out for the industry and for investors in movie stocks? Value Line Investment Survey, published by Arnold Bernhard & Co., thinks not so well. The blockbuster production policy, Value Line states in its latest analysis of movie business, has created several "monsters" for the industry and has produced "sad effects for stockholders". The "monsters" are: (1) the enormous costs of producing the blockbusters; (2) the increased reliance on the "star system ", allowing it to become "master" of the industry, and (3) the concentration on controversial subject matter, which has "revived the dormant threat of censorship". These problems are plaguing the industry, says Value Line. "Nor are they likely to be settled overnight." The high cost (and high risk) of blockbusters has had a constrictive effect on the movie audience, the survey reports. "In order to make money from more expensive picture, (the industry) had to boost prices. Of course, that in turn led to an even smaller market. So pictures got bigger . . . and more stupendous . . . and more supercolossal. And more expensive . . . and more expensive . . . and more expensive. It was a vicious circle. The producers sought further assurances that the films they produced at such enormous costs would be successful. So they purchased more and more scripts which had already been tested: best selling books and hit plays * * * The result, (Continued on Page 14) Page 4 Film BULLETIN October 15, 1962