The Film Daily (1929)

(( Getting Off Nut," Small House Worry PHILADELPHIA TERRITORY FINDS SOUND Many Problems Face Houses In Southern California Zone Philadelphia -Wiif ^'exhibitors pie this territory want vu .see some revisions in rentals. Li.^e uiany other independents througiotit the country, local theater men arc taking it on the chin. The Philadelphia district was one of the first in the country to wire, what with Stanley houses and other chains getting sound equipment and the neighborhoods having no other alternative than to follow. As a result the installation cost, slapped on at a time when the silent business was bad, added to the headaches. A few of the independents made out well when equipment was first installed, but with the rest of the theaters following business is coming back to normal. The increased overhead, cost of projectionists, and addition of bigger film prices remain, however. One of the bigger vaudefilm houses went non-union for a time, but most of the independents are keeping the union men. Philadelphia, downtown, and in the neighborhoods, is overseated, and construction during past few years of big sectional houses of 2500-3000 seats, made it bad for the smaller houses near by. There is a local squawk, as everywhere, against the score charge on the ground that it is unjust. In short, the Philadelphia situation is this: 1. Business is off. This includes the big Stanley houses as well as the smaller theaters 2. of film and the sound problem, the smaller exhibitors are forgetting all they ever knew of showmanship, and are failing to go out of their way to retain neighborhood goodwill. 3. Stanley, nabbing most of the good first runs for downtown as well as for the neighborhoods it controls, takes its time setting dates. This hokY. up product, always a strained condition in this city. 4. Most of the neighborhoods are wiring, if not already. The "inde" synchronizers are getting a play, via the disc route. 5. Whereas business may have been good when sound first came, the situation is back to normal, or near it. The first rush to hear and see is past, but the increased overhead, etc., is more than just a memory. 6. Just at present the exhibitors are yelling about rentals. While this seems to be somewhat justified, if they didn't yell about one thing, they'd yell about another. 7. Most of the bigger independents are going all-sound for the summer, cutting out orchestras. Even with this, they'll have trouble staying out of the red, many believe. Upstate, a survey shows: 1. Business, due to the situation in {Continued on Page 9) CLEVELAND'S SOOND ILLS West Coast Bureau, THE FILM DAILY Los Angeles — Sound unquestionably has increased theater grosses in Los Angeles and in Southern California, but in its wake has left a number of serious problems crying for remedy, particularly for the small and unaffiliated exhibitor. Three sticklers face the small and medium-sized theater operator. When sound crashed through, the need to wire at once became imperative and immediate. Limited by gross and operating overhead, exhibitors in this zone, as elsewhere throughout the country, turned to cheap equipment; in some cases, the cheapest they could buy. This has resulted in bad sound and bad sound, many exhibitors will admit, is providing far worse than bad blacks and whites. Many houses are, therefore, losing patronage. Yet while this is going on, their stiff overhead continues. Where the equipment is fully paid for, score charges and rentals that run several times more than si lents are being secured. The score charge is a particularly touchy subject to many wired theater owners. There are instances where the scores cost more than the rental of the picture which they accompany. Discs, too, are raising their own stew of trouble and express charges are proving difficult for the small operator to bear. When it is remembered that all of the cheaper equipments are disc only and that the records on every sound picture played have to be shipped to and from Los Angeles, it becomes easier to understand how much added overhead the exhibitor is facing on this item alone. On the other hand, the experience of the large circuits — and practically everyone of them in this territory is owned, partly owned or affiliated with producer-distributor interests — has been different. Fox West Coast Theaters, for its second quarter of 1929, will have a surprise financial statement. SOUND 0.K.IN OHIO KEYS; SPOTTY IN SMALL TOWNS Columbus — First runs in Ohio keys are getting business, but the subsequent run and small town houses are not faring so well as a result of the talker development. There now are about 300 theaters Grabbing at the increased cost of the state wired. Their owners do not know how much they can afford to pay, for the reason that there are no precedents to serve as guides. Accordingly, it is a question of getting films as cheaply as possible, resisting efforts to exact "all the traffic will bear," and there is a merry cycle of bartering going oa throughout the territory. Exhibitors charge that the key city first run prices are being used as a basis for other rentals throughout the territory. They claim that the increase over silents ranges from 300 to 400 per cent, and insist they cannot make money at these figures. P. J. Wood, business manager of the Ohio association, for some time has been gathering data on sound film rentals, for presentation to distributors in the move for lower rentals. Questionnaires are being sent to members, who are asked to pass along the prices at which they obtain sound pictures. The specific theater or town is not specified, the information requested referring only to factors entering into the rental price paid. Exhibitors of the state declare that unless prices are reduced, a number of houses will be dark before the pew season gets under way. OVERBUYING COUPLED WITH SOUND, UMTS. CONCERN Washington Bureau of THE FILM DAILY Washington — Independent exhibitors in this territory, far from having been aided by the introduction of sound in their theaters, find themselves worried by the bugaboo of perilously 'high overhead. Basic reasons are the high film rentals and accompanying increased overhead that comes with sound, and the fact that without exception every independent in the territory is overbought. Sidney Lust, prominent Washington independent, is reverting to a silent policy after operating two of his houses with sound for five weeks, asserting that even with a nickel tilt in the admission scale, his business was less with the talkers than it was previously. Many houses in Virginia and Maryland, unable to give playing time to the exchanges are closing until the situation clears somewhat. With a too large supply of silent pictures on their hands, and owing to the fact that they play sound subjects double the time that they played the silents, they are unable to give dates to the exchanges. High overhead has caused the loudest yells from the exhibitors. Average increase in rentals of sound pictures over silent is estimated at anywhere from 100 to 300 per centWhen the score charges, rental of trailers, salary of an additional operator and interest on investment is added to this it may readily be seen that the exhibitor must take in plenty to come out on the right side of the ledger. | Cleveland — Ohio exhibitors declare they can't stand the gaff much longer. If the many vexatious problems facing them as a result of sound are not met, they assert many of their theaters must shut down. Unemployment and reduced wages are rampant all over the state. General conditions are sub-normal. Added to these significant factors is the steady increase in operating expenses created by sound, plus the jump in rentals asked for talkers. At the recent Columbus convention at which were represented 338 theaters, or one third of the total number in the state, the story was the same. Theater owners stated they are facing a problem they are unable to answer. They came prepared to lay the facts of their ex perience on the table in the hope of working out a plan for what they term is their salvation. Those running sound stated that they now pay more for trailers and scores than they ever paid formerly for their whole show. And the average silent house is not doing any business at all, according to their owners. Theater owners in the smaller towns report two conditions. One is that with sound, their receipts are undoubtedly larger. But on top of this they say their net profits are considerably less than formerly. Another condition is that of the small town theater owner who always operated on a small margin of profit. He complains his profits have shrunk to losses, if he plays sound. If he is fortunate enough to be situated far from a sound center he can play silent films and still make his small margin of profit. But there are only a few exhibitors so situated, according to those present at that meeting. Bad sound equipment is given as one reason for bad business. But theater owners say they cannot afford to buy the first class equipments. Another trouble is bad acoustics when the sound equipment is good. The small theater owner cannot afford to make his house acoustically correct. Large towns have problems of ther own too. The downtown houses with the best sound equipments, the best operators, house engineers to regulate the sound, have no complaints. They are doing more business than ever before. And they are making money. The suburban theater in the large town has a serious grievance, however. Now that a large percentage of suburban houses is equipped with sound and that sound is no longer a novelty, patrons are shopping for talkers. And in many large towns including Cleveland, downtown matinee prices are lower than the regular prices in the suburbans. (Continued on Page 9)