The Film Daily (1933)

£ DAILY Thursday, Aug. 24, 1933 Eliminations Up to 15 Per Cent Proposed by Exhibs Exhibitor shall have exhibited as in such contract provided, all of the feature motion pictures licensed then generally releaa ible foi exhibition under such contract bj the Exhibitor, excepting those, if any, led .is provided in this clause and shall have paid to the Distributor at the time in contract specified the rental of each u thereof. i n un pure ise of computing the sum ,1 to be paid by the Exhibitor to the Distributor ;^ provided in Paragraph (a) of this Clause for any motion picture, the rental or any part of which is to be com I puted in whole or in part upon a percentage the receipts of said theater, shall be deemed to be that amount or part thereof which is to such percentage of the average daily gross receipts of such theater on each I dan any feature motion picture distributed l,s the Distributor was exhibited there at Muring the period of ninety (90) days prior •Jto the date of the Exhibitor's written notice •to exclude such feature motion picture, or ii no feature motion picture distributed by the Distributor was exhibited at such theater during said ninety (90) days period, then the rental or part thereof shall be deemed to Ik that amount >>r part thereof which is equal to such percentage of the average daily gross receipts of said theater during the peri.nl of thirty (30) operating days immediately prior to the date of said written notice to exclude such feature motion picture. l (d) In computing said percentages of the ototal number of feature motion pictures fractions of less than one-half shall be disre[ garded. (e) Upon the fai'ure or refusal of the Exhibitor to fully and completely comply I with each and every condition in such conI tract specified and upon wlrch the Exhibitor " is granted the right to exclude any of the e motion pictures licensed, or provided the parties hereto have agreed to arbitration, 1 or as provide! in any other existing license I agreement between said parties, and the Ex1 hibitor shall fail or refuse to arbitrate any claim or controversy arising hereunder or thereunder, or to comply with any award in respect thereto, such right to exclude any feature motion picture and thereafter to exclude from this license additional feature motion pictures, shall thereupon forthwith terminate and shall not again be granted during the term of such contract. ( f i Upon the exclusion of each of the feature motion pictures permitted by the provisions of the contract the run and protection period, if any. granted the Exhibitor in respect thereto shall be deemed waived by the Exhibitor and the license thereof shall thereupon terminate and revert to the Distributor. ARTICLE 15. Substitutions. The exhibitor shall not be required to [ accept for any picture described in the schedule as the picture of a star, or combination f of stars, or of a director, or where based ! upon a well-known book or play, or any picture marked in the schedule as "no substitution" any other picture with a material substitution of a star or combination of stars. or director, book or play. Nothing herein contained shall limit the right of the distributor to change the title J of any picture, or as respects any picture based upon a story, book or play prevent the making of any alterations, changes in or adaptations thereof. It shall also be mandatory upon the distributor to give a reasonable notification to the exhibitor of all instances where an entirely different feature is intended to be substituted. ARTICLE 16. Score Charges. The practice of adding to the negotiated cost of the license to exhibit motion pictures any additional charges such as score charges 1 is an unfair trade practice. ARTICLE 17. Playing Arrangements. The distributor shall not require any specific day or days of the week for the ex hibition of specific pictures or class of pictui es. ARTICLE 18. Non-Theatrical Competition. It shall be an unfair trade practice for any distributor to sell any picture generally released to any non-theatrical account, provided, however, that nothing in the above shall prevent the distributor from furnishing pictures for hospitals, ships on the high seas, army posts, or for the entertainment of shut-ins and/or charitable institutions to which the public is not admitted, and profiled further, that no pictures shall be furnished until they have completed their commercial runs in the competitive area. ARTICLE 19. Pictures Violating Production Code. No exhibitor shall exhibit, or be required to exhibit, or pay for any motion picture which is declared to be contrary to and violative of the standards and requirements of the production code of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, Inc., and the resolutions for uniform interpretations of said code or codes, or any amendment, revision or subsequent promulgation of said code. The determination of the question whether any picture is violative of said code or codes shall rest with the National Appeal Board or other duly constituted industry authority. ARTICLE 20. Advertising Code. (1) No exhibitor shall in advertising motion pictures violate the following rules of decency and good taste: (a) Nudity with meretricious purpose shall not be used. (b) Profanity shall be avoided. (c) No false or misleading statements shall be used directly or implied by type arrangements or by distorted quotations. (d) No text or illustration shall ridicule or tend to ridicule, any religion or religious faith ; no illustration of a character in clerical garb shall be shown in any but a respectful manner. (e) The history, institutions and nationalities of all countries shall be represented with fairness. (f) Pictorial and copy treatment of officers of the law shall not be of such a nature as to undermine their authority. (g) Good taste shall be the standard and the rule for all advertising and exploitation of motion pictures. (2) The use by an exhibitor of advertising matter violative of the foregoing rules obtained from a distributor shall constitute a violation of this article by such distributor. (3) The question whether any advertising matter violates those rules shall be determined by the National Appeal Board, or by other duly constituted industry authority. ARTICLE 21. Advertising Conflicting with Prior Run. When an Exhibitor is granted a subsequent run of motion pictures, the Exhibitor shall not advertise any of them by any means of advertising prior to or during the exhibition of any one of said motion pictures by any other exhibitor having the right to a prior run thereof and charging admission prices higher than the prices charged for admission to the Exhibitor's theater, excepting advertising inside the theater not intended for removal therefrom by the public, unless the first date of exhibition hereunder of any such motion picture shall be within fifteen (15) days from the last exhibition date of such prior run exhibition, in which case the Exhibitor shall nave the right to advertise such motion picture, provided the Exhibitor does not in any advertising state that the prices charged for admission are or will be less than the admission prices charged by the Exhibitor having the first or prior run of such motion picture. Nothing in this Clause shall be deemed to prohibit the Exhibitor from advertising generally all of said motion pictures as a group hut such general advertising shall not refer to any one of said motion pictures during its exhibition by any other exhibitor having the first or immediately prior run thereof, excepting as herein provided. ARTICLE 22. Price Evasion. No exhibitor shall lower the admission prices publicly announced or advertised for his theater by the giving of rebates in the form of premiums, lotteries, reduced script books, coupons, gifts, or things of value, or by two-for-one admissions, or by other methods or devices of similar nature, except as approved by the local maximum clearance and zoning schedules. This shall not be deemed to prohibit exhibitors from reducing or increasing their admission scales as they see fit except as may be prohibited by exhibition contracts, or local zoning and clearance schedules. It is aimed at reductions through means which are unfair to competing exhibitors and/or deceive the public. Provided: where there is no local zoning or arbitration board for that particular city, town or community, the ruling of seventy-five per cent (75%) of the exhibitors shall prevail. ARTICLE 23. Midnight Shows. No exhibitor shall exhibit a motion picture previous to dawn of the first day of exhibition without securing express written permission therefor under the license agreement. ARTICLE 24. Forcing Shorts with Features. Section 1. Any requirement by the distributor, directly or indirectly, that the exhibitors execute an application for the licensing of shorts (including newsreels) in order to secure a license for the exhibition of feature photoplays, or vice versa, shall be an unfair method of competition. Section 2. The securing of the execution of an application for the licensing of shorts (including newsreels) that is followed by the acceptance of an application for the licensing of photoplays for the same season shall be presumed to be contrary to the purpose of this article, and _ may be cancelled by the exhibitors by giving written notice by Registered Mail within ten (10) days after the receipt by him of notification of the acceptance of the application for the exhibition of feature photoplays. ARTICLE 25. Special Productions. Until such time as a distributor has delivered all of the pictures on the contract, it shall be an unfair trade practice to offer for release any special productions, and in all cases if special productions are made pursuant to the above, the same shall be offered first to the exhibitor having the other productions under contract under the same terms and conditions covering special productions as agreed upon in the original contract. ARTICLE 26. Disclosure of Box Office Receipts. No exhibitor or distributor shall make any disclosure of box office receipts for publication except necessary reports to stockholders, credit and governmental agencies and to other like bodies. No exhibitor or distributor shall be responsible for disclosures made by agents not authorized to do so. ARTICLE 27. Double Features. Exhibiting two or more feature photoplays for one admission price is an uneconomic practice and an unfair method of competition. Nevertheless, because of peculiar local conditions, exhibiting two or more feature photoplays for one admission price shall be deemed an unfair competitive practice only in those cities, towns and communities where sixty per cent (60%) of the theaters disapprove thereof by signed petition. For the purpose of voting thereon each exhibitor shall be entitled to one vote for each theater owned and operated by such exhibitor in the area of such vote. ARTICLE 28. Liability on Circuit Shipments. When an exhibitor is designated in lieu of a common carrier by the distributor to forward a picture or pictures to another exhibitor, the exhibitor forwarding the picture shall be the agent of the distributor and not otherwise. ARTICLE 29. Interference With Negotiations. It is an unfair trade practice knowingly and intentionally, directly or indirectly to obstruct, hinder, impede or interfere with pending negotiations between an exhibitor and any third party in respect of any matter or thing in any way pertaining to or affecting the ownership, management, operation, use or occupancy of any theater or arising out of or in any wise relating thereto, or in respect of any modification, renewal or extension of any agreement affecting the same for the purpose of preventing the consummation of such negotiations or to deprive the exhibitor of the continued management, use and occupancy of such theater. ARTICLE 30. Checkers. No distributor shall divulge or authorize or knowingly permit to be divulged by any employee or checker any information received in the checking of the receipts of its photoplays, except that such information may be divulged in any arbitration proceeding or litigation pertaining to the license to exhibit. ARTICLE 31. Poster Exchanges. There shall be no restriction against the operation of poster exchanges. ARTICLE 32. Release Dates. Definite release dates for each picture shall be announced by the distributor and availability of such pictures shall be made to all runs in accordance with such release dates. Any exhibitor failing to date the picture within 14 days of his release date shall automatically forfeit his clearance right to the subsequent runs to the extent by which he delayed the dating of the picture. ARTICLE 33. Transfer of Assets of Distributors. The transfer of assets by distributors for the purpose of refusing to deliver contracted feature films to exhibitors is an unfair trade practice. ARTICLE 34. Code to Apply to Existing Contracts. The provisions of this code shall apply to any existing exhibition contracts for the season 1933-1934. ARTICLE 35. Damages for Non-Delivery. In any legal or arbitration proceeding, where the question of damages for non-delivery of a picture by a distributor is material, it shall be presumed for the purpose of ascertaining such damages, that the gross income of the theater at which such picture was to have been exhibited on each day on which it was to have been exhibited, would have been equal to the average daily gross income of such theater over a period of sixty days prior to such non-delivery; provided, that nothing herein shall militate against the right of specific performance in such cases. ARTICLE 36. Circuit Cooperative Booking. It shall be an unfair method of competition for a distributor to refuse to deal with cooperative booking circuits. ARTICLE 37. Furnishing Box Office Statements. Exhibitors shall promptly make and deliver a correct itemized statement of each day's