The Film Daily (1919)

Sunday, June 22, 1919 Mfaz? Sell Pictures Not Stars and Establish Your Theater After several years of rather strenuous educational work on the part of some of the best exhibitors, myself and others, anxious to see the film business come to a more equitable basic , sales distribution policy, we have finally reached the open market stage. So long as the old producer-dominated program system, which was rotten to the core, was in active operation every exhibitor everywhere proclaimed loudly his desire for open market. Recently when open market seemed definitely assured certain interests for their own reasons have begun a campaign to decry the benefits of the open market system of booking. One of the leaders in this cry against booking each individual picture on its merits has been the First National organization, and, Mr. Williams, for the First National, has made some good [points from his viewpoint but has seen fit to forget entirely some of the basic principles involved. Up until the present time the Paramount-Artcraft organization has been the leader among the offenders as to booking films by the program method, or the star series method, both systems giving the producer the opportunity to slip bad [ones over because of contract arrangements; it also made it impossible for the producing creator as an individual to have an earning power exactly i in accordance with the merit of his product, his earning power being based entirely upon a preconceived notion of such earning power figured out by power guess work before his contract with the distributor had been signed. So far as I can see now the Paramount-Artcraft 'plan, and the plan of all other organizations, such ,as the Big Four, the Metro, Universal, and other organizations who are' selling individual pictures ,are concerned, it looks to me as if it is going to be an absolutely wonderful method of distribution for the intelligent showman. The moment I find that these organizations, any or all of them, are not selling strictly in accordance with the individual merit plan of operation I will be the first ho make a real noise about it so that you may Bknow conditions. The cry has gone up that in the open market method of distribution, the exhibitor is not projected in being able to continue to play the product of one star in his theater. Loud wails of prospective ruin under such a system come from certain sources, some of them my very good friends among the exhibitors who levidently have not sat back and considered the I matter from all sides. One of our chief faults in ■this business has been to run blindly along a certain alley following a leader without stopping sufficiently to check up whether or not we are going in the right direction. The bigger and more experienced showmen running film theaters today know that the time has passed when they should build their future on the personal popularity of any individual star. It has been demonstrated to their personal sorrow many many times that a star makes a good, fine, rotten or indifferent product entirely according to the story used, and particularly according to the director who produces the film. The very biggest of our stars have learned that even with their best efforts and the securing of what they feel to be the best assistance that they are not always able to make the same quality. They have reached the viewpoint that they should play fair and earn in proportion with the quality of what they make. You certainly, as a showman, know that in the past year it has been demonstrated time and again that special productions without stars will do more business and please more people than some of our best star features ; this being the case, I want to emphasize the fact that the day has gone by when you need worry about catering entirely to the individual. Supposing you do play one or two films of some big star and then another comes along which you either consider too high-priced or not good enough for the money wanted for it, are you going to have to close up your theater because your competitor is willing to gamble that he knows more about values than you? If that is your viewpoint in reference to this business I would advise you to sell your theater quick, because from now on the man who will succeed is the showman who has judgment enough to know when the price asked by the exchange is too much. Don't let anybody kid you about not having enough films; there will always be more product in the market, and by that, I mean more product that can be shown than there will be theaters to show it in. That is the history of all merchandising and certainly in this business it is decidedly true. It is the simple law of supply and demand. Certainly, within the next year, nobody need worry over a shortage of product and particularly is this true because we have just recently come to a realization of the possibility of the longer run at advanced prices. There is no reason why every film that comes to your house must be seen at the same price that is a relic of the grindshow days when films were of the class of the Great Train Robbery. Nobody in buying entertainment expects to pay as much for Uncle Tom's Cabin as they do to see Ziegfeld's Follies. To ninety per cent, of this country today the films represent all there is in entertainment, and certainly it is nonsense to feel that we ( Continued on page 24)