Film year book (1948)

ner than is possible in areas where RKO djps not operate theaters. 123. The successful exhibition of a feature in its initial runs in any area is widely publicized and closely observed by subsequent-run exhibitors in that area and success in exploiting a picture in such exhibitions produces inereaseu revenue both for the distribu'or and for subsequent-run exhibitors. 124. Each of the five major defendants is able to co-ordinate the initial exhibition of its features in its theaters with an extensive and accurately limed national advertising' campaign. Defendants Compete 125. Twentieth Century-Fox is interested in theaters in only 16 of the 92 cities having a population of over 100.000. In 12 of these 10 cities features of one or more defendants is licensed to independent first-run exhibitors competing with Twentieth Century-Fox (New York. Seattle. Denver, Portland. Oakland. San Diego. Long Beach. Los Angeles. San Francisco. Spokane. Sacramento, and Kansas City. Kansas) as well as to other defendants having theaters in some of these cities. In three of the remaining four cities, there is also first-run competition from others of the defendants. 126. The 17.35 per cent of theaters which comprise thp five circuits of the major defendants pay from 35 to 54 per cent of the total domestic film rental respectively received by the eight distributing defendants and 45 per cent of the total domestic film rpntal received by all of said distributordefendants. The five largest unaffiliated circuits together pay less than 5 per cent of such rental. 127. The major defendants, as distributors, during the 1943-44 season, received from 71 to 81 per cent of the film rental that was paid to all distributors by exhibitors affiliated with the five major defendants. The minor defendants received from 26 to 15 per cent of such rental and the independent distributors from 2% to 4% per cent of such rental. 128. During the 1913-14 season the eight distributor defendants received 45.2 per cent of the total feature film rental, received by them, from theaters affiliated with the five major defendants; and 54.8 per cent of such rentil from other exhibitors. 129. In some situations where Paramount had theater interests, other defendant distributors licensed their features to competing theaters and not to the Paramount theaters, and in some cases the operating companies in which Paramount was interested were not able to obtain the right to exhibit the features of some of the other defendant distributors. 130. Paramount features are licensed for exhibition in from 8.000 to 14,500 theaters in the United States annually. The number of licenses ench year varies from feature to feature and from year to year. 131. In 21 of the 36 out of the 92 cities where Loew's operates theaters none of the other four producer-exhibitors licensed its features in the 1943-44 season for first-run exhibition in a Loew's theater, to the extent of more than three features, the Loew's theaters' first-run exhibition being otherwise limited to its own features and those of non-theater-owning producers. 132. Over the 10 years from 1935 to 1945. the total number of features licensed by the other four theater-owning distributors to Loew's firstrun houses, decreased from 1.382 to 998 and the features of non-theater-owning distributors, increased from 1.201 to 1,879. 133. In 1935, the other four theater-owning distributors earned $2,611,986 from Loew's theaters and the non-theater-owning distributors earned $2,205,330 ($406,656 less.) In 1944, the non-theater-owning distributors earned $5,261,116 in Loew's theaters, which was $419,477 more than the $4,841,639. earned in Loew's theaters in that year by the four other theater-owning distributors. 134. In 1944, the percentage of the total film rental paid by Loew's theaters to each of the non-theater-owning distributors, Columbia (8.8 per cent). United Artists (8.3 per cent) and Universal (7.4 per cent), was higher than that paid to each of three producer-exhibitors. RKO (2.1 per cent). Warner Bros. (2.1 per cent) and Twentieth Century-Fox (6.1 per cent). Loew's Per Cent of Rental 135. In the year 1944, of the total film rental paid by Loew's theaters, 47.9 per cent was to Loew's itself for the exhibition of Loew's pictures, and 27.1 per cent was to non-theaterowning distributors. Thus a total of 75 per cent of all film rentals paid by Loew's theaters went to persons other than the four other defendantproducer-exhibitors. 136. During the 1943-44 season RKO received 56.9 per cent of its total license fees from independent theaters, 14.1 per cent from its own theaters, and (in the aggregate) 29 per cent from theaters affiliated with other defendants. 137. In the 1943-44 season, of the total number of exhibitions of features in first-run and metropolitan circuit run theaters operated by RKO, 2.3.1 per cent were exhibitions of features distributed by RKO, 29.6 per cent were exhibitions of features distributed by other theaterowning distributors, and 47.3 per cent were exhibitions of features distributed by non-theaterowning distributors. 138. In the four pre-war seasons of 1937-1940. Warner derived about 61-6/10 per cent of its domestic gross rentals from theaters not affiliated with any of the defendants, about 14 per cent from theaters in which it had an interest, about 13 per cent from theaters in which Paramount had an interest, about 4 per cent from theaters in which Twentieth Century-Fox had an interest, about 6 per cent from theaters in which RKO had an interest, and less than 1 per cent from theaters in which Loew had an interest. 139. Of its total domestic and foreign rentals Warner received about 30 per cent from abroad, about 43 per cent from theaters in which none of the defendants had an interest, about 10 per cent from Warner's own American theaters, and the balance, about 16 per cent from American theaters in which one ro more of the defendants had an interest. Warners Books Loew's 140. Not a single one of the Loew first-run theaters in the 39 of the 92 largest cities where Loew operates or has an interest in first-run theaters licensed a Warner feature for exhibition in the 1943-44 season. In the same season the Warner theaters regularly exhibited the Loew features in many of the 28 of the 92 largest cities where Warner operated or had an interest in firstrun theaters. 141. The dollars paid by Warner to each of the other defendants and by each of the other defendants to Warner show no uniformity of pattern from company to company from year to year. 142. There were marked variances from year to year in the sums paid as rental by the theaters in which Warner has an interest to United Artists. Universal, and Columbia, the non-theater-owning defendants. 143. Between 1937 and 1944 the theaters in which Warner had an interest substantially decreased the amount of film rental paid to the five theater-owning defendants, and substantially increased film rental paid to the non-theaterowning defendants. 144. Of the total film revenue received by Twentieth Century-Fox in 1944 from all theaters in the United States. 60.8 per cent was paid 983