Film year book : 1922-23 (1923)

No little interest attached to this, since it has long been a disputed point as to whether a theater, or any great number of theaters, could build up a steady, week in and week out clientele, regardless of special attractions. This question was answered by practically every theater manager filling in the questionnaire, and the tabulated result shows the following percentages: Good business regardless 23.98% Not good unless feature is good 76.02% Three out of four theaters, it will be seen, find that business falls oflf noticeably when the attraction is mediocre or poor, thus indicating strongly that the prosperity of the industry depends, first of all, upon good pictures. Next, in order, was a closely related question: "Do you find that an attraction that draws extra large business hurts attendance on pictures immediately following?" This has been the subject of more contention than has the first question, since it has a highly important bearing upon the ever present "super special" attraction, and its real desirability. Tlie tabulated answers, representing the judgment and experience of the theater managers in sending in questionnaires, are as follows: Hurts business following 68.77% Does not hurt business following 31.23% Again, it will be seen a considerable majority of exhibitors agree that an unusual attraction has an effect upon business immediately following. In considering these figures, of course, it rnust be brone in mind that a special attraction is usually exploited heavily, and immediately following it, advertising and exploitation usually fall temporarily below the normal lever, and this may account for some of the depression. Generally speaking, however, the axiom niay be safely laid down that, in the majority of theaters, good pictures are vitally necessary to insure good business, but that business must be expected to fall a bit below normal following an attraction that draws unusually large receipts. The third question under this head has also been the bone of frequent contention among those connected with motion pictures. This question was: "Taking the total box-office attraction as 100%, how would you divide it among the following? (Give your opinion)." Then followed space to fill in the estimated percentages on the feature, short subjects, music and vaudeville. The results of this are as follows: Feature 68% Short subjects 17% Music 15% As shown, only 5.99% of the theaters answering played vaudeville, so this was tabulated separately. Among these theaters, the foregoing figures were reduced proportionately, with vaudeville given the following rating: Vaudeville 33% These percentages represent, in each case, an average of the percentages assigned by all of the managers. While such figures, of course, can only represent managerial judgment, and can neVer, perhaps, be a matter of definite knowledge, this represents, as far as is known, the first broad consensus of opinion ever obtained on this subject. It is a matter of opinion at best, and that of the theater manager is most likely to be accurate. Great economic i:nportance attaches to the following question: "How does present business compare with: 1914? 1918? 1919? 1920? 1921?" Then followed space in which to check "Better," "Same" or "Worse." The tabulated percentages are: Better than 1914 25.54% Same as 1914 19.68% Worse than 1914 54.78% Better than 1918 17.28% Same as 1918 15.71% Worse than 1918 67.01% Better than 1919 14.25% Same as 1919 10.7 4 of„ Worse than 1919 75.01% Better than 1920 12.16% Same as 1920 10.98% Worse than 1920 76.86 cj^ Better than 1921 11.21% Same as 1921 17.26c);, Worse than 1921 71.53% Practically three-fourths of the theaters, it will be noted, reported business as worse than either 1919, 1920 or 1921, while only about one-eighth report it better. These questions, however, were filled out a few months ago, and it is to be assumed that some improvement has come about since that time. A fairly optimistic note was sounded in the replies to the following question: "What do you expect for the remainder of 1922?" on which the following replies were received: Better expected 34.99% Same expected 50.30% Worse expected 14.71% The close relation between general prosperity and the prosperity of the motion picture industry was established in the answers to the next question: "Do you get a much larger attendance in years when there is full employment and business is good generally?" The sentiment on this is overwhelming, as seen in the following: Yes 97.29% No 2.71% "What is you best season?" followed. This is not a matter regarding which there has been any great uncertainty, but the answers revealed a somewhat surprising diversity in this regard. In a considerable number of cases, managers checked more than one season, in which case the vote was split. The totals are as follows: Spring best 20.16% Summer best 7.20% Fall best 48.29% Winter best 24.34% Following this, and closely allied to it, was the question: "What is your poorest season?" The results on this are: Spring poorest 16.05% Summer poorest 61.09% Fall poorest 3.35% Winter poorest 19.51 % Thus it will be seen that fall is the best season with the greatest number of theaters, with winter, spring and summer following, in order, and that summer is the poor in a large majority of cases, with winter, spring and fall following. Also economic in nature was the next question: "How do most of your patrons get their money?" with spaces to fill in under agriculture, mining, livestock, manufacturing industries and miscellaneous. The replies to this question reveal the following percentages among the theaters answering: Agriculture 10.60% Mining 10.33% Livestock 12.63% Manufacturing industries 34.10% Miscellaneous 32.34% Manufacturing industries, it will be seen, are well in the lead, with agriculture, mining and livestock rather evenly divided. The following question is of interest to almost everyone in the industry, presenting, as it does, the types of features which make the best box-ofSce attractions. These, ranged in order of highest to lowest, are: Westerns 18.16% Feature comedies 18.04% Famous books and plays 15.41% Society 15.06% Northwoods 14.62% Light farce 7.35% Melodrama 7.27% Heavy drama 8.07% Costume 1.02 % (Continued on Page 241) 235