Harrison's Reports (1945)

Entered as second-class matter January 4, 1921, at the post office at New York, New York, under the act of March 3, 1879. Harrison's Reports Yearly Subscription Rates: 1270 SIXTH AVENUE Published Weekly by United States *15.00 Rnnni Harrison's Reports, Inc., U. S. Insular Possessions. 16.50 i\oom ioia Publisher Canada 16.50 New York 20, N. Y. P. S. HARRISON, Editor Mexico Cuba, Spain 16.50 A Motjon picture Reviewing Service ureat Britain ............ xo.<o Devoted Chiefly to the Interests of the Exhibitors Established July 1, 1919 Australia, New Zealand, India, Europe, Asia 17.50 Ug Editoria] Poiicy. No problem Too Big for Its Editorial Circle 7-4622 35c a Copy Columns, if It is to Benefit the Exhibitor. A REVIEWING SERVICE FREE FROM THE INFLUENCE OF FILM ADVERTISING Vol. XXVII SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1945 No. 6 THE BITTER FRUITS OF INACTION As most of you undoubtedly know by this time, the War Production Board, at its meeting in Wash' ington on February 1 with the industry's advisory committee on raw stock, has announced that the industry will receive sixteen million feet less raw stock for the first quarter of 1945 than it received during the last quarter of 1944. Originally, the WPB had estimated that the cut would be approximately thirty million feet. This latest quarterly stock allocation takes on a special significance because, for the first time since the WPB began to ration raw film stock to the industry, it has seen fit to place a restriction on its usage. It has ordered the producer' distributors to limit the number of positive prints on new features to a maxi' mum of 285. The WPB has indicated, however, that this order will be relaxed in the event a distributor can prove that a particular feature has not exhausted its playing time and that the 285 prints or a portion of them are no longer in a condition to give satisfactory projection in theatres still to be played. In such a case, additional prints may be authorized. I don't know what prompted the WPB to confine its restrictions on the use of raw stock solely to a limitation of the number of positive prints processed. But I do know that a ruling more detrimental to the interests of the already burdened subsequent-run exhibitors could not have been made. The deplorable part of this ruling limiting prints is that, in effect, it permits the producer-distributors to absorb the cut of sixteen million feet at the expense of the exhibitors. Simple mathematics prove this. Let us assume, for example, that the eleven distributing companies will deliver approximately 400 feature pictures for the season. Dividing this number by four gives us 100 features for each quarter. To be conservative, let us assume that an average of 20 fewer prints will be processed on each feature picture than have heretofore been made. This assumption is indeed conservative, since the distributors generally process from 300 to 400 prints on important features. That will give us a total of 2000 fewer prints for the quarter. Still keeping our figures conservative, let us say that the average length of each feature is 8000 feet. Multiply this length by 2000 prints and you get a total of 16,000,000 feet saved, which is equal to the total cut in raw stock for the quarter. The aforementioned figures are, mind you, conservative. To effect a still greater savings of raw stock, all that the producer-distributors have to do is to keep reducing the number of prints. And to those who would complain about a shortage of prints, the producer-distributors need do no more than refer them to the WPB's directive. But let us not concern ourselves with what the distributors might do under this latest directive. Let us instead examine the conditions that will be brought about by the producerdistributors' conformity with the directive. With fewer prints available, it follows that the subsequentrun exhibitors will have to rely more than ever on reissues in order to keep their theatres in operation. With fewer prints, it follows also that the producerdistributors' stranglehold on exhibition will be tightened. The limitation of prints will serve, therefore, to expand the producer-distributors' operations in the reissue market from which they are already realizing handsome profits. Just imagine, then, how much more profitable it will become when the exhibitors, desperate for product, find themselves compelled to book reissues. With no restrictions on the use of raw stock for prints of reissues, the producer-distributors, under their present policy of unreasonable rental demands for this type of product, will turn the situation into a veritable bonanza for themselves. The savings in raw stock at the expense of the exhibitor will serve, not only to bolster the reissue market, but also to further the producer-distributors' expansion of their interests in foreign markets. Last week, this paper discussed the difficult situation that the distributor had to face in Mexico, where the officials are demanding that foreign producers bring in their own raw stock for the processing of prints to be exhibited in that country. Now Argentina has become huffy. The officials of that country have informed the representatives of foreign film companies that they will restrict the number of pictures imported unless raw stock is allocated to the Argentinian film industry. According to a report in Film Daily, Argentina is demanding as much raw stock as there is in the number of prints sent into the country by foreign companies. Argentina and Mexico are lucrative film markets, and so are many other foreign markets where a similar shortage of raw stock exists. To retain their holds on these markets, the producer-distributors will have to draw from their regular stock quotas. There is nothing to stop them from doing so. Yet the fact remains that every foot of raw stock they withdraw for a foreign market makes just that much less available for the home exhibitors. In view of the situation's seriousness, some questions are very much in order. Why has a restriction been placed on the number of prints for new features, which are the life-blood of exhibition, while no re( Continued on last page)