Harrison's Reports (1946)

28 HARRISON'S REPORTS February 16, 1946 or pull out the whole block of pictures and create, at a late date, a void in his bookings? "This appears to be exactly the disadvantageous situation in which Paramount placed some of its customers who bought the block containing 'The Lost Weekend' when it was first offered. "Nor can another fact be tossed off lightly. The block in question included two top percentage pictures, which many of the accounts had either booked or already played and for which they had paid heavily when they learned of the revised terms for 'Weekend.' There can be no doubt that many of these exhibitors had looked to the alcoholic epic as the one picture in the block that would net them a good profit. "This poses an important problem in exhibitor-distributor relations. Is there some unwritten law that the theatre is not allowed to make a good profit any more? Are the film companies to be granted the privilege of upping terms, whenever convenient to them, for the purpose of restricting an exhibitor's take to a fixed minimum? "Paramount (or any of the other majors) seldom underestimate the value of their pictures; to the contrary. And it is not justification of the policy of overpricing to say that the exhibitor can come into the exchange to plead for a kick-back. We know some who are proud — yes, even those who are forced to follow the practice. What if, on occasion, the customer unexpectedly does get a 'buy' — must that be cause for up-ending the sales organization and creating ill-will by demanding extra money? "Paramount docs quite well financially, well enough to avoid the necessity for coming to its customers to ask for gratuities. We think that the exhibitor operating a moderatesize theatre is entitled to a good picture on outright terms once in a while, so that he will be compensated for the profit he did NOT make with some of those 40 percent specials . . ." Mo Wax's condemnation of Paramount's "Lost Weekend" sales policy is justified, and some of his remarks could be applied with equal force to Twentieth Century-Fox for its attitude with "Leave Her to Heaven." Harrison's Reports is proud to take its stand besides Mo Wax. It is high time the exhibitors determined to resist the distributor practice of shifting sales policies without regard for their customers rights — the right to look to the occasional capacity-drawing picture to absorb a part of the losses they suffer throughout the year, due either to reduced attendances caused by unfavorable weather conditions and other circumstances, or to the fact that a highly touted picture, for which they had paid high percentage terms and had given preferred playing time, failed to live up to its box-office promise. The distributors themselves depend on the exceptional top-grossing pictures to make up the financial set-backs they suffer during the course of a year because some of the pictures undertaken did not turn out to be sterling attractions and did not, therefore, draw revenue that was commensurate with their cost. In such cases, the exhibitors, too, suffered. Why, then, do the distributors refuse to recognize that the exhibitors, too, must be given an opportunity to participate in the extra profits garnered from the occasional top-grosser? GIVE THREE MINUTES OF YOUR SCREEN TIME This week — February 16 to 24 — the motion picture industry is joining in the observance of American Brotherhood Week, sponsored by the National Conference of Christians and Jews. The industry's part in the observance, under the chair' manship of Spyros P. Skouras, will be marked by the nationwide exhibition of a three-minute trailer, "The American Creed," produced by David O. Selznick and starring James Stewart, Van Johnson, Shirley Temple, Eddie Cantor, Katharine Hepburn, Jennifer Jones, Walter Pidgeon, Ingrid Bergman, and Edward G. Robinson. In order to gain the widest distribution in the shortest possible time, 10,000 free prints of this trailer are being made available to all exhibitors through National Screen Service's exchanges. Those of you who cannot obtain a print for showing during Brotherhood Week are asked to obtain one for showing on the week following. The purpose behind this observance is to promote national unity and inter-racial good-will among Americans of all faiths. It is a worthy purpose, and the exhibitor, through the medium of his screen, can do his part in eliminating racial and religious intolerance from the American scene by showing the trailer at every performance. REGARDING PROPAGANDA IN MOTION PICTURES THE CHICAGO THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 5757 University Avenue Chicago Fred Eastman, Litt.D. Biography, Literature, Drama January 10, 1946 Mr. P. S. Harrison, Editor Harrison's Reports 1 270 Sixth Avenue New York 20, N. Y. My dear Mr. Harrison: For many years 1 have been following weekly your editorials and have usually found myself in hearty agreement with them wherever they concern the public policies of the Motion Picture Industry. But in your issue of December 29, you take the position that Mr. Harry Warner was unwise or impractical when he said, "Motion pictures can show the people of every nation how much their own welfare is dependent on the scientific, cultural and industrial achievements of the other nations. They can dramatize the fundamentals of the world today . . ." You conclude your editorial with the old stereotype, "Let the motion picture continue its natural role — that of entertaining people." It is entirely unlike you to use such a stereotype and to attack Mr. Warner or any other producer who may be trying to stir up the Motion Picture Industry to its peculiar social responsibilities in these critical days. It is not a question of propaganda or entertainment. Everyone knows that the motion pictures have as one of their functions the entertainment of the public, but God help the pictures and the public if that is the only function the industry is going to recognize just now. -Here, on the University of Chicago campus, we have become acutely aware of the danger which civilization laces because of the atomic bomb. The scientists themselves are doing all in their power to educate the public to the fact that unless we create a world community as a basis for a world state which can control the uses of atomic energy, civilization is doomed. The nuclear scientists think that we have but about five years to build such a world community. This is a bigger job and a quicker one than public schools and religious organizations can accomplish. It can only be done by the media of mass education : motion pictures, press and radio. Just how they will do it the leaders of those industries must determine. They did marvelous work in informing the people concerning the dangers of fascism. Here is a far greater danger, but it also has a great promise — the promise of a better life for all of us if we can use constructively the power of the atom for industry, medicine, and human welfare, instead of for human destruction. There is one other argument which ought to be conclusive, and that is that the Motion Picture Industry will not survive any longer than civilization survives. It behooves the Industry, therefore, for its own sake, as well as for humanity's, to devote a considerable part of its energies and talents to this crucial issue. With kindest regards, I am, As ever yours, FRED EASTMAN