Harrison's Reports (1949)

Entered as second-class matter January 4, 1921, at the poet office at New York, New York, under the act of March 3, 1879. Harrison's Reports Yearly Subscription Rates: 1270 AVENUE OF THE AMERICAS Published Weekly by United States $15.00 (Formerly Sixth Avenue) Harrison's Reports, Inc., U. S. Insular Possessions. 16.60 „ v I, <>n w v Publisher Canada 16.50 Wew York zo' N' Y P. S. HARRISON, Editor Mexico, Cuba, Spain 16.50 A Motion Picture Reviewing Service Great Britain 17.50 Devoted Chiefly to the Interests of the Exhibitors Established July 1, 1919 Australia, New Zealand, • India, Europe, Asia 17.50 1{g Editorial p0iicy: 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. XXXI SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1949 No. 46 A MOVE IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION A new method of dividing the cost of advertising with exhibitors is being instituted by Paramount Pictures, according to an announcement made this week by Max E. Youngstein, the company's Director of National Advertising, Publicity and Exploitation. The plan, formulated by Youngstein with the aid of Sid Mesibov, Paramount's Exploitation Manager, consists of sharing the costs of theatre advertising campaigns from the first dollar in exactly the same percentage as Paramount and the exhibitor share in the film's gross. Where formerly advertising campaign costs were shared on a fifty-fifty basis, over and above a theatre's normal advertising budget, Paramount's new method obviates all consideration of house budgets in calculating sharing arrangements. Youngstein stated that he felt this new method is more equitable to both distributor and exhibitor, and that it will act as an incentive to set advertising campaigns on a sensible basis of "what's best to sell the picture." Youngstein announced also that Paramount has been expanding its cooperative advertising activities by giving assistance not only to key-run situations but all situations where practical. "Regardless of the size of the situation," said Youngstein, "Paramount 's exhibitor aid extends to any run where pictures play pre-release, key a circuit, influence a territory or tee off saturation bookings." Under this method of accenting the first important playdates in a territory, Youngstein feels that the incentive to get the picture off to a good start is greater, with the resultant benefits to the subsequent-runs. On more than one occasion Harrison's Reports has found reason to commend Max Youngstein for his progressive ideas on the merchandising of pictures, particularly his belief in cooperative advertising. Earlier this year, at a time when most of the other major companies had either announced or had taken steps to discontinue sharing the cost of advertising with the exhibitors, Youngstein stated that his company will not only continue cooperative advertising but will, if anything, increase it. His new plan on dividing advertising costs with the exhibitors is indeed worthy of commendation, for it recognizes the responsibility of the distributor in sharing the cost of advertising in proportion to his share of the intake. And that is how it should be, for when a picture is played on a percentage basis the distributor becomes a partner in the income at the box-office and has, therefore, a direct, immediate and continuing interest in the successful exhibition of the picture. Worthy also of commendation is the Paramount policy of expanding its cooperative advertising activities to all situations, regardless of size. This is a step in the right direction in that, heretofore, an esti' mated one-half of the distributors' national cooperative advertising outlay was spent in only two cities, as was brought out by Mr. Abram F. Myers, Allied's general counsel and chairman of the board, in his annual report last February. Mr. Myers noted that, out of $10,000,000 invested by the producer-distributors in 1948 for cooperative advertising with theatres, $5,000,000 was spent in New York and Los Angeles alone. "Granting that a successful run in those cities may help the picture in other places," said Mr. Myers, "we cannot overlook two pertinent facts: (1) Those cities have only 815 theatres out of a total of 19,207 for the country; and (2) the first-run theatres, to which these allowances were made, were nearly all producer-owned." Mr. Myers then suggested that, on percentage engagements, the distributor and exhibitor contribute to an advertising or exploitation campaign in the proportion that each shares in the gross receipts. "This," he said, "would end the discrimination resulting from the present system of granting advertising allowances to only a few theatres and would constitute an important advance in the campaign to attract people to the theatres." This paper does not know, of course, if Paramount's new plan stems from Mr. Myers' suggestion, although it is similar. The important thing, however, is that it is a step forward in cooperative advertising, one that is consistent with sound business reasoning, and that will no doubt benefit the interests of both Paramount and its customers. The other distributing companies would do well to emulate the example set by Paramount. J. ARTHUR RANK'S CATASTROPHE On Monday of this week, J. Arthur Rank, Britain's largest motion picture producer, revealed that his organization had lost $9,380,000 on production for the year ending June 25. Mr. Rank, in his annual report as chairman of Odeon Theatres, Ltd., and associated companies, painted a dreary picture of the decline of his organization and acknowledged that his studios may be compelled to halt production unless conditions improve considerably. "The future is uncertain, and must be so," he said. Mr. Rank was frank as to the causes of his troubles. One cause, he admitted, was the seventy-five per cent ad valorem duty imposed by the British Government on American films, which action brought about the (Continued on bac\ page)