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BOSTON THEATERS 565
first-run theaters requested longer periods of protection or special protection against certain theaters.
After selling its pictures, or some of them, to a downtown theater for a first run in Boston, an exchange would then attempt to sell the same pictures to a number of second and subsequentrun theaters. In contracting with such theaters it was incumbent upon the exchange to observe the protection which it had agreed to give the first-run theaters. The second-run theaters in turn would request certain protection against third-run theaters, most of which charged lower admission prices. A majority of second-run theaters in Boston received seven days' protection against third-run theaters. The third and fourth-run theaters also desired protection against subsequent runs, but usually secured none. Each of such theaters could show a picture as soon as it had been shown by the theater immediately preceding it in the list of runs.
The classification of a theater in this scheme of runs was not a settled matter. A theater might show the second run of some pictures and the third run of others. The run it secured depended largely upon the amount the theater paid for the picture. This amount in turn depended upon such factors as the number of seats, the admission price, and the popularity of the theater. The exhibitor bargained with the distributor's salesman for a run and for protection in the same manner as he bargained regarding the price and the other conditions of the contract. If one theater was willing to pay $40 per week for the privilege of showing the third run of a picture in Boston, and another theater offered $50, the latter theater, other conditions being equal, probably would be given the third run, and the theater offering $40 would be given fourth run. When the protection to be granted a theater had been agreed upon by the exhibitor and the distributor's salesman, it was described briefly in the contract. Although the run or protection secured by a theater might be different for each picture, it was generally true that a theater bought most of its pictures for the same run and obtained about the same protection on all pictures.
The date for showing a picture at an exhibitor's theater usually was not set at the same time the contract between the distributor and the exhibitor was signed. Ordinarily the date was set later, by mutual agreement between the exhibitor and the distributor.