Motion Picture Commission : hearings before the Committee on Education, House of Representatives, Sixty-third Congress, second session, on bills to establish a Federal Motion Picture Commission (1978)

MOTION PICTURE COMMISSION. 89 theater to show several pictures each day Avithout having to pay for the cost thereof. Each reel of film is approximately 1,000 feet in length. Its cost is about 10 cents a foot, or $100 per reel. The large exhibitors gener- ally have five reels a day. At that rate it would cost the exhibitor, if this agency or exchange did not exist, at least $500 a day for the films alone. Furthermore, the exchange enables the exhibitor to show pictures which his competitor has not shown, as it has been found imprac- tical to run the same show by two exhibitors in the same locality, as the public would not patronize either. In order to assure this exclusive and n(minterfering service to ex- hibitors the film exchanges are compelled to procure exclusive agencies from the manufacturers, otherwise a manufacturer selling to two film exchanges in the same territory Avould enable either to de- stroy the exclusive service to the customers of the other. This par- ticular kind of competition with the same pictures has been found to be ruinous to both of the competitors, because of the public insistence upon novelty and upon seeing something that it had not seen before. In addition to the demand for novelty, the public's demand for variety and the exhibitor's insistance that he be able constantly and continuously to exhibit good pictures have led to the transaction of the business through the medium of groups of manufacturers and the consequent growth of the three groups of manufacturers hereto- fore mentioned, to wit: The General Film Co., the Mutual Film Corporation, and the Universal Film Manufacturing Co., and sev- eral of the other groups consisting of manufacturers and distributors who operate in the United States. The exchanges so purchasing films from the manufacturers are located in the most central cities of the United States, so that they can supply films as conveniently as possible to all exhibitors. There are about 40 cities throughout the country where these exchanges or distributors are located. Mr. Fess. The disti-ibuting companies do not manufacture films? Mr. ScHKCHTER. They do not. Mr. Fess. Do the manufacturing companies which supply one dis- tributing agency also supply other distributing agencies? Mr. ScHEC'TiTER. No, sir. These are exclusive agencies. It would be impossible to supply the agent representing one group with the same films supplied to another, because it would interfere with the rental of the film to the exhibitor and destroy his exclusive exhi- bitions. Mr. Fess. Do the distributors take all the films manufactured by these groups? Mr. Scheciiter. They do not take all; they order the films ac- cording to their needs. Generally they take the full program put out by the particular-group of manufacturers, but they are not com- pelled to. In the case of a particularly fine picture, such as Ivanhoe, which was manufactured by the Universal Film Manufacturing Co., each exchange will want to take more than one copy of the film. On the other hand, a film may be produced by a manufacturer which does not meet the taste of a particular community where one of the exchanges is located and they will not order that one at all.