The Exhibitor (1960)

THE WRAP-UP We liave had lots of experience in using window and tack cards and have found that regular jumbo and super window cards take up so much room in the merchant’s window or store that even with passes they are hard to plant. We therefore had a half size card printed, il\14 w'ith nothing but the playdate, title, and theatre on it. No east, no selling, nothing but this. We did not give out one pass and planted over five hundred of these locally and in surrounding towns. We also tacked them on all highways leading into our towm, and every other place we could find. We did this to insure that everyone would not forget the title “A DOG OF FLANDERS.” .4s soon as the screen trailei’ was axxiilable we of course ran it on e\'erv show. This trailer is verv good and does a great selling job. If possible, it should be cross plugged, but we had no other house operating pre-Christmas so could not do this. Also as soon as a\xulable the 4()\8()'s w'ere used in our lobby. These also are very good. The press book was not available to us during this campaign but after reviewing it later we found many fine suggestions in it that can be used to augment the campaign. The coloring contest should be a cinch to plant with any newspaper after they have seen the picture, and the many other fine sugges¬ tions, including the Dell Comic Book, should be helpful. We can’t help but feel that with a film as fine as this the big angle is the screenings and the \\'ord of mouth. Don’t be afraid of giving the picture a\\'av to too manv people, for we found that nearly all of the people invited to the screenings returned as paving patrons to see the picture again, and as amateur press agents proudly brought their families and friends with them. We only had about two weeks for this campaign but feel that if possible it should be started a month in advance. THE RESULTS Without quoting actual grosses or any other j^icture titles, we can say that onr seven day gross of “A DOC OF FLANDERS” was ahead of most of the real big ones with bigger star and story value, and equal to the real blockbuster super million dollar epics, even though some of these played at advance prices. Bob Lippert; Bob Radnitz, the producer; Jim Clark, the director; 20th Century-Eox and everyone connected Witli the production of “A DOG OF FLANDERS” can be proud of this one. We would like to state that the last four days of the engagement were about as bad weatherwise as we ever get on the coast. We had a typical northwest freezing fog, with visibility about 10 feet and the streets icy. The City and State Police went on the air and advised everyone to stay off the streets and highways unless it was an absolute emergency. In spite of this, we filled the theatre each evening. L To be esed v/Rh station i.d. \ picture for everybody in the family, this s the hecjrtv/arming story of o boy you would ove to have as your own son, and his faith’ul dog. Starring David Ladd, Theodore Jikei and Donald Crisp, 20th Century-Fox's Oe Luxe Coior-CinemoScope “A Dog of -landers” opens .... at the . . . ■ Theatre. l.L'oi to be used with station i.d, Audiences of all oges will love this warm, numon story of a boy you woulci love to hove os cj son, ond his faithful dog. Twentieth Century-Fox's De Luxe Coior-CinemoScope ‘‘A Dog of Flanders” sfars Dovid Ladd, Theodore Bikel and Donald Crisp, and opens . ... at the .... Theatre. LEFT, illustrations of the TV trailers available to sell "A DOG OF FLANDERS" designed to be used at station breaks and other times and considered quite valuable by Mr. Corbin. BE¬ LOW, on example of the advertising from the press book, stressing the family appeal sure to be generated by the warm story of the love of a boy for his dog and the interesting locale. Dogof MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR 13