Motion Picture Herald (Apr-Jun 1933)

April 2 9 , 19 3 3 MOTION PICTU RE H ERALD 13 TOBIS HOLD ON GERMAN INDUSTRY EXTENDS FROM STUDIO TO THEATRE Electric Participates in Production Also Through Subsidiaries While Defending Sound Patents; Agreements Ironclad by HANS TINTNER Berlin Correspondent Dependence of the film producers on the electrical industries, characterizing the film market since the beginning of the sound film, is nowhere so evident as in Germany. In no country of the world has the effect on the independent producer been so marked as that of the Tobis in Germany. The general crisis in German's industry is said to be responsible for the numerous insolvencies and suspensions of payment of the German film companies. But more and more the opinion prevails that the payment of tribute of the German film producers to the Tobis is responsible for the situation in the German industry. Income Reduced a Third This last winter Film-Kurier stated that the German exhibitors dropped income by a third to approximately 200 million reichsmarks per year, thereby limiting the intakes of the distributors to nearly 50 million reichsmarks a year. This sum must be sufficient to finance and guarantee a film production of 180 to 200 feature films a year. Sound production and the licenses take another 25 per cent, equal to eight to ten million reichsmarks a year from the aforementioned amount of money which is paid to the Tobis in a situation which, according to the opinion of leading German film experts, is unbearable. The insolvencies of the last year, such as Emelka, Sudfilm, D. L. S., Kiichenmeister, are unfavorably loading the balance of the Tobis and have led to a diminution of the stock capital of the Tobis from twelve million reichsmarks to five million. Competes with Independents But it is not only in its licensing policy that the Tobis has shown its unrivaled position. In the form of various subsidiaries it acts as competitor to the independent German film producers. The Jofa Company has been charged with the recording and the sound production and Tobis holds 50 per cent of the stock of that company. By the newly established Europe Film Distribution the Tobis has entered the field of the film exchange. The Tobis itself devotes all its time to the defense and acknowledgment of its patents and to the license agreement without which no film can be produced in Germany. This combination of distribution with the studio and the licensing business is considered beyond endurance by the other German film companies. Opinion prevails that the Tobis competes with those firms which, by its distribution branch, have come under its financial influence and are forced to use its recording system. The situation where the producer could independently determine the financial and production side of his work and got a recording set for every studio available, has reversed itself in the course of time and has forced the licensee of the Tobis to use only the Tobis studio at Johannisthal for his recording work. Bound by Severe Agreements While free competition in sound production among German, American and French recording systems is possible in Paris and, therefore, the French Tobis is working alongmore favorable conditions, and while in Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia the producers get their own recording sets, film production in Germany is bound by severe agreements and restrictions. The Swedish film industry has severed its connections with the Tobis, claiming that the Tobis conditions will ruin the industry. The English group of the Tobis concern likewise did not develop successfully. In consideration of this situation the German film producers prefer to make their pictures in Paris or London. Austria is affected equally by the supremacy of the Tobis, which has prevented Sascha Film, leading Austrian film producer, from using its own recording system in the studios. As creditor of the Sascha Company the Tobis has succeeded in influencing the policy of Sascha Film Company. By collaboration with Tri-Ergon, the Tobis has forced its way into the production branch of the industry, thereby completing its vertical sound film organization, with its own production via Tri-Ergon, its own film exchange in Europa Film Company, its own production center in Jofa, leasing of recording sets by Tiges and the granting of licenses by Tobis itself. The independent German film producers consider this unrivaled supremacy over the entire sound film market as most severe competition and the greatest hardship. They hold that the essential premise for restoration of the industry in Germany requires free control of the producer over his own recording system, which he can redeem by letting it to other companies. Newman Heads New Independents Group Frank L. Newman is president of Evergreen State Amusement Corporation, second statewide group of independent theatres formed at Seattle in the last ten days. The new company includes approximately 20 theatres in Washington and Oregon. Albert Rosenberg is vice-president and Albert Finkelstein secretary-treasurer. "Chain operation of these theatres by companies with headquarters in the East or South is a thing of the past," Mr. Newman said. Seidel Sterling's Treasurer Ira Seidel has been named treasurer and comptroller of Sterling Pictures Corporation. Mr. Seidel formerly was comptroller of Tiffany and Allied Pictures. Rowson Proposes Film Division for British Industry A British government department similar to the Motion Picture Division of the U. S. Department of Commerce, for dissemination of information regarding England's film industry, was proposed by Simeon Rowson, director of Gaumont-British Picture Corporation, in a recent address before the Royal Empire Society in London. Mr. Rowson declared that "in Australia the British film has definitely ousted the American film from its erstwhile supremacy" and that "the same tale comes from Canada, South Africa and India." He said that in 1932 the public paid into all cinemas in Great Britain a total of 43 million pounds, or 36 million pounds exclusive of the entertainment tax. The average admission, exclusive of the tax, was 9 pence, representing 960 million admissions a year or 18^ millions a week. Adding admissions in Ireland, the total, he estimated, was almost 20 millions a week throughout the British isles. Terming the cinematograph films act of 1927 an unqualified success, Mr. Rowson pointed out that since January 1, 1928, nearly 500 British features have been registered at a production cost between six and seven million pounds ; studios have been erected capable of producing 150 to 200 features a year, the studios and equipment costing at least 2,500,000 pounds ; in the year ended March 31, 1932, there were 154 features registered at a production cost above two millions ; "the public, the press and the exhibitor now are agreed that the average British film is more attractive and provides better entertainment for our own people than the average American film," and in the 1932-33 year since that report 150 more pictures have been produced at a cost exceeding two million pounds. Court Denies Erpi Plea for Vitaphone Arbitration Justice Penniwell, in chancery court, Wilmington, Del., this week overruled a plea filed by Erpi that the Vitaphone Corporation be stopped from prosecuting its suit against Erpi in this jurisdiction. Erpi recently filed a petition asking the suit go to arbitration under the terms of an agreement between the two litigants covering the manufacture and sale of equipment. The court ruled that arbitration covenants similar to that involved do not grant immunity from a suit in this jurisdiction, and further indicated that if the case proceeds a master will probably be appointed to hold hearings in cities most convenient to the litigants.