Motion Picture Herald (Jul-Aug 1943)

34 MOTION PICTURE HERALD August 2 1, 1943 'Army9 Grosses $1,034,000 in 107 Premieres 20th-Fox Holds Final Regional Sales Meeting A gross of $1,034,000 was garnered from "This Is the Army," the soldier revue produced by Warner Bros, for Army Emergency Relief, in the first 107 openings of the picture up to Friday of this week, the company announced. Except for the Broadway run which began three weeks ago, the $1,000,000 gross was achieved in the space of a single week, believed to be the highest intake on record for a motion picture in that period of time. Another box office record set by the Irving BerlinWarner Technicolor musical is the $500,000 two-day gross realized from the 58 premieres which were held Tuesday and Wednesday nights. The company cited the impressive figures as follows : Receipts of 10 special advanced-priced premieres held to date, including the New York opening, $75,000 ; regular New York run to date (three weeks), $150,000; nine out-of-town runs to date, $140,000 ; special premieres in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and San Francisco Tuesday and Wednesday nights, $105,000, each opening grossing $35,000 ; premieres in 94 additional cities, $564,000. This makes the grand total of $1,034,000. Extra shows were added at the Earle theatre, Washington, for "This Is the Army," Warners reported this week. Last Friday night the house played an additional show and added one Saturday midnight, while on Sunday the Earle obtained permission to open at 1 P.M. instead of 3 P.M. which is the local rule. First day's gross broke every house record, it was said. The company also reported that where comparison was possible with previous Warner top pictures such as "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and "Casablanca," "Army" openings in many key cities topped their records by 60 to 95 per cent. Instead of the three houses originally scheduled, six first run local theatres in Los Angeles presented the "Army" simultaneously, beginning Wednesday. The houses were the Hollywood, Downtown, Wiltern, Huntington Park, San Pedro and the Academy, the Fox West Coast theatre in Pasadena. A special $50 top preview showing of the "Army" at the Mastbaum, Philadelphia, on Thursday was a sellout almost a week in advance of opening, with more than $32,500 being realized from the single show. Scaled to a top of $10, garnering nearly $12,000, the Washington premiere was attended by scores of diplomatic, Governmental, military and social leaders. Irving Berlin, General Irving J. Phillipson and Mort Blumentsock, director of advertising and publicity in the east for Warners, flew down from New York for the occasion. In connection with the series of southern territory "Army" premieres, Ben Kalmenson, general sales manager for Warners, left New York last week for a tour of the south, stopping first at Atlanta and then at Jacksonville. The Virginian theatre, Charleston, W. Va., grossed $7,200 last Friday night at the special advanced-price opening of "Army." The Standard, Oklahoma City, joined the list of other theatres donating all receipts from these premieres to Army Emergency Relief. A $27 top was set for the local preview of the picture on August 25th at the Midwest in that city. It was learned this week that the BlaineThompson advertising agency was contributing to Army Relief all of its customary agency commissions for placement of advertising on "Army." Schine Closes Theatre The Schine circuit has closed the Bucyrus theatre in Bucyrus, O., for the remainder of the summer. SHORT PRODUCT PLAYING BROADWAY Week of August 16th ASTOR Dog House MGM The Lonesome Mouse MGM Feature: Best Foot Forward. .MGM CAPITOL Journey to Yesterday MGM Trifles That Win Wars MGM Feature: Stage Door Canteen. United Artists CRITERION Any Chickens Today? Universal Feature: We've Never Been Licked Universal GLOBE Three Cheers for the Girls. . Vitaphone Childhood Days Vitaphone Feature: Victory Through Air Power United Artists MUSIC HALL How to Fish RKO Feature: Mr, Lucky RKO PARAMOUNT Popular Science, No. 5 Paramount Speaking of Animals in Current Events Paramount Unusual Occupations, No. 5. Paramount Ration for the Duration .... Paramount Feature: Lefs Face It Paramount ROXY Black Marketing RKO Pandora's Box 20th Cent.-Fox Jungle Land 20th Cent.-Fox Feature: Heaven Can Wait 20th Cent.-Fox STRAND Gray, White and Blue Vitaphone Champions Train Champions. Vitaphone Feature -.The Constant Nymph.Warner Bros. No Scarcity of Projection Machine Parts, Says WPB War Production Board officials in Washington explained last weekend that there was no scarcity of projection machine parts, except for Powers machines which are obsolete, and assured exhibitors that materials are moving for a sufficient quantity of parts to keep all equipment in operation with that exception. The situation created by the breakdown of Powers projectors, it was said, would be cared for through a stockpile of equipment which is to be set up, and which would enable exhibitors with Powers machines to get replacements when their present equipment became entirely unserviceable. The problem of repair and replacement parts, it was stated, was met some months ago by the scheduling of a sufficient production to keep supplies moving in sufficient volume to prevent any theatre from having a breakdown of equipment. Holliman Prisoner of Japs Corporal Earl S. Holliman of Charlotte, N. C, who formerly managed the Imperial theatre there, is a prisoner of the Japanese somewhere in the Philippines, according to notice received through the International Red Cross by his mother, Mrs. S. F. Holliman. Service Men Get Film Eastman Kodak has donated 15,000,000 feet of 16mm positive film for motion pictures sent to TJ. S. service men throughout the world, according to an announcement from Rochester, N. Y., this week. Twentieth Century-Fox announced the first four releases of the 1943-44 season at the final session of the company's regional sales meetings, held last Friday at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. The pictures and release dates are : "Bomber's Moon," August 6th ; "Heaven Can Wait," August 13th; "Holy Matrimony," August 27th ; "Claudia," September 4th. The sales meetings came to a close following addresses by Spyros Skouras, president, who characterized the sessions held in New York, Chicago and on the west coast as the most successful sales convention in the history of the company ; Tom J. Connors, vice-president in charge of world wide distribution ; studio executives Joseph M. Schenck and Darryl F. Zanuck, and home office officials. Earlier at the Los Angeles regional, the company announced a schedule of 39 features, 41 shorts, 104 Movietone News issues and 13 March of Time subjects in its new season program. William J. Clark, short subjects sales manager, named the 20th-Fox shorts releases for August and September. Although no definite date has been designated as yet for "Three Sisters of the Moors," the two-reel special about the Bronte sisters, Mr. Clark discussed this film. Sir Cedric Hardwicke and Heather Angel star in the short, which Irving Pichel directed. The feature "Jane Eyre," starring Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine, is an important 20th-Fox release for the new season. It was announced this week that "Holy Matrimony," starring Gracie Fields and Monty Woolley, would be trade shown throughout the country, beginning Thursday, August 19th, with individual 20th-Fox exchanges making arrangements for the screenings in their own territories. In addition to Mr. Skouras and Mr. Connors, home office executives who attended the Los Angeles meeting, and then stopped off at Omaha en route to New York for the "Claudia" premiere on Thursday, included : Hermann G. Place, W. C. Michel, Sydney Towell, W. C. Gehring, Martin Moskowitz, Jack Sichelman, E. H. Collins, L. J. Schlaifer, Eugene McEvoy, W. J. Clark, Roger Ferri, George Roberts, Hal Home, Sam Shain, and Howard Black and John Wood of March of Time. Columbia Expects 1943 Gross To Equal 1942 Earnings Columbia Pictures' earnings for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1943, are expected to be about the same as the $1,611,659, equal to $3.84 a share on the common stock reported for last year, according to Wall Street sources. The net is expected to be kept down by an unfavorable excess profit tax base with gross income before taxes running nearly double the operating gross of 1942. Columbia announced that the board of directors had declared a dividend of 50 cents per share on the common stock, payable September 22nd to stockholders of record September 7th. Oil Film To Be Released A new Bureau of Alines educational film, "Petroleum and Its Uses," depicting the role played by petroleum and its products in the daily life of the average American family, has just been released for free distribution, Dr. R. R. Sayers, Director of the Bureau, has informed Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. The picture is in 16mm sound with a running time of 42 minutes.