Motion Picture Herald (Jul-Aug 1943)

20 MOTION PICTURE HERALD ON THE MARCH August 28, 1943 by RED KANN T HOLLYWOOD HERE is an encouraging air about Tom C. Clark and those interviews with the assistant attorney general in charge of the Government's anti-trust division which reflect his approach to November 20th. It is presupposed there is little or no need to explain this is the day on which the threeyear operation of the Consent Decree expires. Where Hollywood is concerned, the decree is like an exhibitor and a strange and unfamiliar something. Vaguely the realization is around, of course, that both are part of the business. The theatre man is a state of affairs attached to New York. That is to say, to distribution, whose worry or joy he is. The decree is an affair of state indefinably attached to Washington and a bewildering confusion of courtrooms and lawyers. Your cross-sectional Hollywood man does not understand what either is about. So far as he can calculate the decree, blocks of five or more or less haven't interfered with his ingrained manner of doing whatever he has to do. He makes the pictures, remains sensitive to Hollywood reactions, knows nothing about release dates or percentage terms. And doesn't care. Today, for instance, he knows theatre business is zooming and booming. He knows this in outline through reports which percolate from the hinterlands, like New York and Chicago, since foreign information does seep through in a measure, after all. More often than otherwise, he is quite convinced it is his picture that is a knockout because it is his — and in many instances, of course, it is — while ignoring or overriding blandly the abnormality in the general curve of grosses and the unvarnished of the matter, which is that today's values are false because they are inflated by circumstances. Happy, happy circumstances for the entire industry. There could be a danger in this. A very serious danger born of the hasty conclusion anything will continue to go since the public hasn't very much else to do in these days of gas rationing, shortening lines of liquor supplies and the overwhelming surge for entertainment as a surcease from war. At that, anything probably will until other days arrive. But it so happens this kind of opportunism must be operating subversively, if it is operating at all. For nothing in serious evidence has come down this columnist's pike to demonstrate its existence. The signposts, in fact, are all pointed in the other direction. Facts, from One to Three NOW, nothing new is added by observing next season's product will be bigger and better unless such a tired, old chromo can be polished into a bright shine with brisk evidence. The evidence may not be foolproof, and there is no intention of declaring it is. Yet it is evidence running in channels like these : It is definite fact No. 1 that every studio is hiking its production budget for 1943-44. It is not the wholesale case of spending more to make a greater number of attractions. Specifically, it is the reverse with Metro, Paramount, RKO, Twentieth CenturyFox and Warners, where more money will be spent to make fewer. At Columbia, Universal and Republic budgets are up, too, of programs pretty much geared numerically to the 1942-43 season. United Artists criss-crosses the line from one season into the next so that the situation there is consequently different although contributing producers are waxing elaborate over their plans, present and to come. Monogram and PRC, seeking to make progress modestly and in keeping with their limited resources, nevertheless are displaying signs of pushing toward the goal of better pictures. It is a definite fact No. 2 that valuable properties have been acquired in practically all directions. The published novel and the theatre once more are being fine-combed for the kind of material the studios believe can be translated into important attractions. High ceiling prices bear proof of this belief and sound the hope. It is definite fact No. 3 that unusual enterprise is being exercised in the avenues of safeguarding established star values by cloaking them with extreme care in equations of production values, supporting casts and vehicles. All of this reflects intention, in wholesale, to go places in the new season which were not reached during this one. It is inten tion which properly may be appraised in the light of determination to improve standards for twin and simple reasons : Better pictures pay off and bad ones don't; these times are demonstrating the roof on grosses is not yet in visible sight. Decree Versus Hollywood IF the operations of the decree had been responsible for some of these conditions, its fate after November 20th might arouse interest here. If the record had revealed trade showing the output in advance of sale had left an influence on subsequent production, the story might be different. But the three-year noble experiment of exhibitor attendance has been an indifferent performance for reasons sufficiently known to require no detailing here. The theoretical values in seeing what he buys, or does not buy, have been just that — theoretical. And, if the period after November 20th finds the decree rewritten in language which returns those full sweep blocks which once prevailed, it is a question whether reversion to that onetime state of affairs will find the five signatory companies altering their plans or their thinking. We doubt it. We doubt it because the factor of determination is most apt to be the current status of the market, not a method of selling which a rewritten decree may dictate. The so-called "Big Five" have been hearing the sweet tinkle of unheard of grosses. Part, but no one can analyze how much, as rolling on a wave of the period and not always on a wave of merit. Much rolls on the crest of slam-bang, big league attractions. Cut up the reason or keep it as one, the point is the extraordinary situation of extended playing time, holdovers and moveovers, has convinced the studios, as have been convinced their distributors, that their cut is bigger attractions sparingly released for long run, first run absorption. Theatres trailing the first runs won't cheer, but their grumbling won't help, either. No distributor today will dump his wares on the market in order to maintain a releasing schedule. He is controlled by the kind of product his studio supplies. He is also controlled by its public acceptance which, of course, is measured initially by first run playing time. In that sense, therefore, the distributor is controlled by existing key runs through which his merchandise must filter. Consequently, it appears a reasonable conclusion that full line sales will not change the production pattern nor will it speed up releases or increase their total as long as the present situation dominates. No Shortage on Ideas ACCORDING to the Herald's recent canvass of theatre opinion, exhibitors in an overwhelming 85 per cent prefer L to buy all at a clip, their convenience being accommodated thereby. That impresses as enough of a reason. For the rest of it, the five distributors, if tied again to the decree, would prefer the approximate status quo. The reasons are not hard to fathom. They get better terms, more percentage pictures in the higher bracket. A tidy 65 per cent recorded without hesitation their intention of leaping at the invitation of the Department of Justice to file a brief on patterns for revision. First contestant to reach the open with a detailed outline of what's on its mind is the PCCITO, which operates up and down the Pacific Coast. Its array of things which bother embraces questions which could contain a high degree of embarrassment for some in their replies. Interesting, indeed, is the manner in which many of the questions are drawn as to language. One illustrates many: "Explain in detail the effect on your theatre operation, if any, caused by distributors hoarding, or in any way withholding or relaying releases on many completed pictures. ( Note : This question has a definite bearing on the intent and purpose of the Consent Decree because the hoarding of feature pictures makes it absolutely necessary for practically every theatre to consume all major product released to maintain continuous theatre operation)". This presupposes the condition exists, ignores any considerations as to why it exists provided it does, and practically puts an answer on the exhibitor's typewriter or dripping from his pen.