Motion Picture Herald (May-Jun 1944)

[COMPANIES TO OFFER 26 BIG ILMS THIS SUMMER Warm Weather Releases to Keep Pace with Mounting Box Office Receipts Summer fare offered to exhibitors this year, ccording to release plans of the major comanies, will equal or exceed the number of top A" films distributed last year during June, uly and August. The release of better pictures .uring the summer is a direct result of the harply climbing grosses of the last three years. ;-L Tentatively scheduled for distribution by ; companies are 26 big-budget pictures with ippropriate advertising and publicity campaigns via radio, newspapers and magazines. \t least two of the 26 productions, David O. Selznick's "Since You Went Away" and Twentieth Century-Fox's "Wilson," will be aunched in mid-summer on a road show )asis prior to general release. Musicals, omances and comedies predominate in the ineup. Last summer's box office business hit a ecord peak, as shown by the Internal Reveue Bureau's admission tax receipts. In June, f 1943, total receipts were $15,750,519; inreasing in July to $16,178,306, dropping in August to $13,926,347, and then shooting upard in September to $16,499,395. ?igures Showed Increase )ver Summer of 1943 These figures showed an improvement over the admission tax receipts for the same months in 1942. In June of that year, the figure was 512,484,881; July, $12,436,304; August, $13,662,337, and September $14,694,997. These monthly totals showed a sharp increase over !the business done in the winter months, as illustrated in the graph. The tax receipts for ['December, 1941, were $11,355,639, dropping to $9,769,398 in January, 1942 then rising to $10,592,455 in February and $10,788,463 in March. Despite the gasoline and tire rationing of the last two years, which forced civilians to stay home and reduced community transportation schedules, the increased public income resulting in increased spending has been responsible for the sharp rise of the box office since the war. Before gasoline and tire rationing, attendance at film theatres annually fell off during the summer. For example, the May, 1939, figure of $1,605,987 in admission tax receipts decreased to $1,534,250 in July and dropped to S1,513,468 in August of that year. In May, 1940, the tax receipts were $1^791,095, drop ' ping to $1,650,162 in July of that year. Better Product Is Now Available in Summer Prior to Pearl Harbor, exhibitors generally | did not book high budget films since summer 1 1 receipts did not warrant percentage deals. However, since the war, distributors have made available for summer programs the product which normally would have been held for new season releases. This was demonstrated last year, when approximately 25 top-budget productions were released during June, July and August. Analysis of release schedules . and tentative plans for the three months ending the 1943-44 . MOTION PICTURE HERALD, MAY 13, 1944 $16,500,000 16,000,000 15,500,000 15,000,000 14,500,000 14,000,000 13,500,000 13,000,000 12,500,000 12,000,000 11 ,500,000 11 ,000.000 10,500,000 10,000,000 .9 ,500,000 A 1 — i * 1 —1 y S \ — / / 1 — f I \ \ — // I —t -V 1 / -/ f / 1 -f 1 -J— I / 7 'A \ ) 1 — ADMISSION TAX collections, reflecting grosses for three periods, are compared in the graph above. The broken line represents the figures for June, July, August and September, 7943; the thin so/id line those for the same months of 1942, and the heavy solid line those for November-December, 7947, and January-February, 7942. season indicates there will be no letdown in product standards this summer. The company schedules follow : COLUMBIA June releases : "Address Unknown," with Paul Lukas ; "They Live in Fear" ; "Secret Command," formerly "Pilebuck," with Pat O'Brien and Ruth Warrick ; "The Last Horseman" ; "She's a Soldier, Too." July: "Mr. Winkle Goes to War," starring Edward G. Robinson. Tentatively set for summer release : "The Loves of Madame Sand," formerly "At Night We Dream," starring Paul Muni and Merle Oberqn, based on the life of George Sand and Chopin ; "Battleship Blues," a Kay Kyser musical. These two top-budget films wili be augmented by "UBoat Prisoner," "Crime Doctor," No. 3, and "Louisiana Hayride." METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER MGM's seventh block of five films with "Gaslight," starring Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer and Joseph Cotten, and "Two Girls and a Sailor," the Jimmy Durante musical, as block leaders, brings the company releases through June. With "The White Cliffs of Dover" ready for release, the company probably will set "Bathing Beauty," appropriate summer film, and possibly "American Miracle" and "The Canterville Ghost," in its next block, although no announcement has been made. PARAMOUNT With block five of the season, including "Double Indemnity" and "The Hitler Gang" bringing Paramount releases through June, the company tentatively has set "Hail the Conquering Hero" for July. "Going My Way," starring Bing Crosby, just began its release. "Take It Big," comedy, is set for August 4; "Henry Aldrich's Little Secret," August 25 ; "I Love a Soldier," with Paulette Goddard and Sonny Tufts, September 1, and "Till We Meet Again, starring Ray Milland and Maureen O^Hara, September 15. REPUBLIC "Minstrel Man" and "Spook Town" are Republic's two June releases. According to present plans, the company will release "Storm Over Lisbon" in July, followed by another top "A" film, "Man From Frisco" and the Roy Rogers special, "Song of Nevada." Pre-release engagements for the "A" musical, "Atlantic City," may be set in mid-summer. RKO RADIO With Eddie Cantor's production, "Show Business," starring the comedian, leading its fifth block of the season, carrying RKO's releases through June, the company has not yet announced its summer releases. TWENTIETH CENTURYFOX Several big-budget films are included in the lineup of summer release : "Roger Touhey, Gangster," probably for July ; "Eve of St. Mark," for June ; "Home in Indiana" and "Ladies in Washington," both for July. Darryl Zanuck's production, "Wilson," will be released in mid-July at advanced admissions. "Pin Up Girl," now in distribution, may be considered a summer release. UNITED ARTISTS At least four top productions will be offerc this summer, it is indicated, in addition to Vanguard film, "Since You Went Away," w will be sold at advanced admissions. Jules Lev "The Hairy Ape" probably will reach th^ sometime in July. Edward Small's "Up in o bel's Room," now in distribution, is another surfk mer release. Andrew Stone's musical, "Sensations of 1945," Charles Rogers' "Song of the Open Road" and Seymour Nebenzal's "Summer Storm" are other summer possibilities. According to Neil Agnew, vice-president of Vanguard Films, the Selznick organization, through UA, will reissue two Selznick pictures in July. They are "Rebecca," starring Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier, originally distributed in 1940 by UA, and "Intermezzo," starring Ingrid Bergman in her screen debut in this country, and the late Leslie Howard, distributed by UA in 1939. UNIVERSAL Tentative plans call for release of three "A" pictures : "Ghost Catchers," the Olsen and Johnson comedy; "This Is the Life," starring Donald O'Connor and Susanna Foster, and "Christmas Holiday," with Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly. In addition, the company will release this summer : "Twilight on the Prairie," comedy; "Invisible Man's Revenge," mystery; "Allergic to Love," comedy with Martha O'Driscoll ; "South of Dixie," comedy; and "Jungle Woman," melodrama, with Evelyn Ankers and Richard Davis. "Follow the Boys," Universal's all-star musical, is in release. WARNER BROS. Set for June release is "Make Your Own Bed," comedy with Jack Carson and Jane Wyman ; for July, "Mask of Dimitrios," mystery, with Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre. Continuing its onepicture-a-month release policy, Warners will distribute "Arsenic and Old Lace," starring Cary Grant, probably in August. This is the film which the studio completed about two years ago and which has been on the backlog awaiting release since that time. Special key run engagements of "Adventures of Mark Twain" are now being scheduled. Monogram and PRC Pictures have set dates through June but have not yet announced July or August releases.