Motion Picture Herald (Jul-Aug 1944)

0JV THE MAttCH 0'zww /•,„,•„ by RED KANN HOLLYWOOD THIS is the final half of a journey started here last week. Utopia is the destination with Audience Research, Inc., and George Gallup in charge of the tour. The terminus is a place where producers fall into no pitfalls, but, if they do, come up with the pearl necklace regardless. Polling the public on what it will or will not support is the key, in six stages of which four have been previously outlined. The fifth bears the name of Want-To-See Test. It's the crucial one, in that it asks the interviewed whether he wants to see a film under examination badly enough to pay for the privilege. Some say yes, some say no. Audience Research asserts it maintains a constant scale which reveals how low the response may go before the producer gets into trouble. That scale, too, is claimed to indicate a breakeven point and profit expectancy. In fact, AR insists its ultimate gross estimates on pictures it has analyzed have never missed by more than $100,000 on the , under side. Eyebrows up ? Some studies show an extremely low WantTo-See quotient but a high Publicity Penetration Test figure which is interpreted to reveal there is a sizeable ready-and-waiting audience that won't grow with time but might shrink with it. The advice here is to get going fast with fuss and day-and-date openings in a flock of cities, grab the money on the double and get away. On occasion, this kind of situation has been coupled with a step-up in admission prices, the theory there being those who want to come won't mind the added tap and nobody else will show up anyway. Too Low, Too High BUT if Publicity Penetration is low and Want-To-See is high, the calculation is plenty of people will buy tickets when they come to know about the film. This is the point at which AR urges routine release practice, generous use of class advertising techniques and reliance upon word-of-mouth publicity. Attractions that stand up for extended runs, prospering as they go, are cited to typify this category. Top hits, of course, are those that register high in both Publicity Penetration and Want-To-See. These various tests concluded, plus re-testing if held required, AR prepares to submit Sales Analysis, sixth operation on behalf of each picture in its test tubes. It is fashioned out of the findings of the five samplings with the man in the street and is designed to show the producer and distributor how to shape their advertising campaign to implement those findings. For instance, the attraction may include a lot of battle scenes at a time when there has been too much battle on celluloid or a love story already worn familiarly thin. But the hero may be a doctor, and that's a clue to important revenue because AR experience shows practically everyone in the land is ever and always interested in stories about doctors. So, the counsel is to put emphasis on the doctor, forget the battle scenes and soft pedal the love. Or, if an attraction is known to have substantial response from polled women, the advertising might well be pointed toward them. On the other hand, if feminine response has been substantial enough to suggest women will storm theatres anyway, as in the case of "Gone With the Wind" or anything else starring Clark Gable, there's reason then to direct advertising appeal at men. Or, if the polls throw their weight to the 18-to-30 age bracket, copy in the jive manner is suggested whereas sedate and literate copy, served up with some dignity, is indicated for a film of interest to the over-30 age bracket. So it goes. Audience Research, however, goes beyond individual pictures in an effort to acquire background data on the state of the public's mind and its purse strings. Maintained unrelentingly by regular and periodic checkup is star drawing power. Successive returns from pollings are compared and combined into a constantly changing record to reveal what stars are in public favor, who is sliding up or down and who is heading in either of those directions at the time of checkup. Herald-Fame Basis FOR something with which to start, back in 1937 when AR was organized, the organization turned to the Motion Picture Herald-Fame list of Money-Making Stars and tried it out on the public. The public — bless it— voted almost precisely the same ticket and has been doing so ever since, allowing for fluctuations traceable to the temporary influences of very good or very bad pictures. Steady checkup is maintained, as well, on the state of public fancy with respect to various types of entertainment. Currently, AR finds, there's a tremendous demand for musicals, which is hardly a startling conclusion. Back in January, 1942, in the wake of the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, the demand for war pictures rose to the dimensions of a clamor. AR maintains the cry subsided after a number of war films had reached circulation; yet held at high level for some months. It is twothirds of the way down from that level to zero now, or so AR insists. Under steady scrutiny, too, are attendance figures. But AR statistics are at decided variance with those widely accepted in the industry for some time now. Before the war boom put money into almost everyone's pockets there were 50,000,000 regular patrons per week and now there are about 55,000,000, according to AR, which also draws this conclusion : That the regulars go a little oftener, although not as frequently as a few months ago and are paying, on the average, a nickel more per trip. That it is these revisions upward which account for the swell of the total gross. These are deductions or conclusions apt to encounter pretty violent opposition among those who accept the Hays office estimate of 95,000,000. Surprising few is AR's finding that the 18to-30 age bracket principally supports exhibition. The over-;30 group it finds to be next in numerical importance, the 12-to-18 segment third and the 8-to-12 sector fourth. Exercising delicate caution, no one under eight is interviewed, while accepted in the accounting on the 0-to-12 group is parental control. These AR activities have captured attention in Hollywood. Present clients may be swelled by another major producer shortly. Negotiations with still another, abandoned and resumed, are off. There is collision again with the executive in charge of production. He always says he needs no help because he knows what the people want better than they do. Industry Effort In Loan Drive The end of July also brought an end to motion picture industry's participation in the F War Loan. On Friday, July 28, Robert U Donnell, national chairman of the industry eff stated publicly at New York headquarters that weeks of untiring effort and teamwork have r. duced outstanding results ... we are confid the total result will be a truly magnificent show for the industry." He added: "We appeal to those exhibitors who have as yet mailed in their official report to the Natic Committee, to do so immediately so we may able to report to the industry on the national resi as soon as possible. "For what the 'Fighting Fifth' army has accc plished toward blasting Hitler and Hirohito ; their forces of evil into oblivion, every 'Fight Fifth' showman deserves the everlasting gratit of our beloved country. "Men and Women of the 'Fighting Fifth' salute you ! |You have fought the good fight. "To all of you we humbly say: Nobly done!' Cash Delivered to Banks All cash collected by theatres, together with st of Bonds sold, were to have been delivered exhibitors to district Federal Reserve banks midnight Monday, July 31. Mr. O'Donnell 1 week urged exhibitors to meet this deadline that the sales might be tallied in the industr participation. He also asked exhibitors to fill their reports completely. Additional tributes to the workers of the indus in its Fifth War Loan participation, and to industry as a whole, came this week from Ne Ford, state chairman, New York War Final Committee, and Frederick Gehle, the Committe executive manager, both of whom spoke with i O'Donnell last Friday evening, at ceremonies New York's Time Square, marking the dismantli of the huge cash register, which had been site of Bond selling rallies garnished with "nan entertainment, and which had marked up day-1 day total Bond sales. Times Square Sales $2,471,624 The New York War Activities Committee rec oned this week that the register had been respc sible for selling, from June 13 through July . $1,599,601 worth of "E" bonds, "and %B72,Q2Z woi of other issues, a total of $2,471,624. Hollywood's stars touring the country for t Sixth War Loan, November 11 through Decern! 7, will have better traveling facilities, if Fran Harmon, executive vice-chairman of the WA succeeds in a current mission in Hollywood. Harmon is attempting to obtain for the sta special facilities similar to those available in t first Bond campaign in which the stars parti" pated. Mr. Harmon also is understood to attempting to line up a chairman for the industr participation in the new drive. Hopkins Returns to Columbia As Industrial Relations Head William K. Hopkins, who had been region director of the War Manpower Commission, on leave of absence from Columbia, returned to Cc umbia this week in the newly created post of c rector of industrial and public relations. Former in the studio labor contact department, Mr. Ho kins now will represent executive management relations with Federal, state and local gover ments, private agencies and individuals. Ace Film Lab Sets Award _ Ac"e Film Laboratories, a Warner Bros, sul sidiary, has been presented with a Merit Awai by the Brooklyn Chapter of the American R< Cross for outstanding contributions to the Re Cross blood bank and for surgical dressings. 16 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, AUGUST 5, 194