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one week for production. Consequently, their release dates are determined in final form without recourse to a tentative schedule.
Paramount pictures are released on an average of one each week, with two released during one week in every four. This system does not always operate as planned, but as a general rule changes are infrequent. During the 1929-1930 season every fifth picture released by the company was a costly special.
This large number of expensive pictures was a direct result of the advent of talking pictures and the subsequent availability of stage stars, stage plays, musical comedies, and operettas. To insure its position in the motion picture industry, the Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation, as well as its competitors, purchased numerous stage successes and procured famous stage actors at high salaries. In the opinion of many of the company's executives, the production of a large number of costly specials is unwise. They believe that the market cannot absorb so many costly cinemas, and that as a result none of them will return the maximum possible income. At the present time, therefore, the number of this type of production has been reduced. Musical comedies and operettas, which are expensive to produce, are being used sparingly.
Because of the time element in musical pictures, immediate production and release are necessary for them. The time element is not so important in the case of dialogue plays; since the stage actors are under contract, however, the company cannot afford to delay production. It might withhold release of its dialogue pictures until a more opportune time, but in so doing it would risk the possibility of obsolescence due to the introduction of new devices. Furthermore, it would tie up large sums of working capital.
In addition to the release schedules for the first six months or first two quarters of the theatrical year, the studio cabinet prepares a tentative release summary for each of the four quarters. This schedule is based on the entire year's