Motion Picture News (Mar-Apr 1923)

Motion Pktrae News The Producer EXHIBITORS, in general, view the producer through a long-distance lens. Perhaps a close-up — such as we experienced w ith one at lunch last week — will be instructive. About a producer's responsibility, for instance — the burden he carries. * * * Suppose you — an exhibitor — had the responsibility of planning five, ten, twenty, forty — or more pictures for next season. And the distributor was sitting astride your shoulders with the heavy mandate — " make 'em to sell — make 'em to sell — make 'em to sell! " It's perfectly natural for the distributor to shout this way, you know. He's got to sell these pictures to you. * * * And, certainly, it is logical to assume that the distributor gets his selling cue from you. When he shouts — demands, is the word — " make 'em to sell," he means : " make them the way the exhibitors want them made." You are the man on the firing line. You want what the public wants — and what you want the distributor wants — and so on back to the producer. That's the way the pressure goes. So in reality the responsibility is yours — as to what the public gets. * * * Now, the producer has a very uneasy feeling that the public isn't getting altogether what it wants. He knows pretty well that the run of pictures today are in a rut. Their crying weakness is sameness. And the public is fed up on this sameness — sameness of themes, faces, situations and treatment. Pretty nearly everyone — public, newspapers and picture people — knows that. The producer feels the urge to try something different. But — the distributor says : "Don't; I've got to sell the different picture to the ex hibitor and it's tough sledding. I don't want the job." So, we reiterate, the producing problem goes back to you. You determine it. If you want stars and the high cost of them, names and the high cost of them, stock stories and situations — you are going to get them. Some pretty wise people have said that the public doesn't know what it wants. Which is largely true. So the probability is that you don't know. At any rate, it's not wise to be cock-sure that you do know. And it's possible that when you think of your public you are thinking of those who come readily to your theatre. How about that larger portion of your community who don't come often or at all? Do you know what they want? jfc 5j{ jjS * We hold pretty firmly to the belief that the finer picture — which is generally the different picture — will go strong if you get the word of it to the public you don't know about. We published an article last week showing conclusively that this type of picture went well over the box office profit mark when the women of the community got back of it, which simply means good advertising effort. There's a big, practical message in that article. Turn back to the March 17th issue of Motion Picture News and read it, if you haven't already. *{* 4? *fc If we are to have more of these different pictures— pictures of fresh and finer creative work — you have got to sell them to the public if you expect the producer to make them for the distributor to sell to you. Vol. XXVII APRIL 7, 1923 NO 14