Motion Picture News (Jan-Feb 1922)

3S4 Motion Picture News VALUABLE SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO “SEE IT THROUGH" Herewith are presented the experiences of other exhibitors who, finding themselves face to face with decreased patronage, took steps to “ weather the storm.” Other articles on hand will be presented in the next two or three issues of Motion Picture News, following which the prize winners of the contest will be announced. Confidence The small word confidence plays a great part in our every day life. It plays a part in the life of a producer, a distributor and most of all, the exhibitor because he sells the picture to the public. The Reese theatre, with a seating capacity of six hundred, is successfully weathering the storm. In fact, the attendance has been increasing instead of decreasing. The only answer to that is because of the single word, “ CONFIDENCE.” Any exhibitor can gain the confidence of the public if he will only give them good pictures and prove to them that he is giving them the best that the town or city will afford. Work with the public, you will find that they will work with you. Show the merchants in your 'dity the value of window displays and tie-ups with your theatre. Once you have done this they will have confidence in you. Work with the public, work with the merchants, and you will find you have the two best advertisers in the world. Just put yourself in the same position as that of the public. You have some business to attend to but it is not so very important. You walk along the street and you come to a theatre. You glance at the display of photographs, one sheets, etc. You have never heard of the star or the title of the picture billed but you know that the theatre has the reputation of using the best pictures and are trying to please you. You go to the box-office, deposit your admission price and go in with the feeling that you are going to have an enjoyable evening. That is confidence, otherwise you would have walked on and attended to that unimportant business and thought no more of the theatre showing the picture with the unknown star or title. About two years ago I booked a group of pictures and one of these pictures, I knew, was punk. The review in the News said that, also several other reviews in other trade journals. Nevertheless, to get the other pictures I had to use this one. When I played it I advertised it as the rottenest picture ever exhibited in Harrington. I also explained the reason why I had to use it. The consequence was that I had a good house. The public had confidence in me in knowing that I was not trying to pull one across on them and they decided that they could stand just one real bad picture and thus the result. Do not try to fool the public, because you are liable to get fooled yourself. ’Tis true, I have had to economize in these days of exorbitant rentals, but never on the film in such a way that it would decrease its entertainment value. Instead of that I found that I could economize on the advertising end. It pays to advertise. Yes; go to it, but any man with a little business judgment and common sense can economize and obtain the same results. In the summer I ran a Popular Lady Contest which increased my business thirty per cent. The contest lasted exactly ten weeks and it cost me fifteen dollars for voting blanks and advertising. We have a weekly newspaper in our town, and before I used a space which cost me an average of eight dollars an insertion on back page. Am now using short readers and teasers in the local and personal column which cost me an average of four dollars and fifty cents per insertion and am getting the very same results, if not better. Instead of a weekly program, my program now covers two weeks of pictures, a great saving and answering the same purpose. I also use the program for my mailing list, instead of a special printed herald or card, and by doing this I save about ten dollars and seem to be getting the very same results. I used two thousand, n x 14 two-page heralds for each showing, which cost me eight dollars and fifty cents a thousand. Now I am using the mouth to mouth system of advertising with better results. I have about ten kids each day patrolling the streets asking friends and strangers if they are going to see the picture at the Reese theatre on a certain date. They then give them a small card, the exact size of a business card, giving the name of picture, a brief description, name of theatre, and date of exhibition. These cards cost me two dollars and fifty cents per thousand and a complimentary for each one of the kid advertisers. Thus another great saving. There are various other ways that any exhibitor can economize, but whatever way you economize, do not lessen the quality of your entertainment. If you do the public will soon get wise and lose their confidence in you and your theatre. Once you lose that one small word in the public’s mind — Good Night. The same thing applies to the producer or distributor; if he is asking a film rental that is too high in your estimation, show him where he is wrong, win his confidence and nine times out of ten he will split with you. Under these principles the Reese theatre is “ Seeing it Through.” By gaming confidence we are ever gaining dollars at the box-office. Board the good ship “ CONFIDENCE ” with the public at the wheel and you will weather the storm successfully. Reese B. Harrington, Reese Theatre, Harrington, Delaware. Increase Business, Scates ’ Only Solution To the very small-town exhibitor, who, figuratively, is cranking his machine with one hand while he sells tickets with the other, the only solution to the question of cutting down expenses is to increase receipts for usually his expenses are already at a minimum. This is a town of 1,000, in a new irrigated section of Washington. We have never had any “ good times ” but have had to scratch hard from the start to make things go so the present so-called hard times are no shock to us. We seized on Paramount Week as one big opportunity. Any other “ week ” will do. We have made this week an institution here. Plenty of time in advance we book seven changes of program, although we ordinarly change but four times. We select proven successes, that have made good, not just “big” pictures. Season tickets, covering the entire week and also others good for four shows are issued at a reduced price and sold in advance. We have done this four years with consistent success. We, of course, put on an aggressive advertising campaign. Selling season tickets enabled us last year to starve out a stock company, which in turn had starved out the picture houses in neighboringtowns. In order to stimulate business in the dull season following New Year’s we have just completed a campaign which will insure us at least one very profitable matinee a week, during January', February and March. We started a community movement which provides that the merchants of the town pay us a stipulated sum per week. In return we issue each merchant tickets as he desires to be given only to people living outside the town. A farmer looking over the stores of the town for the first time finds that he can attend the show free and does not even have to purchase anything. We had no trouble whatever in getting the merchants to sign up.