Motion Picture News (Oct 1913 - Jan 1914)

28 THE MOTION PICTURE NEWS A. d."v €* t t i s in<£ Pict— ° MUCH has been said under this heading and much more is to be said as long as many persons and managers are working their brains to find something new to catch the attention of the theatregoers. Motion pictures are not a necessity; motion pictures are a luxury. In any town of the United States, the butchers, bakers and grocers do not spend as much money in a showwindow and are not as courteous, because we need their goods for our daily wants, as the jeweler, the art store man and the fancy goods dealer. These men are far more courteous and spend much more money on their show-windows, because they deal in goods that are not a necessity but a luxury. Consequently they must tempt the patrons. Ugly Posters Do Not Make For Success Motion pictures are not only a luxury but there is much competition. Consequently it is not the man that spends the most money in defacing the exterior of his theatre with ugly posters and dirty banners that will win. Success will come to the man who conducts a refined show and who knows how to make a name for himself and for his theatre. I was led to write these lines after my visit at the Regent theatre of New York, as the great success of S. L. Rothapfel is a real lesson. Mr. Rothapfel does not need to have ugly, dirty, ragged banners stretched over the entrance of the beautiful Regent theatre, nor does he need for numerous posters to deface the sidewalk and lobby. No. He does not need to spend money in this direction because his patrons come directly to his theatre without stopping to look at the posters. They leave the train at the subway station and shoot for the Regent. They come on street cars, in carriages, in automobiles or on foot and all, without exception, enter the lobby, purchase their tickets and walk in, without stopping to look at the very few posters. There is a reason. Mr. Rothapfel made a name and a reputation for the Regent in less than a month. Such a reputation that persons from Brooklyn and other distant points, travel the long distance to St. Nicholas avenue to enjoy a real motion picture show. Everyone knows that Mr. Rothapfel does not only show the best pictures, but he is the master in the art of projecting them and of adapting the proper music. This is not all. Mr. Rothapfel has made of the Regent theatre a most comfortable rendezvous for the lovers of moton pictures and his attendants are extremely courteous. Rothapfel's Success a Lesson The success of Mr. Rothapfel knocks to pieces the argument of certain exhibitors who claim that a show must be advertised with an overdose of ugly and sensational posters. My advice is: "Deliver the goods and you will succeed." An exhibitor from a small town of 6,000 inhabitants called on me for an advice. He charges an admission of ten cents and has one competitor. He claims that he is making no money. I investigated the case and found that he made no money because he did not deliver the goods. He shows six reels for ten cents or thirty-six reels per week and he pays $30 for such a service. Anyone will know that you cannot get thirty-six decent reels for $30. They must be very old, full of rain storms and scratches. No one wants to pay ten cents to see such a bunch of old junk, but they wait to go to the next town to visit a motion picture theatre. This exhibitor is a great believer in advertising schemes, he makes an abuse of posters, has a weekly "County Fair Store," souvenirs, and so on. My advice to this man is: Use the $6 you spend weekly for cheap groceries for your county fair store to hire a decent, clean and courteous young man to act as the usher. Transfer to your film service all the money you spend foolishly on posters, handbills, souvenirs and other such advertising schemes and you will increase your receipts. Quality Before Quantity With a four-hundred-seat house, two shows per evening at a ten-cent scale, he should have a daily patronage of 500 persons or $50. This would give him for the six days of the week, something like $300, and with such receipts, you should be able to pay no less than $90 for your six reels. I would even advise cutting the show down to four reels or twenty-four reels per week for the same price of $90. The public does not call for long programmes, ^hey prefer the quality to the quantity and when they will find that you give them, in their own town, a show equal to what they can see in other towns, they will patronize your theatre. You can bluff the public once in a while and then to just a certain limit. The same rules apply to other industries. Some manufacturers are making no headway; they are wasting their time and energy and the patience of their creditors in futile advertising schemes to force their goods on the market. Evidently they make some sales. This is their misfortune because these sales keep them alive, keep them hoping against hope, keep them in a constant state of agony, until the day comes when the creditors refuse to give more time and force the manufacturer to the wall. Why? Because the manufacturer does not deliver the goods. He is a shrewd advertiser. His clever advertisements catch a few customers daily, but his goods make him no name, no reputation. Build For To-morrow Other manufacturers are making fortunes because they deliver the goods. Their advertisements sold them their first goods and as the goods gave satisfaction, the first customers made new ones. > Do not be so foolish as to believe that you must not consider to-morrow. Such a poor policy may hold good in a locality with a continuous transient trade, but will prove the ruin of the manager who has to depend on a purely local patronage. You must build your trade for tomorrow and not for to-day. If you have to lose something on your show to-day, be cheerful, pocket the loss and when your patrons will realize that your policy is to give them a good, clean show, they will reward you with a daily patronage and in the future you will reap a harvest. J. M. B.