Motion Picture News (Oct 1913 - Jan 1914)

THE MOTION PICTURE NEWS "SELLING OUT" IN SPAIN ^5 BY ROBERT CARLTON BROWN KING ALFONSO has to ride in motor-cars and drink champagne, so the poor devils who work for twenty or forty cents a day have to pay. Somebody has to pay, and because the King is perfectly democratic he doesn't pick out one man or one class to pay his crown-maker's bills, he makes everybody pay. The poor motion picture exhibitor in Spain has to come up with fifteen per cent, of his entrance money so the King can have pate de foies gras and nightingales' tongues. It's fine for the King, but tough for the exhibitor. Perhaps the heavy tax imposed on all theatre seats throughout Spain is the reason why the field is not better covered. A town of fifty thousand gets along with one picture show, and it feels very gay if it can support two. Over every box office is hung a card bearing prices of admission. Translated into American, the sign reads like this : Box for 5 people, $1.20, including Government tax of 18c. Orchestra seat, 16c. Government tax, 234c. extra. Balcony seat, 8c. Government tax, lj^c. Balance of balcony, 6c. Government tax, lc. General admission, 5c. Government tax, lc. "Nigger Heaven," 2^c. Government tax, y2c. There are hardly any new motion picture theatres in Spain. Most exhibitors lease an old theatre, big and barnlike, and charge the regular theatre prices of Spain, which are very low, the best seats selling for about 20 cents and the cheapest for 2^c. With such a house on an exhibitor's hands he has a puzzling question before him: How to fill it? * * * * THERE is practically no such thing as 'selling out" in Spain. An exhibitor is lucky if he fills the bleachers and sells one-tenth of his best seats at one performance a day. There are good days, however, which bring up the balance of the year. Like Italians, the Spaniards have a feast day frequently, and on those days the people expend themselves and go to the theatres. But the ones who are the chief patrons at the picture shows prefer to pay from two to five cents for their pleasure, and that kind of trade is obviously not highly desirable. Another peculiarity of the Spaniards is the selection of one day in the week to do things right. Each theatre has one, or perhaps two popular nights, when everybody goes, and the house can stay dark for the rest of the week for all the Spaniards care. A family party of five or six will pick out a Friday night to go to the picture show at the Cafe Imperial, let us say. They tell their friends what a good show they saw and suggest that their friends go next Friday night. The friends do, and after five or six years a custom is established. Everybody who is anybody in the Cafe Imperial class goes there on Friday night, but you couldn't tempt them into the place on any other night by any inducement. If you offered the best three-reel feature obtainable you'd play to an empty house until Friday night, when business would suddenly pick up and you'd have your house half full. In Spain that is called "the correinte thing." One big night a week for one show, and that's all. Everything moves slowly in Spain, and the usual program begins at eight o'clock and lasts till twelve. It is wearisome and long drawn out, but that's the way the people like it. They'll sit through an hour of sporty French films that have been dumped into Spain at bargain prices, and then they'll look just as_ patiently and calmly at a big feature film from America which cost real money. As a matter of fact, the picture show of Spain corresponds with the old-fashioned show of six or eight years ago in America, except that some of the more progressive places have Pathe's Weekly and American features. But this ex penditure of money seems to be unnecessary; it doesn't draw much bigger crowds or attract much more attention than a modest outlay in worn-out films from the Continent. The people want time-worn "chase" pictures, where the nurse flirts with the cop and the baby carriage starts rolling downhill. They think that's awfully funny, and to make sure that the people get it the word "Comica" is usually flashed on the screen before the picture is shown. The Spaniards like trick pictures and funny love stories. ^ -fa T T is doubtful if a Spanish audience will want the higher A class of film productions for a good many years to come. They are illiterate as a class, the majority of them can't read or write, and a film which needs words or titles to explain it is never well received, except in the very best houses. The few people who can read the titles repeat them out loud, and those who can't read don't like the picture because it shows up their ignorance. Something simple and predigested is just their speed. A live American with a collection of undesirable left-overs of a vintage ten years back could doubtless take them to Spain and make a bunch of money out of them, but for the up-to-date manufacturer the field is still a virgin one, and is apt to remain so until the people quit going to cock-fights and bull-fights. A good exchange could be established in Spain, however. At present the business is not organized, exhibitors get films where they can or subscribe to some inadequate service. There is really a good opening for the right exchange man, and a few manufacturers are beginning to realize it. After all, in spite of the Government tax, Spanish people like the theatre. They must have it, just the same as they must have wine and black cigarettes. As long as this demand exists, and there seem to be plenty of Spanish exhibitors willing to take a chance, the exchange man ought to have the field well covered. Since time began it has been the custom here to have three or four short performances a night in the theatre, but the motion picture exhibitors seemed to think they weren't giving enough for the money, so they started the four-hour session. If pictureplays could be given on the same session scheme of the theatres they would be more money in it. Some exhibitors have tried this, but in a faint-hearted way, and they have included vaudeville acts, which helped eat up the profits. Vaudeville as an adjunct to pictures is fairly popular and profitable here. The people like singing and dancing, and very good artists can be found at very low prices. The house which makes the most money is one which gives four shows a night and includes vaudeville. Spaniards don't like the daytime, because the sun is so hot, so performances begin at eight o'clock and last much later than they do in America, and matinees are out of the question, except one on Sunday as late as four or five o'clock in the afternoon. The sessions last from an hour to an hour and a half, and the last one begins at 11 :30 or midnight. Rent is low, and music wouldn't cost much if it wern't for the fact that the audience is accustomed to a whole orchestra even at a picture show and can't get along without it. * ■ * . * * THERE are very few local pictures shown. Perhaps if more films were manufactured in Spain, by the Spaniards and for the Spaniards, business would be on the boom. Pathe and Kleine-Cines both have stock companies in Spain, but most of the pictures taken are for foreign consumption. What is needed most is a film favorite or two for the masses. They have a confusion of actors and actresses from other countries, but no native player to interpret their feelings for them in pic(Continued on page 49)