The Moving picture world (September 1923-October 1923)

September 8, 1923 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 133 As Paramount Views Its New Policy IN connection with the new Paramount booking policy announced • m u advertising pages of this issue the following statement outlining the evolution of the new selling plan from the earliest days of Famous Players-Lasky was issued by the film company : "The time has gone by in this industry when there can be any compromise between the good picture and the bad. The time has gone by when exhibitor, should be asked to or should buy on a plan that no longer tits the needs of today.'' The current announcement by Paramount of its new plan selling its product constitutes the longest step forward ever taken in all the history of the distribution of motion pictures. It is more than the turning of the right angle which marks the course of a new road leading straight away from the old. It is the arrival at a goal. Seemingly the most radical and revolutionary change of policy that the industry has yet experienced, nevertheless it is the logical and inevitable result of a course laid straight to definite achievement. The Beginning of Distribution Let us go back to the beginning. The distribution of motion pictures as a commercial product had its inception when the first little arcade down on Fourteenth Street aroused sufficient public curiosity through its exhibition of "The Great Train Robbery"— or was it an earlier film?— to excite the envy and cupidity of other speculators in entertainment. Store shows sprang up like mushrooms all over New York City, soon to be followed by similar bandboxes of amusement in other cities. The new form of entertainment swept over the country like a tidal wave and it was not long before the numerous companies then engaged in the manufacture of pictures sought a solution of the rapidly increasing problem of distribution in the formation of the General Film Company. Through this clearing house, or rather through its various branches, films were distributed at a flat rental, so many reels for so much. Exhibitors had to take what they were sent, regardless of the merit of the product. This condition prevailed until the formation by Adolph Zukor of the Famous Players Film Company and the placing of "Queen Elizabeth" on the market. This production was sold on what was soon to be widely known as the State Rights plan. The State Rights buyers in turn sold the picture to exhibitors in their respective territories for whatever they could get. This virtually forced General Film to revise its feature policy to the extent of setting an individual price on each picture, the final rental figure being determined by the age of the film at the time of booking. Made Position Secure The success of "Queen Elizabeth" made the position of Famous Players secure. Production was started on a large scale and the company soon had thirty pictures to offer through its States Rights distributors. These thirty productions were sold in block at a uniform price regardless of the size of the theatre or the size of the city. By this time Jesse L. Lasky, Cecil B. DeMille and their associates had the Jesse Lasky Feature Play Company well under way. This company's product was marketed in practically the same manner that Famous Players had followed and was distributed on the State Rights plan for the most part through the same men who were handling the Famous Players pictures. The need of exhibitors for a permanent and dependable source of supply and the desirability of a permanent outlet for the product of the Famous Players and Laskv companies led to the formation, in 1914, of the Paramount Pictures Corporation. Longterm contracts were made with Famous Players, Lasky and Bosworth, Inc., and thus was established the largest and most successful company ever engaged exclusively in the distribution of pictures. Franchises were held by the most prominent of the former State Rights distributors of Famous Players and Lasky features. On August 31, 1914, Paramount, blazing another new trail, inaugurated a policy which was to endure for three years and which marked another milestone in distribution progress. Contracts were entered into with exhibitors on the basis of a full year's output, at a flat rental per week, each contract carrying a thirty-day cancellation provision. Two features were released every week and a total of 306 features were issued under this plan. This was a long step forward, but the fact that exhibitors were still required to play pictures contracted for without advance knowledge of their character or merit was still a bar to complete amity between exhibitors and distributors. The uniform excellence of the Paramount output, however, promoted satisfaction to the extent that Paramount prestige was firmly established for all time. Determining Picture's Merit But how were exhibitors to be relieved of the necessity of buying pictures of undetermined merit? That question was answered, partially at least, by the introduction of the Star Series system, another innovation for the benefit of exhibitors, devised to distribute the pictures starring Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and George M. Cohan. At last exhibitors were able to buy in advance a proved box-office asset represented by the personality of a famous star. They were able to contract for blocks of pictures starring individuals of their choice, each block by itself. They could take all of a certain star's pictures or none at all, as they chose. This was in 1916, the year that saw the formation of the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, of which the Paramount and Artcraft distributing organizations soon became a part. For two years, starting, in September, 1917, all Paramount and Artcraft pictures were sold by the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation thus in series with this exception : Fifty-two outstanding successes previously released were reissued, one a week throughout the year 1918-19, and sold in block on their proved exhibition merit. In 1919, after months of careful planning, the Selective Booking policy, another departure in the selling of pictures, was announced and came into full effect with the first releases of September of that year. Under this system exhibitors were able to pick whatever pictures they desired to, each picture being sold individually at its own price. For the first year under this plan sales covered the full year's output, but Ask your projectionist if he is using the new Griffith Lens Chart. If he is burning carbons this chart will enable him to secure the very best screen results with the equipment he is using. See page 195. later the pictures were sold in periods ranging from three to six months. Radical as this advanced policy seemed at the time. Paramount went even further in its assistance to exhibitors by establishing the Paramount exploitation department, the services of which were placed at the disposal of exhibitors to assist them in getting the maximum of revenue from the pictures they had booked. In May, 1922, the industry was startled by Paramount's announcement of the "Famous Forty-One." It was the most revolutionary thing ever laid before the motion picture trade. Behind it lay a marvelous story of production achievement. Forty-one productions had been planned to the last detail as to stories, directors, stars, scenario writers and players. Many of them had been entirely completed, others were well along in production and the remainder were at an advanced stage of preparation. These fortyone were to be the Paramount pictures released during the first six months of the season 1922-23. Similarly, the "Super ThirtyNine" filled the schedule for the balance of the season. At last the exhibitor knew approximately what he was going to get. No Price on Picture And now comes the last word. From November 1 on, no price will be placed upon a Paramount picture and no exhibitor will be asked to book it until the exhibition value has been proved by the public. Mere screening of a picture is held to be not enough,, as then the exhibition value is a matter of individual opinion. But by showing the picture to the public the real box-office value is determined by the ruler of both the exhibitor and the distributor— the public itself. Here at last is the goal toward which Paramount has been steadily advancing from the very beginning, the goal of mutual understanding between exhibitor and distributor where each may have the satisfaction of knowing that he is both giving and receiving a fair deal. To quote again from the statement : "We shall not expect for any picture more than it is worth. But after we have demonstrated it, neither shall we expect the exhibitor to try to buy it for less than its true value to him." Surely, this is going to make it "more possible for good pictures to succeed and less possible for bad pictures to be made." Foreign Business Fine Hammons, Sailing for Europe, Says Short Subject Field There Excellent E. W. Hammons, president of Educational Film Exchanges, Inc., sails from New York on September 3 on his annual visit to confer with his associates abroad. Mr. Hammons will be gone for about six weeks. Most of his time will be spent in London, where he will ma'<e arrangements for the handling of the large program of short subjects which he recently announced for Educational. "Foreign business on short subjects has never been better," said Mr. Hammons. "and at the present time the releasing schedule on Educational'* product in the United Kingdom and parts of Continental Europe is practically up with our domestic release schedule. "The thirty per cent, increase in our product will make necessary considerable extensions in our foreign connections, and we confidently look forward to our biggest year in foreign lands." Charles Christie, general manager of the Christie Film Company, producing Christie Comedies for Educational, is at present in London, where he will meet Mr. Hammons.