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What a Picture Earns
Some interesting facts and figures concerning the huge sums of money which have been made by certain famous films.
By Alfred A. Cohn
The gross revenue done to date by "The Birth of a Nation" totals somewhere between two and three million dollars.
IT was the most eventful moment in the history of the company. The president had reported to the directors, with apologies profuse and almost tearful, that the unheard-of sum of eight thousand dollars had been spent on a single picture ! He had promised when chosen as head of the concern, he said, that there would be an economical administration of its affairs, and felt somewhat to blame for the extravagance of the director whose work had brought about this crisis, so much so, in fact, that he stood ready to reimburse the company for the outlay. In fact, he had a check already made out, and, if the necessary resolution was forthcoming, he would turn over the check and take possession of the picture with the view of seeing how much salvage he could get.
But he was not to make the sacrifice.
After a brief pause, one of t directors arose and declared that it's worth eight thousand to Laemmle, it's worth that much company."
So the Universal Company had on its hands a seven-reel photoplay that had Charles Ray's sad appearance mav be been directed by a young man that, up to the present, he has had named George Loane Tucker, share of the huge profits made by
He had started it as a two-reeler, but by the time he had finished shooting he found himself with a seven-reeler that seemed to defy further cutting. He had named it "Traffic in Souls."
That was back in 1913, about two years before Griffith gave the screen his "Birth of a Nation."
"Traffic in Souls" was the first American film that brought in "big money." Deducting exploitation and distribution costs, "Traffic in Souls," to pi'oduce which cost slightly less than eight thousand dollars, brought in net profits of something more than half a million dollars, perhaps the most money ever made by a film play in proportion to its cost.
Last year, according to figures compiled by experts, the people of the United States and Canada paid seven hundred million dollars to see "movies." Of this sum, something like seventyfive million dollars went to the producers. That is a tremendous sum as compared with the picture revenues of a decade ago, yet most of the movie millionaires got rich in the earlier days of the industry because of the bigger proportionate profits — although due to the fact several groups of producers have a verv small become millionaires during the tits pictures. past five years. But the "game"