Showmen's Trade Review (Jul-Sep 1940)

The Defense Tax Without much time to analyze the new tax and how to handle it in conjunction with any price increase, the meas' ure was enacted and became a law effective on July 1st. From all indications practically every theatre is adding the tax to admissions. Which is exactly as it should be because theatres are entirely justified in so doing. However, and as previously discussed on this page, the new tax makes it possible for many theatres to add a few pennies to the tax to bring the total admission to a round figure. By so doing they are able to effect a fractional increase in their admissions and benefit accordingly. It will amaze many theatremen, especially those in the smaller situations, to find how those few pennies add up over the course of a week. So much so that not a few theatres will find those extra pennies the difference between profit and loss for the summer months. Some theatremen tell us, however, that they are only going to add the exact amount of the tax until the early fall and then tack on the other few pennies to round out the admission price. Thus, they say, the increase will be so gradual that few if any patrons will offer objections or voice complaint. Whichever way you do it, we urge that it be done. If there is the remotest chance of tilting your prices upwards you should, at least, try it for a reasonable period. If you can get it across you will have achieved something that has been desired and deserved but could not easliy be done during the past few years. There are many indications that business conditions throughout the country will improve considerably especi' ally in view of the tremendous defense expenditures by the government. If these optimistic views are true then the time is ripe for a price increase, in small amounts, in most situations. V V V About Triples With the greater part of the industry trying to find a way out of the double feature mess, it is amazing that Chicago can continue running triple bills. But then, Chicago has been an amazing place for a long time. "Follow the leader" always has been a disastrous practice in this business, and every time we hear of some objectionable gag being pulled we shudder lest it be successful long enough to give others elsewhere an idea to follow suit. We doubt whether any so-called success in triple features could ever prompt the majority'' of common-sense theatremen to go into so ruinous a policy as that of show ing three features for a nominal admission price. Over a period of time it is certain to spell failure for theatres resorting to such practices. Only the elimination of ''B" pictures through the cutting of mass production can insure some measure of quality in the product coming from Hollywood and if this bfe true then by gradual stages most theatremen will concentrate on the better pictures to the exclusion of even a second feature. Although Paramount has been the only company to come out flatly for a "fewer-but-better-pictures" policy it is rumored that several other studios will follow suit. And if this sensible attitude prevails right down the Hne, the problem of doubles or triples will straighten itself out to everybody's satisfaction. If this industry never agrees on anything else it should be unanimously against anything resembling a triple feature poHcy in any situation from first to last run. There can be no extenuating circumstances sufficient to justify so suicidal a poHcy. V V V On Marking Ti me Many of the companies appear to be maintaining an attitude of "marking time." They are saying little or nothing about their product, current or for next season, and, seemingly, acting indifferent about nothing in particular and everything in general. Which recalls the ancient story about the general who ordered his army to "mark time" and then forgot about it! The next thing he heard of the army was that ninety percent of its troops had dropped with exhaustion from "marking time." We are in a rapidly moving business. Pictures must still be sold to the pubHc via the individual theatreman's enthusiasm for the seUing job he must do. Deprive him of that essential need for enthusiasm and you leave him completely at sea and wondering whether this or that picture is worthy of any extra selling effort. Why do some companies maintain a complete silence about their pictures and expect the theatremen to generate all the enthusiasm by themselves? It is neither fair nor logical. Only last week we sat with a theatreman who had on his desk a notice designating a certain picture in a high percentage bracket. The releasing company had, UD to that time, done nothing to convince this theatreman that he was getting a picture that would or could do business commensurate with the terms asked. Charity, they tell us, begins at home. Well, so does the seUing effort for any picture. — 'CHICK' LEWIS