Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1947)

s SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, October 18, 1947 No Advanced Admissions for Columbia, Assures Montague Company Won't Drop Help Or Reduce PreSale Ads, Declares Disfri&ufion Head { Sec Co'L'cr) Columbia will neither attempt to sell picture.-, to an exhibitor at advanced admissions or cut down its national advertising to pre-sell product. General Sales Manager A. Montague declared in New York this week at a press conference held in connection with the first of the company's three sales meetings. Montague said, however, the company would expect exhibitor "co-operation"" in solving the problem caused by diminishing foreign markets. It will not, however, discharge any personnel for economy reasons but may even lean toward increasing personnel if by so doing it could assure a greater return on its product. Speaking of the English situation, Montague said : Posed Serious Situation "Up to the moment we ha\e not been affected at all by this movement. We"re getting our dollars out of England."' But, he continued, 75 per cent of the foreign market could be lost through the coming English situation and other foreign country restrictions and this posed a serious question to the industry. A picture like "Down to Earth," he declared in answer to a question, could not recover its negative cost in the United States without exhibitor cooperation. "This cooperation," he explained, "doesn't ask for increased rentals or increased playing time. It only asks for cooperation on the part of the exhibitor." Seeking to clarify thi,-, he continued : "The principal thing he can do is to hold over a picture in the theatre as long as it will draw , . . and if his average profit (for the run) was $5(J0 and if he should lower that average to keep a gond picture going, that I call cooperation. ... "No'oody can expect a theatre to play a picture two weeks if in the second week it is gaing to lose money, but if he (the exhibitor) can realize a normal profit ... he should do everything possible to hold it over." Because the average exhibitor did not realize the seriousness of the present situation and how much of a part Europe played in the suc One Bid Less? That competitive bidding will go out of existence at Hartsville, S: C, was seen in Charlotte this week as the result of an arrangement whereby McMillan and Atkinson's Center will have first-run on all Warner, Fox, United Artists, RKO. Monogram and Eagle-Lion product, while the Berry will get MGM, Paramount, Universal, Screen Guild, Columbia and Republic. Both theatres are competitive A houses and their reported agreement ends one of the few remaining competitive bidding situations in the Charlotte territory. However, at Elizabeth City, N. C, Loew's State, a new house there, reportedly has taken away through bids four RKO, seven Universal and three MGM pictures from the "Webster houses in that city which hitherto had this product. cessful operation of a film company, Montague said Columbia salesmen had been instructed to carry the true gospel into the field. "Exhibitor groups," he said, "have just as much interest in studying this thing as distributors. . . . [ would be thrilled to listen to their advice." Montague added that he did not consider there was extravagance in production insofar as Columbia was concerned. The Columbia sales head said he did not believe it was time to cut advertising when attendance slacked off and that it is not "good policy both for the exhibitor and the distributor to cut advertising." In view of the present situation, he remarked, "exhibitors can't expect distributors to put an unreasonable amount in (cooperative) advertising." But Columbia will continue to get behind its product with a picture's ad budget based on its grossing possibilities, determined either through test runs in several cities with a splurge campaign^ or test runs in two groups of cities, with one .group splurging and another using the normal amount of space. The company is in an excellent product position, he declared, with a $20,000,000 inventory behind it. He refused to say how many pictures this covered but Showmen's Tr.'^de Review records show something like 31. Columbia will also screen for exhibitors who want it, though poor attendance caused it to drop special screenings. Other Columbia sales meets will be in New Orleans, Oct. 28-31 ; San Francisco, Nov. 4-8. Lauds RKO Releases Enthusiasm over the schedule of RKO release from now till Jan. 1 was expressed this week by RKO "Vice-President and General Sales Manager Robert Mochrie who pointed out that the list would include 12 top-budgeters ranging from "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" to "Magic Town." UA Now Ready With 20; Buys 4 Fiom RKO-Radio United Artists directors Tuesday approved a deal to buy and produce $32,000,000 of films in which was included the $5,000,000 purchase of four pictures out of RKO's inventorjr^ President Grad Sears announced. The RKO deal covers "Out of the Past," "Station West," "Return of the Badmen," "Indian Summer." In addition, United Artists contracted with the following : Robert Hakim for the distribution of its $2,000,000 Technicolor "Mayerling," which is scheduled to go before cameras on Dec. IS. James Nasser for "My Dear Secretary," to roll Feb. 1. Jack Goldberg for "Melody Man," "I Live on Gallows Hill" and one untitled feature to be made in Mexico. UA's share in financing production was fixed by Sears at $27,000,000. The executive was optimistic over the future, pointing to the fact that banks had decided to finance independent production again and that United Artists' product situation was healthy, with some 20 pictures now available for release. Cinecolor Acquires Full Control of Film Classics Cinecolor this week acquired full ownership of Film Classics which will shortly expand its activities to include serving as a releasing nutlet for independent producers, Cinecolor Board Chairman A. Pam Blumenthal and FC President Joseph Bernhard announced jointly Wednesday. The move will not affect Film Classics distribution of reissues or handling of its first new picture, "Spirit of West Point," but was regarded in film circles as carrying out a plan which Bernhard had in mind when he became FC president in December, 1946, of making the company a distributing outlet for independents. Bernhard remains FC president as well as l^ecoming a Cinecolor director, while other Film Classics executives — Sales Manager Samuel N. Wheeler, .\ssistant Sales Manager Jules K. Chapman, Executive Assistant Treasurer Eugene Arnstein, Ad and Publicity Director A\ Zimbalist among tliem — retain their posts. Blumenthal in turn becomes FC board chairman with his associate Karl Hertzog as vicepresident and treasurer and a member of the board which consists of Blumenthal, Hertzog, Bernhard, Kenneth Baxter, Joseph Rather and Sinclair Hatch. FC was founded in 1942 to handle reissues. Its new distributing facilities will not be confined to Cinecolor users. Cinecolor earlier in the week formed Cinecolor Finance Corporation with Blumenthal as president to finance laboratory and release prints for producers wishing to use Cinecolor. Concurrently with the announcement of the new ownership FC announced that it had acquired branches in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, Charlotte and Minneapolis while Cinecolor announced that it had authorized con A. Pam Blumenthal Joseph Bernhard >truction of a $100,000 addition to its Burbank, Calif., plant. 12 Isn't Much Help When YouNeed52tol04-Wilby I )efinite need for more moderate-budget pictures which will ring the entertainment bell and bring the cash to the box-office was expressed recently by Bob Wilby, Paramount partner in Alabama. "The exhibitor needs 52 to 104 pictures a year.'" Wilby told Showmen's Trade Review. "Twelve big ones won't do him much good." Wilby claimed further that big pictures have too big a concentration of elements — stars, directors, writers — which makes for too wide a gap between tbem and intermediate pictures.