Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1948)

THE LEADERS SURVEY Wide Swing in Receipts for Big and Lesser Attractions Prove Public Is Shopping for Shows; British Films Continue to Lag at Box-Office; Hollywood Prestige Dips With Exhibitors; Musicals Get Fans' Priority During the twelvemonth (Nov. 1, 1947 to Oct. 30, 1948) when producers and distributors were singing the blues — with gestures that sliced payrolls, curtailed studio operations and selling activities— the American public continued to show traditional enthusiasm for screen entertainment of the kind that possesses appeal to the popular tastes. This aspect of the industry's over-all situation is sharply outlined by reports from theatres of all types in all sections of the country as gathered in the Leaders of the Motion Picture Industry Survey. For while the reports show that declining receipts have hit the theatres — some of them quite severely — the evidence is that in general the "big pictures" brought out the crowds and sent receipts up to figures that compare very favorably — all things considered— with the abnormally high marks registered during recent years of box-office plenty. The wide swings between big business registered for the top-notch drawing attractions and the sparse turnouts for the lesser offerings appears to be the chief reason for further cleavage in the already wide gap between exhibitor evaluation of a picture's rental price and that of the distributor selling the product. And it is plainly responsible for Hollywood's declining prestige among the exhibitors. (High up among the factors theatremen rate as responsible for lessened attendance is "pictures not as good.") The industry's international situation — blackest aspect of the gloomy vista spreading before the eyes of producers and distributors — means nothing to the exhibitor who has plenty of his own problems in trying to control mounting operating expenses. But this factor injects itself in The Survey because of the British situation. Bad News for England's Studios Since Britain declares that its films must get more playing time on America's screen, and accompanies that edict with statements to the effect that distributors here do not "cooperate" through aggressive selling of the English films and discriminates against them in bookings for circuits with which they are affiliated, we again asked the exhibitors about their experiences with the imports, from Britain. The results are not at all encouraging to the aspirations of British producers for more screen time here. If there is any "discrimination" by the rank and file of exhibitors in refusing to book English pictures merely because of their source, then the American theatreman is a master of the art of dissembling. For there has never been a question posed by The Leaders, in all its history, that brought such uniform and emphatic response. Sadly for the prospects of the British producers, the rank and file of American exhibitors are positive that a British picture is a serious liability to their business — because their public will not turn out to see the picture and complaints, the exhibitors say, are lodged by a high percentage of those who do patronize the show. About nine per cent of the 96 per cent who said they would not book imported pictures complained that some of the distributors try to force British pictures on them. The industry's public relations as affected by adverse publicity due to the House Un-American Activities hearings and the "lament" publicity about Hollywood studio shut-downs and unemployment, have not, directly, affected the average theatre situation, according to the exhibitors questioned in this Survey. Less than 10 per cent of the theatremen believed that any of this adverse publicity had harmful reaction on the attitude of their public with regard to the industry or movies as an entertainment. On the subject of Hollywood press policy, the film colony would do well to make some investigation among the theatremen as to the importance of Hollywood columnists to whom there is so much catering by all of the industry's most important producers, directors and stars. As more detail, to be presented later in The Survey, will reveal, a majority of the exhibitors regard these commentators in newspaper columns and over the radio as wholly negative or a downright liability so far as their influence on attendance at the theatre is concerned. Say Rentals Are Still on Climb There is no such thing as a commentary from exhibitors on trade matters in which the subject of high rentals does not occur. During the past season, theatremen queried in the Survey claim, the distributors further continued the policy of increased rentals. Whether the increase of which so many of the exhibitors complained is a flat mark-up from former years or represents a price advance in relation to box-office decline cannot be determined from the reports. But it is manifest that theatremen regard rentals for the bulk of the product they can use as far out of line with what the pictures produce at the box-office. There was also widespread complaint about the percentage policy and the manner in which distributors apply it to pictures which the theatreman claims is unwarranted on the basis of the film's box-office potentialities. Both percentage and preferredtime demands have been increased by most distributors, according to the exhibitors queried, and complaints about this become more bitter as theatremen voice their estimates of the quality of the pictures and the decline in their net box-office intake. Formula for Studio Story Buys As to the kind of subjects the producer should offer, the theatremen advise a preponderance of musicals, comedy and outdoor action romance, with a sprinkling of drama and an absolute minimum of mystery yarns. The morbid type of murder story, the horror subjects and the "psychological" themes are positive poison at the box-office, said the exhibitors reporting to the Leaders Survey. Regarding advantages that result from "bid selling" in those territories where the policy was practiced last year, these were spotty in the extreme. What might be considered a mere handful of exhibitors said that they had improved their situation by an advanced run over former times and wholeheartedly endorse the policy. But, probably because the majority of the theatres have not been affected (Continued on Page 16) 10 LEADERS of the MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY