The Film Renter and Moving Picture News (Mar-Apr 1923)

ih ieee ee he ae ho Ran F0AF SEO VO RE 8 ak Oe E tg a 8Te ee ee eee ‘3 £600 FOR A THE FILM RENTER & MOVING PICTURE NEWS. WEEK’S March 24, 1923. RUN ‘Yorkshire Exhibitors’ Plain Speaking on Film Hire Question. (By our Leeds HEN Ut.-Colonel H. A. Browne, the managing director of the Walturdaw Company, brought Mr. Al. Lichtman, the producer of Preferred Pictures, to Leeds last week to glean information as to the kind of pictures the British public in general, and the Yorkshire public in particular, wanted, several prominent exhibitors gave them their ideas (see page 67) and then, with a candour quite charactcristic of Yorkshiremen, switched off on to another matter—-the cost of film hire ! All Films ‘‘ Supers.’’ Mr. Arthur Cunningham, of the New Century Pictures, Ltd., said it was the way with film travellers nowadays to call all their films ‘‘ supers,’’ ask how many weeks the showman is prepared to run their film, and then proceed to ask £400 for a week’s hire--a figure nearly 2,000 per cent. above pre-war. No wonder some exhibitors were moved to assert that it was the film, not the firm, they were negotiating for! ‘Tf the Entertainments Tax is not removed, and if the price of films is not reduced, it will be impossible for the trade to carry on,’’ said Mr. Cunningham, in conclusion. Travellers’ Demands. Councillor Curry, of Grimsby, reiterated with considerable emphasis Mr. Cunningham’s arguments and his warning. Mr. Lichiman, ke said, had come to England at a rather inopportune time, as the trade was in the throes of a variety of troubles, of which this question of big prices for films was not the least important. He said it was quite a common occurrence for a film traveller to ask of him for the hire of a film for a week more than he took at his theatre in gross receipts, and £100 for a film not worth £25 was an everyday demand. His own town, he said, had a population of 84,000, 10,000 of whom were always at sea, leaving only 74,000 at home to share thoir patronage among 10 kinemas, a music hall, and a theatre. Under those conditions Mr. Curry said he had been asked £600 Correspondent.) for a week’s run of a film. He had, of course, turned the film down at anything like such a price, and he believed that to-day the same film was still being hawked round the town—at £200 for the week. ‘* On the Run ’’ With Prices. Mr, Curry said he had been mayor of Lis town, and had been made to believe himself popular with the townspeople, but he had reccntly found he was perhaps not so popular as he thought he was, for, when, having booked a super-film at a big figure, he raised iii prices slightly, the public boycotted his kinemas. That was his experience of raising prices ! ‘“ The idea of such prices,’’ said Mr. Curry, ‘* has been brought about by people who have come into the business in recent years, with no knowledge of the business, and, possibly, for that matter, of any other business. Such people, thus ignorant, have been got ‘ on the run’ with prices.”’ Mr. Curry said that in some cities and towns more kinems had been put up than such places with their populations coull support, and there must be scores of post-war built theatres on the financial rocks. For their plight this cost of film hire was very largely to blame. Sharing Terms. Lt.-Colonel Browne, replying on the discussion, thanked the exhibitors for their candid remarks, which, he said, would have tho earnest consideration of the Walturdaw Company. He suggested that probably a.system of showing films on a sharing basis might be the best solution to this present-day problem of the kinema trade. He was prepared to negotiate on such terms. Mr. Lichtman, who also replied, said that throughout his film-producing career—and he had been in it all his life with some of the biggest and best firms in America—he had always made it a point of policy to meet the exhibitor and his capacity to pay, and he was in England nt the present time to carry out that policy. ROMANCE OF LONDON ON THE SCREEN—Continued. More Coming if Successful. ‘* T set out,’’ he says, ‘‘ first to tell the story of the greatest and most romantic city in the world, and secondly to provide a new type of film entertainment combined with some appeal to. the intelligence. My immediate success with the Gaumont Company, Ltd., encourages me in the hope that I have succeeded. I presented my first three subjects to Colonel and Mr. Reginald Bromhead two months ago, and the contract to complete these and three otfiers was, comparatively speaking, merely a matter of minutes. I would have liked to have waited till the summer to complete my outdoor scenes, but Messrs. Bromhead were so keen to present the series ag soon as possible that I had to push on with the work at once. Of course, J have not told the full story of London in these six films, but if they whet the public appetite for more, as I am assured they will, I shall be able to have another series available in a very short space of time, The preliminary work aud planning occupied the major portion of the time of production, and I spent £500 on experimental work before I really got going. Over 1,000 prints have been used for this series, and they are selected from anything up to 20,000 prints examined.” We understand that the Gaumont Company has very great faith in these films, which should not only appeal on account of their novelty, but which are undoubtedly the most interesting series of films of their kind that have ever been presented. They are to be immediately released.