Universal Filmlexikon (1932)

a sirifrlo theatre has the ca])ital noco^^ary to produce filins oii Iiis ovvn accouiit. Tluis, in every country in the woild the cineina owner requirin«! filins depends on the piochicer of films. The iihn reiiter is the interniediaiy hetweeii the two. The renter ohtaiiis the film froni the produeer, attends to re-i)rintin>r and prepares the advertisinp material which the cinenia owner requires to attract the puhlic. He also attends to the eonveyance of the filins from one cinenia to the other. Thus in every countr\^ the film renter is really the hanker of the film industiy, since the executioii of the above nientioned tasks deinands the investment of a very siibstaiitial capital, amounting in the case of filins of medium footage to 200.000—300.000 marks and in the case of fulllength films to 1.000.000—1.500 000 marks. In addition. ihe renter also acts as adviser botli to the produeer and to the exhibitor, advising the former, on the basis of the cinema owners' experiences with past films, as to the subjects and ca-sts of future productions, and the latter as to the choioe of films for exhibition, the making up of programmes and the manner in which each programme sliould be advertised. To attend to all this he must employ a considerable commercial staff, who in turn have to be supported by an efficient technical personnel, as the films must be repeatedly inspected and repaired and maintained at the renter's storage roonis. That is wliy most renters in the larger film markets, such as England, Germany, France, or America, have a iiumber of branches, each of which is in charge of a certain district. No public in the world is satisfied with only a national screen programme. The renter must therefore be in a position to supply bis clients, the cinema owners, with the products of the film industries of other countries. As, however, the renter is usually not a produeer himself, a foreign renter cannot buy from him, as he is only working his own territory. That leads us to another important function of the film dealer — the international exchange of films. Every large producing concern maintains a foreign department for that purpose. Just as in the hoine market itself the renter is the intermediary between the national film production and the consumer, i. e. the cinema owner, so the film exporter is the intermediaiy between the film producers of his own country and the film renters of other countries, except that, while in this instance the business is less intricate than that between cinema owner and renter, it is more far-flung and requires a knowledg(> of and inslinct for the taste of the international public. Wherever the taste and the requirements of the cinema-going ])iiblic ensures a particularly I)rofitabIe and regulär market, the foreign (>\porter acts as renter himself. In such territories he establishes a renting Organisation which serves the cinema owners of the country concerned in the sanie way as in his home country. And where conditions are favourable the foreign exporter supports his renting Organisation by acquiring cinemas of his own. Though it is the most risky and difficult business for the foreign exporter even to become a renter in a foreign country, if he succeeds he is bound to reap a rieh hai-vest. For in that case the foreign exporter takes root in the country concerned, which may then almost be regarded, from a film point of view, as his own country. In this conuection it may be of interest to mention that the biggest German producing Company, the l^niversum-Film-Aktiengesellschaft, has the biggest renting Organisation in Germany, through which nearly 5100 cinemas were supplied in the days of the silent film and approximately 2100 have been served with talking filins. From the five German branches of this Organisation approximately 5000 consignments per month are despatched to German cinemas, while 7500 to 8000 consignments are received by these branches. These figures do not include the consignments sent direct from one cinema to the other. The foreign department of the same firm has renting organisations in: Holland (3 cinemas of their own), France and Belgium, Austria (1 cineina), Hungary (3 cinemas), Poland (1 cinema), U. S. A. (1 cinema). Apart from this they have agreements with independent non-German renting firms, whereby the latter undertake to distribute Ufa films on belialf of the Ufa as the latter's own renting organisations. The Ufa works in this manner in the Baltic States, Bulgaria, Greece, Rumania, Turkey, Egypt, Syria, Palestina, Spain an<l the British and South American markets. However, the sales contract with the striking Ufa bland that paves the way for the German film as a testimony to German culture and German workmanship travel to all parts of the World that can be reached by post, aeroplane, cable or wireless telegraphy. 39