Variety (December 1914)

VARIETY \ THE PICTURE BUSINESS The moving picture business won't settle down. It can't. It has moved too fast, is moving too fast now. So much has happened in a year, and in pictures so much does happen in a year. A firm you didn't hear of yes- terday is famous today, through a pic- ture or pictures. At least famous in the trade, and the trade watches itself, while the public watches pictures. It isn't what pictures are going to please the public. The manufacturers know what pictures will please the public. But how to keep the cost of production down, economize in the many channels that are now only ave- nues of extravagances, and see the picture field brought together are the important items confronting the mak- ers of the fflms. The picture field, according to the picture men, is akin to the technical side of the music publishing business. All the publishers may combine, but they can't stop a writer from turning out a "hit," and if a song is a hit, the public demands it. So with the pic- tures at least in part. A really good picture must find its market. If the usual trade paths are closed to the maker, and it is a real good picture, the market will make itself because there is sufficient demand to create one. Be- hind this is the fact of an over-supply of theaters, and the over-supply of theaters brings the subject around to the most interesting query the year has produced for the feature film man- ufacturer and exhibitor—how are the manufacturer and exhibitor to be pro- tected for profit, with a satisfied clien- tele for the latter that will be retained, to the profit of the exhibitor, and through him, to the manufacturer? Scarcely anyone having knowledge of the present situation but will admit the service for feature pictures today is too high, too high for the conditions, caused by the over-supply cf theaters, whicli prevents the exhib- itor from raising his admissions to se- cure the business he must command tn have a balance left after paying his operating expenses. The service charge is a considerable amount of it. The service corporations sooner or later must cut their prices to the exhibitors. That appears to be conceded. But before doing sd, they want to be as- sured of a continued profit of compar- atively the same amount as now fig- ured upon. To reach this end either the service corporation must econo- mize, the manufacturer spend less for his production, or the exhibitor simply make a demand for a lesser rate. The latter is practically out of the question, as the exhibitor must secure his goods to attract customers and with competition the exhibitor can not be exacting. It is the competing exhibitor, however, who is the direct cause of present prices. He forced up the price of feature films. An ex- hibitor in one town who had been of- fered a feature at a reasonable price and delayed a day or two to accept, found his competitor had secured the same film for first run exhibition at $100 more than the price offered him. The competing exhibitor had set his own figure! yb? manufacturer wants to produce more cheaply, but again competition intervene*—the competition of the manufacturer for stars and plays. In ciose association this would be regu- lated, and the salaries paid stars and casts held down to a safe basis, but not at the present rush for both. While, it is but a matter of time, according to the feature film men, when "stars from the legitimate" will be supplanted by recognized picture players (and these stars may develop into that class as well) that time has not yet been reached. It is also expected picture plays will be ultimately produced from original manuscripts and not from es- tablished speaking stage successes. How far that is off can not be ven- tured, but it is coming, and it means a big field for the playright. It's a matter of opinion how much value there is in a "star's name" on a picture. It is the "picture." Its title, if well known, is worth something, but as good a performance could be given by a company of pure picture actors as the best star who might be secured, without that star's name doing more than to add "class" to the film when shown, if the production holds up the title. With the economy of engaging real picture people at their salaries instead cf "stars" at big figures, the cost of pro- duction would be materially cut down, to begin with, and with other moneys saved in the operation of the picture concern, the guarantee from the serv- ice corporation for an initial return of the investment would not be as large, with the manufacturer still turning out as good a production. There is a picture being made with a star at the head of the cast which gives the star $750 weekly sal- ary while the film is being completed, and guarantees the star 35 per cent of the gross profit the film will make. Any number of people believe that any of the better known picture actresses, or even an unknown could have played this feature at a weekly salary not ex- ceeding $300, without a sharing agree- ment, and given a better performance for several reasons. Since the feature film is here to re- main, th» manufacturers are consid- ering these points to the business. The exhibitor is waiting for the survival of the fittest among himself and competi- tors, and perhaps believing it is to be the survival of the fittest among the makers as well. The manufacturers of features who go through this season will probably become the standard makers of the future. They may try through an extended combination to control the feature market by refusing an exhibitor service, if the exhibitor shows an outlaw film, but that day has rot yet been reached. Meanwhile the maker finds himself progressing, forced to extremes in production by his opposition, and alsd learning he must make an uncommon- ly large investment if continuing in the feature film business, through produc- ing ahead, having finished films on the shelves, which represent money that can not be realized upon for some time to come. T^his phase of the feature business may drive away the great amount of outside capital now invested, in pictures, leaving the financing and operation of a feature film concern to pictuxe people only. When that hap- pens, the regular picture people will be pleased. It will evidence a settling down of conditions that sooner or later will reach solid bottom. Some outside capital has received dividends, but mostly from concerns that have been "promoted" and "ma- nipulated." All of these have not been feature film makers solely, nor have all paid dividends that could bear scru- tiny in the manner the division of the earnings was passed. The future of both the daily release and feature film seems secure. The daily release has found its field, and while that field may shift from time to time, there will always be a demand for this sort of picture. The feature film is here because all the people like it, some all the time and others once in a while. They want the story with- out padding or regard to the length of the reels. When the many Euro- pean importations were thrown on the American market at one time, it was thought the public disliked them be- cause of their length, but later this was learned to have been an error, that the foreigners were not liked be- cause they had been grossly padded, other than 'their poor direction and production. One direct source of the popularity of the moving picture of any kind that has a connection with its low admis- sion price is the duty done by it as a time-killer. No longer must the trav- eling man wait around a depot to catch a train; he kills intervening time by "seeing a picture." The housewife can see a picture. Home need be no more (Continued on Page 7.) WHEN THEY PLAYED MINOR PARTS. The picture shows a scene from "Madame Rex," a moving picture play written by Mary Pickford and directed by W. D. Griffith for the Biograph. The figure* in the foreground are those of Edwin August, the actor-director, now identified with the Kinetophote, and Stephanie Longfellow, who starred in "Graustark." The groups are here reproduced as a curiosity, because, although i t was taken only a few years ago, a dozen of the minor characters, who may be identified in the background, have in the short space of time reached high places in filmdom. Prom left to right: Jack Dillon, now a prominent leading man; Francis J. Grandon, who produced the "The Adventures of Kathlyn"