Boxoffice-December.24.1949

Indonesia and Germany
Seen As Big Market
NEW YORK—Indonesia and Germany are
certain to join Italy as among the most profitable
U.S. film markets
in the world, according
to Samuel N.
Burger, sales manager
of Loew's International.
He returned
recently from a nineweek
tour of 20 countries
that took him 40,-
000 miles. He did not
visit South America,
South Africa or Australia.
Burger was enthusiastic
about Indonesia,
Samuel N. Burger
saying that now the country has independence
it offers a fine market, that local capital is
building theatres and that Loew's is looking
forward to operation of its own sales there
after the first of the year, when the Motion
Picture Export A.ss'n will become only a service
organization handling physical distribution
and storage. Edward O'Connor is in
charge and hiring native employes. Other
companies are doing the same.
FIFTEEN FILMS TO GERMANY
Burger checked on the establi-shment of
the home office in Germany at Frankfort,
and branches set up at Dusseldorf, Hamburg,
Munich and Berlin, in the expectation that
the German market will become "one of the
most important" in Europe. Present Loew's
plans call for export of 15 films to Germany.
Quite a few prewar exhibitors have returned
there. Burger said.
Italy, he predicted, will be the biggest European
market, "as always." The Italians
are very friendly to Americans, and the overall
gross of all U.S. films has risen .steadily
each year since the war. Burger spoke in high
terms of Loew's new synchronizing plant in
Rome, established by Arthur Loew, calling it
the finest equipped studio of its kind in the
world. Its modern American equipment does
dubbing for the films of many producers. At
the present time two and a half shifts are
working daily. In charge is Arthur Field,
former Hollywood production man, who represents
Loew's throughout Europe.
TO BUILD IN ISRAEL
In Israel, Loew's plans to build theatres
in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem if and when
suitable sites can be obtained. One new
theatre and one renovated theatre have just
opened at Haifa and two are under construction
at Tel Aviv, all with local sponsorship.
Loew's will finish construction in May 1950,
of its theatre at Alexandria, which will be as
fine as any in the world, but does not now
plan any other building abroad.
Regarding the overall foreign business picture.
Burger said that general economic conditions
are "perking up" in all Europe because
of the Marshall Plan, and that there
is no question but that U.S. films dominate
more than ever before.
"Outbreak" is the new title of the 20th-
Pox picture formerly called "Port of Entry."
DuMont Predicts Sales
Of 80 Million in '50
WASHINGTON— Sales by DuMont Laboratories,
television manufacturing company,
should total $45,000,000 this year and may
reach $80,000,000 in 1950. Dr. Allen B. Du-
Mont, president and founder, told the investment
subcommittee of the House-Senate economic
committee December 12. He said sales
are currently at the rate of about $70,000,000
a year. In 1946 they amounted to $26,859,049.
DuMont predicted 1949 profits of more than
$3,000,000. Earnings in 1948 were $2,701,767,
equal to $1.29 a common share. Total company
assets reached $22,376,000 as of November
6, compared with total assets of $12,-
169,275 as of Jan. 2, 1949. He said there will
have to be expansion in about a year, and
that he hoped it could be financed out of
profits. The company was formed in 1931
with a capital of $1,000 and its sales that
year amounted to only $70. In 1938 the company
first began selling stock on the market
to get equity capital.
DuMont again attacked color television as
not being sufficiently advanced for pre.sentat:on
to the public. If peimitted now, he said,
it might have to be "thrown out" in a few
years and a new start made.
U.S. Investment Co.
May Lend to British
NEW YORK — The American
investment
house of Schroder Rockefeller & Co. is considering
financial support of future J. Arthur
Rank and Sir Alexander Korda productions
in Britain and on the European continent.
Negotiations have been proceeding since late
in the summer when Mord Bogie, president,
met in London with the British film men.
Avery Rockefeller, grandson of John D. Rockefeller
jr., is a member of the firm. It would
be its first entry into film financing.
All would be Technicolor films, according
to Kay Harrison, head of British Technicolor,
and they would possibly number six. Harrison
is now here after introducing Bogie to
Rank and Korda in London. He .said interiors
and laboratory work would be done in
London, and forecast important financing
deals in the near future.
Philip W. Moore, assistant to Bogie, confirmed
that conversations have been held
with Rank and Korda, but said no estimate
is possible as to when, if ever, they might
result in an agreement on financing, and that
nothing is definite about the amount the
company would invest.
Harrison said it is tentatively planned to
use Hollywood stars, directors and writers.
He thought there will have to be changes in
the current system of financing before a deal
can be agreed upon. He said British Technicolor
business this year has exceeded that of
1948 by 50 per cent, and that things are looking
even better for 1950.
'B' Pool to Produce
Second Half Million
NEW YORK—The Bank of England has
approved a second payment of $500,000 to
U.S. distributors out of the controversial "B"
pool, so that the yield of the pool during its
first year of operation will be $1,000,000. The
two payments are for money due imder the
Anglo-American film agreement for the period
of June 1948-June 1949.
Under the agreement, the "B" pool represents
the earnings of British films in this
country and that is added to the "A" pool,
which comprises the top earnings of $17,000,-
000 in Britain that American distributors are
permitted to take out in dollars each year.
It was intended that the total amount would
then be divided among the distributors in relation
to the amount of business each did in
Britain during the year. That would mean
$18,000,000 for the distributors for the year.
However, the "B" pool has not worked out
well in practice. When some American distributors
and British producers arrived at
special deals, no money was forthcoming
for the pool. Universal-International, which
had earnings from J. Arthur Rank films, objected
that it was contributing the major
part of the income of the pool, and it has
now refused to recognize the pool any longer.
MPAA-member companies have insisted
that U-I should stay in the pool. The dispute
was gone over by company presidents
recently and referred to their legal departments
for recommendations. A protest may
be made to the British government. At any
rate, the matter is sure to come up at the
next Anglo-American meeting in London early
in the year.
Electronic Color System
For TV Is Developed
TROY—An all-electronic color television
.system, said to embody new principles
throughout, has been developed by two
scientists of Rensselaer In.stitute. Dr. Victor
A. Babits and H. Frank Hicks jr.. both members
of the electrical engineering department.
The system, still in the laboratory stage,
can also be used in the motion picture field,
it was said. Colored films can be taken with
black and white film by using the color control
device on the camera and on the projector.
For television, the system achieves
color control with either an electric or magnetic
field using a single camera tube at the
studio and a single picture tube in the home
receiver.
Pakistan Moslems Angry
About 20th-Fox Film
KARACHI—Moslem religious leaders in
Pakistan have expressed indignation over
"Everybody Does It," 20th Century-Fox film
burlesque on opera, viewing it as based on
the life of the holy daughter of the Prophet
Mahomet. They registered a complaint with
Hooker A. Doolittle, American charge d'affaires,
that it is "outrageous" and "inunoral."
(Twentieth-Fox said it is amazed at the
reaction, and that there was no intention of
offending anyone, i
46 BOXOFFICE December 24, 1949