Boxoffice-December.02.1950

. .
CAN'T RELEGATE DRIVE-INS
TO STATUS OF SECOND RUNS'
So Court Holds in Giving
Outdoor Exhibitor Right
To Bid for First Runs
PHILADELPHIA—A federal court judge
here this week ruled that distributors cannot
arbitrarily designate drive-in theatres
as subsequent runs and deny them the
right to bid for first run playdates.
This opinion was handed down by Judge
William Kirkpatrick in a suit brought by
David E. Milgram. operator of the Boulevard
Drive-In Theatre located within the city
limits of AUentown, Pa., against the major
distribution.
The decision carries with it broad implications
of how drive-in theatres may
have to be treated hereafter in the channeling
of motion picture tln-ough the industry's
complicated distribution system.
DISTRIBUTORS MAY APPEAL
In effect, what Judge Kirkpatrick said
was that a motion picture theatre is a motion
picture theatre regardless of whether
it is indoor or outdoor and that distributors
cannot differentiate between the two in selling
their product. What the courts have
held as illegal in the selling of motion pictures
for indoor theatres also goes for the
outdoor operation, the court implied. The
same protection goes to both.
The industry cannot relegate the drive-in
to second run status, the court held.
As a number of distributor chiefs within
recent weeks have issued statements to the
effect that they will sell to drive-ins on a
subsequent run basis only, the ruling of
Judge Kirkpatrick may be challenged in the
higher courts. The court issued an injunction
restraining the majors from denying
the Boulevard Drive-In the right to bid
for day-and-date playdates with downtown
AUentown theatres, and from maintaining
the clearance system which has been set
up for the area.
The Boulevard Drive-In was built a year
ago at a cost of about $250,000. It accommodates
900 cars and is located in an attractive
section of AUentown, 2.4 miles from
the business center of the city and 1.7 miles
from the common boundary line between
AUentown and Bethlehem. In effect, first
runs in both of these cities are involved in
the court order.
28-DAY
CLEARANCE CITED
In handing down his decision, Judge Kirkpatrick
pointed to the uniform 28-day clearance
offered the Boulevard Theatre after
all majors had turned down Milgram's request
for first run pictures. "It is incredible
that each proceeded in ignorance of how
the others were dealing with it," the court
said.
Judge Kirkpatrick contended that the evidence
in the case indicated the industry "is
putting mto effect in AUentown a general
program adopted and adhered to by the
directing heads of the industry to relegate
Mayer Sees Changes
Possible in
NEW YORK—The possibility that there
may have to be changes in the structure of
the Council of Motion Picture Organizations
and its financing plans was raised by Arthur
L. Mayer, executive vice-president, in a
speech highlighting a COMPO day luncheon
of Associated Motion Picture Advertisers
held Thursday (30) at the Hotel Piccadilly.
Mayer expressed confidence that COMPO
will solve its problems of membership representation,
an issue pressed by Theatre
Owners of America, and of financing.
Other speakers were: Robert W. Coyne,
special COMPO counsel; Charles E. Mc-
Carthy, information director, and Dick Pitts,
editorial director. Ned E. Depinet, president,
who was scheduled to speak, was unable to
attend. Harry K. McWiUiams, AMPA president,
presided.
Mayer extended an invitation to Ampa
to become a member of COMPO.
"No doubt," he said, "you have read many
alarming stories about COMPO and its problems.
I want to assure you that we who are
dealing with these problems are not disturbed.
It is possible that we shall have to
make some changes in our makeup and in
our financing plans, but, far from being
fatal, such changes will strengthen COMPO
drive-in theatres generaUy to a second run
status."
The majors in their brief contended that
the drive-in theatre being a new and radically
different medium for the exhibition of
motion pictures its "proper position in the
complicated system of clearance and run .
is not yet known, and must ultimately be
found on the basis of experience and judgment
of businessmen charged with the responsibility
of obtaining the most advantageous
outlets for their products. At the present
time, that judgment dictates that a
neighborhood drive-in play on a subsequent
run."
The court, however, did not think this
arbitrary policy could be upheld.
"The considerations moving the defendants
to reject this plaintiff's bids . . . have
basically, nothing to do with the location,
size, equipment, appointments or policy of
operation of his theatre or of any particular
drive-in theatre as compared with others of
the same type, nor with any local competitive
situation," Judge Kirkpatrick said.
"Of course, this case grows out of the
demand of a single theatre owner and local
situation is incidentally, though only accidentally,
involved, but the reasons for refusing
him first run pictures are wholly
COMPO
by broadening the base of its membership.
In any event, having laid a soUd foundation
for cooperative effort by aU branches of the
industry, we are looking forward to a future
of real achievement.
"As one reads the ominous news from
Korea and Lake Success, it becomes more
and more obvious that, quite apart from
exigencies of our own industry situation, the
need for an organizatin like COMPO is imperative.
"If the motion picture industry is to do
its share in the gigantic struggle for freedom
that seems impending, COMPO must
not only be preserved but must be given
the unflagging support of everybody in our
business."
Coyne explained COMPO plans for a survey
to be conducted among exhibitors of
public attitudes toward the industry, and
also touched briefly on the possibility of a
a second survey to be conducted by a professional
polling organization.
McCarthy explained the COMPO plan for
institutional advertising in Editor & Publisher,
and Pitts talked about his recent trip
to Hollywood, where he gathered material
for a series of newspaper stories that are
soon to be published.
directed to the position of the drive-in theatre
in the motion picture industry. The
sum of the testimony is that the plaintiff
is excluded from first run bidding simply
because his theatre is a drive-in. If the
course which has been applied to him is
adhered to generally (and, from the reasons
given, the only possible conclusion is
that it wiU be) no drive-in within 30 or. 40
miles of any city anywhere will get first
run pictures."
"The erection of a fence around an industry
to keep out newcomers is wholly repugnant
to the poUcy which underlies our antitrust
legislation," the court held.
September Ticket Tax Take
On Par With Last Year
WASHINGTON—September boxoffice was
on a par with last year, according to the
Treasury department report this week on
October admissions tax collections, which reflect
the previous month's business.
October collections totaled $35,036,535, as
compared to $35,074,207 in October 1949. Business
was up from that of a month earlier,
but September collections of $31,346,385 were
almost $4,000,000 below the 1949 level.
BOXOFnCE December 2, 1950