Boxoffice-October.01.1955

LETTERS
Analyzes Film-Pricing Problem
Regarding AUied's desire to get film rentals
into Congressional jurisdiction, I wonder if
this just really could accomplish any good.
I believe that there are times I pay too much
for pictures. I have always believed that percentage
pictures are fair to both exhibitor
and distributor, except when they DON'T do
business. Then, even though the rental may
be small, the rest of the money just doesn't
cover the bills.
Without exhibitors the movie industry must
sell to TV, or quit. If they can't make money,
they won't produce. If the little theatre
doesn't make money, it can't stay open either.
Those small theatres help carry the ball to
tell people that movies everywhere! With
movies as fine a low-priced entertainment as
there Is—then they should be helped.
But, if even giving away pictures to those
theatres can't help them break even or make
a profit, then it isn't just good economics to
keep them open. Local management must
determine, in all honesty, if it is the terms
that break them, or their own lack of salesmanship
in their community.
My dad operated a drug store. He bought
merchandise and resold it at a profit. If it
didn't sell, he made NO money. He even lost
the interest on the money invested. He
gambled on selling day after day. He knew
his business, however, and bought wisely. He
operated on margins that varied from a
third to more on prescriptions, where his
pharmaceutical knowledge came Into being.
He did not tell his supplier what price to
charge him for his merchandise. He resold
the merchandise, basing his price on his cost.
And WHEN HE DIDN'T DO BUSINESS, HE
DIDN'T MAKE ANY MONEY. He did not
write Congress or his supplier and ask for an
extra discount to stay in business!
I grant that we are in a different type of
business than the drug busines.s—but I can
remember when my dad sweated through the
depression and took in from $15 to $30 per
day gross! In the drive-in, we think nothing
of a thousand dollar Saturday night gross
between boxoffice and concession.
I believe too many exhibitors look upon the
entertainment business as a beautiful opportunity
to get rich quick off a long-suffering
public. I myself have played some films that
afterwards I believed would have been better
left unfilmed. Even more, too many exhibitors
feel that a title on the marquee (and
sometimes not thati in crooked, illegible letters,
and a musty, unswept, dilapidated interior,
with flickering, bungUng projection
technique wUl jam the houses as well as
their pocketbooks. When it doesn't, they
blame the film terms.
Knowing how my booker, William Clark of
Clark Theatre Service, scrapes to keep from
giving away our margin of profit through
exorbitant rentals, I know that I wouldn't
be operating successfully without his help.
We have paid good prices for a lot of pictures,
too much for some, and not enough for some
but as long as we do business, and can operate
at a profit. I think the distributors are entitled
to their fair share.
I do believe there are too many scalawags
in both exhibition and distribution who would
take advantage of the honest men in both.
That makes it tough for those of us who like
to play it square, and do play it square.
I would like to make a percentage deal on
every picture I play, for it would be fair to
the distributors. The big pictures get too
much, the little good pictures don't get
enough. So the big get bigger, and the little
companies stay small.
I can't stay in business on 40 or 50 per cent
pictures—because as a rule they don't do
enough business.
So, the upshot of this rambling letter is to
say, what-the-hell can Congress do that
would be any better than the fighting
scramble we've got now? Maybe they can
fair-trade the deal a bit—but what right
have they got to tell anybody what tneir costs
are? I run a printing plant daytimes. The
costs in that plant control my retail prices.
If my costs are too high, I can't make a
profit—or sell either! I either balance the
two or get the heck into some other business.
Maybe that applies to the movie business, too.
Sky Drive-In Theatre,
Adrian, Mich.
ROBERT B. TUTTLE
CALENDAR Of EVENTS
OCTOBER
Vandals Push Over Drive-ln Posts
Vandals pushed over more than half of the speaker posts at the Riverside Drive-In
Theatre, Hill City, Kas., after a recent midnight show. Several teenage boys were
responsible. They also tos.scd a chair to the roof of the snackbar, broke one wire
and damaged two speakers.
The Kivcrsldc is operated by Lily Welty, Rex Welty and Eva Wclty Miles, children
of J. N. Welty, retired, who started with the Midway Theatre and later built the
drivc-ln. Lily Welty said that prior to this vandalism there was never a speaker stolen.
The boys paid for the damage and also surrendered several home privileges for
two weeks.