Boxoffice-April.07.1958

Columbia Sets Campaign i^^openings
For Its 'Super Seven'
NEW YORK—Columbia Pictures plans a
major promotion campaign for its "Block-
^__^_^_^^^__^__
busting Super Seven"
pai-
^HH^^^BH|
HH ^^1
^^^^^ ^^^H terned after last year's
successful campaign
1^^^^ *^ "^H for the Fabulous
^^^V^ 1^1
I^ive" films, Paul Laz-
^^^^^fe^ J^H '"'"-'' J**" vice-president
^^^^Hj^^^^^^l charge of advertis-
^^^^^N^^^^H
publicity,
^^H the meeting sales
"^^ Hotel
^^^^"^^^^
Plaza Tuesday
With the "Fabulous
Five"
Paul Lazarus
expected to bring
jr.
a n aggregate film
^^^^H ^
^^^^^^
^^^^H|^^^|
B^^^l
rental in excess of $45,000,000, Columbia is
aiming for an aggregate of at least $65,000,-
000 fi-om the "Super Seven," Lazarus said.
Each of the seven pictures will benefit from
an advertising, promotion and merchandising
campaign far greater than that given to
the average release. Individual campaigns
will be announced as they are completed, according
to Lazarus.
The "Super Seven" include a love story, a
western, a shocker, a comedy, a sp>ectacle, a
film based on a best-selling novel and one
adapted from a hit Broadway play. They
are: "Tlie Key," a Cinemascope Highroad
production from the novel, "Stella," produced
by Carl Foreman and directed by Cai'ol Reed,
starring William Holden. Sophia Loren and
Trevor Howard: "Gunman's Walk." in Cinemascope
and Technicolor, produced by Fred
Kohlmar and directed by Phil Karlson, starring
Van Heflin and Tab Hunter, with Kathryn
Grant and James Darren.
Others are: "The Revenge of Frankenstein.
a Hammer film in Supernatural Technicolor,
produced by Anthony Hinds, starring Peter
Cushing and Eunice Gayson: "Best of Enemies,"
based on S. N. Behrman's Broadway
hit, "JacoboW'Sky and the Colonel," made on
location in France by William Goetz and
directed by Peter Glenville, starring Danny
Kaye and Curt Jurgens with Nicole Maurey;
"The 7th Voyage of Sinbad," made on location
in Spain in Technicolor, a Morningside
production by Charles H. Schneer and directed
by Nathan Juran, staiTing Kerwin
Matthews and Kathryn Grant.
Al.so: "The Last Hurrah," from Edwin
O'Connor's best-seller, directed by John Ford,
starring Spencer Tracy, Pat O'Brien. Basil
Rathbone and Jeffrey Hunter, with many
leading character actors, including Donald
Crisp, Edmund Lowe. James Gleason. Wallace
Ford, Ricardo Cortez, Frank McHugh
and John Carradine, and "Bell, Book and
Candle," a Phoenix Technicolor film from the
play by John Van Druten, produced by Julian
Blaustein. starring James Stewart, Kim Novak.
Jack Lemmon, Ernie Kovacs, Hermlone
Gingold, Janice Rule and Elsa Lanchester.
Columbia plans to start a ten-week billing
drive April 18, it was announced by Rube
Jackter, general .sales manager, as its sales
meeting ended here Wednesday (2i. The
division managers at the meeting received
samples of the promotion material which will
be distributed to the entire domestic sales
force.
Columbia Production
Chief Yet Unnamed
NEW YORK— Despite printed reports
to the contrary, Columbia has not yet
named a production head and administrative
chief of the studio, company officials
said Wednesday i2). A report that
Samuel J. Briskin had been selected for
the job was said to have been eiToneous.
but more likely premature.
A special committee within the board
of directors, apprainted to make recommendations
for the post vacated by the
death of Harry Cohn, has not yet made a
decision. It was stated that the board
would act when the recommendations
were made, probably "at an early date."
Meanwhile, B. B. Kahane and Leo Jaffe
are acting in an ex-officio advisory capacity
to the committee.
The members of the special committee
ai-e Abe Schneider, A. Montague, Alfred
Hart, Donald S. Stralem and Ralph M.
Cohn.
Each of the 11 Columbia divisions will try
to match or exceed a quota set for it for the
ten-week period ending June 26. Their final
standing will be decided by the percentage
of quota attained by each branch.
Within each division the drive will be carried
on in the name of the division manager.
Set U.S. and Foreign Dates
For Cinemiracle Debuts
NEW YORK—The new Cinemiracle widescreen
system, which will make its debut this
week at the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood
on April 8 and the Roxy in New York on
April 9, will open in Oslo, Norway, on April
24 and in the Odeon. Tottenham, Court Road,
London, on May 10. "Windjammer," the first
picture in the process, also has been set for
the Civic Opera House in Chicago on June
6. Other locales, to follow, are Minneapolis,
Washington and San Pi-ancisco.
For road .show presentations, mobile equipment
will be mounted on trucks which will
be traveling booths. The booth-trucks will be
driven into an auditorium.
FCC Studies TV Stations
Over Toll TV Campaigns
WASHINGTON—Whether television stations
violated the Communications Act in
their campaigns against toll TV will be investigated
by the Federal Communications
Commission. The FCC has ordered its staff
to undertake such an investigation and file
a report within a few weeks.
Senators Long (D., La.) and Neuberger (D.,
Ore.) had complained that the stations were
presenting a one-sided picture of the situation.
Various Congressmen have received a
mass of letters from constituents attacking
toll TV as a result of the stations' programs.
(Continued from page 11)
joined the reojjening parade. At Flint, Mich.,
the 1.951 -.seat Capitol resumed operations.
Other larger units reopened included the
State, Dlnuba, Calif.. 1,400 seats; Capitol,
Middletown, Conn., 1.0!i6; Grand, Bristol, Pa.,
1.460: Cinema, Syracu.sc. N. Y., formerly the
Aslor. 750: Strand, Cre.ston, Iowa, 800: Colony,
Schenectady, N. Y.. 750 seats and Majestic,
Holyokc. Ma.ss.. 800 seats.
The breakdown of the reopened units by
seating capacities reveals that eight of the
relighted theatres .seat 1,000 or more patrons;
26 are in the 500-l.000-.seat group, while 80
are in the under 500-seat class. The average
size of the reopened theatres would be a
500-seater.
An encouraging factor in the reopening
trend was it« nationwide scope, all .sections
being substantially represented. The southeastern
states set the pace with 23 reopenings,
with the north central area's 21 as second
best record. Other reopenings by regions:
central. 19: mideast, 18; ea.stem 14; New
England, eight; western, six; and southwestern,
five.
Another heartening point for the industry
was that the reopening trend was accelerating
through the final weeks of the quarter.
January registered 37 reopenings. February
had 29, but in March the pace moved up to
48, the final week of the quarter coming up
with 17, best for any one of the 13 weeks.
The reopened situations had been closed
for three months to five years, and with few
exceptions their closings had been labeled as
"permanent."
Pepsi-Cola '57 Earnings
And Sales Set a Record
NEW YORK—Earnings and case sales of
the Pepsi-Cola Co. in 1957 hit a new record,
according to the annual report to stockholders
issued by Alfred N. Steele, board
chairman, and Herbert L. Barnet, president.
Gross profit on sales increased to $85,564,-
391 from the previous record in 1956 of
$69,139,792. After providing $10,110,000 for
taxes, the 1957 net income amounted to
$9,559,675, an increase of 7.6 per cent over the
1956 figure of $8,884,787.
The 1957 net equaled $1.61 a share on 5,-
926.205 shares, compared with $1.50 a share
on 5,918,655 shares in 1956. Earnings before
taxes were $19,669,675 and $17,884,787, respectively.
The report said that after seven consecutive
years of growth, 1957 sales were 148 per
cent larger than those in 1950 when the
present management took over. There were
58 domestic plants selling more than 1,000,000
cases a year by the end of 1957, compared
About
with 13 plants in 1950 and 55 in 1956.
80 per cent of the domestic plants set per
capita sales records in their franchise areas.
Domestic bottlers also set a new record by
investing 25 per cent more in plant expansion
than they did in 1956.
Germans Pick 'Angry Men'
NEW YORK — United Artists has been
notified that Orion-Nova's "12 Angry Men"
has won the German Bambi award as the
best foreign film shown in Germany over the
past year. A public poll was conducted by
Film Revue, fan publication. The presentation
was in Karlsruhe.
14 BOXOFFICE April 7, 1958