The Coming Year
Despite summer depression, optimism is the keynote for the future as indicated by
the following expressions from the leading executives of the industry in response to an
inquiry for their opinion on "What of the Coming Year."
Cole Optimistic
While conditions are certainly very unsatis¬
factory at the present time, it is my personal
opinion that during the summer months they
will have reached their lowest level, and with
all indication's pointing to production schedules
■ being more in proportion to the actual demand
for the productions, I believe that beginning
with the fall season there will be an active
demand for films, and that prices in propor¬
tion to the value of the product will be ob¬
tainable from exhibitors.
. R-C PICTURES CORP.,
R. S. Cole, President.
Return to Normalcy
I think that the coming year is going to
bring a complete return to normal conditions
and a reduction in the number of pictures
made by each independent star and producer to
provide the added time necessary for maintain¬
ing the degree of quality demanded by the
public,
J. D, WIT.T/fAMS,
Asso. First Natl.
Who Can Tell?
The fellow' who can tell what w*ill happen in
the motion picture business in the next year
is smarter than I am. Business will either
be good or it 'will be bad. It will be good if
optimism prevails; it will be bad if pessimism
continues. Confidence of the people engaged
in any business is the surest tonic for its
growth and success. At the present writing
it looks like too much pessimism.
C. C. PETTIJOHN.
Sees Silver Lining
We have just emerged from the poorest, sea¬
son in motion picture industry, as experienced.
However, I can sec the silver lining in the
clouds and feel satisfied that the coming year
will show great improvement, although we can
not expect to see the business as good as it
was two years ago. - Recovery is bound to be
gradual.
VICTOR KREMER.
Not a.Guesser
My viewpoint of the coming year would
necessarilly be guess work and I am not a
good guesser. Our business in general will re¬
flect, very largely, the industrial^ and commer¬
cial situation ol the country, and in my_ opinion,
it will take at least a year to stabilize these
conditions.
WM. A. JOHNSTON.
Survival of Fittest
The coming year will see "the survival of
the fittest." The producers who can make the
best pictures, and the exhibitors who arc the
real showmen will be the ones to survive.
The present depression is the best thing that
ever happened, because producers and exhibi¬
tors were pyramiding to the point beyond the
possibility of success. We have all gone crazy,
and we are going to realise after all, that
"pictures are pictures," and there is just so
much and no more.
F. j. REMBUSCH.
Handwriting Is On the Wall
The handwriting on the wall plainly indi-
cates^ that "the time for thinkers has come."
I believe the coming year will see the doom of
the mechanically gorgeous picture and the pros¬
perity of those with big ideas behind them.
ASHLEY MILLER.
Banking Plus Distribution
The Industrial year in motion pictures be¬
ginning in September, 1921, is going to bring
the bankers and financiers who have put mil¬
lions of dollars into production and distribution
to their senses.
In the past bankers and financiers have
ignored the biggest element in this industry-
Skilled distribution and merchandising is today
the biggest and most important phase of the
motion picture business. Sane operation has
been utterly lacking. The men who have
poured untold fortunes into distribution deficits
will in the coming year realize more than ever
before that distribution is a specialists' func¬
tion and the financiers who have .financed pro¬
duction henceforth are going to know in ad¬
vance that the producers whom they finance
are committed to a sane, temporate and capa¬
ble distribution organization. From a.banker's
standpoint the maintenance of a dozen or more
national distributing systems in the motion pic¬
ture industry—three-quarters of which are in¬
efficient and wasteful—is criminal and inde¬
fensible.
This industry is heading rapidly to the point
where all of the national distribution of the
fifteen existing companies can be and will be
handled by not more than three, national dis¬
tributing organizations. The men now oper¬
ating inefficient distributions will bitterly resist
this change but they will he overruled by the
bankers who financed their companies who are
going to no longer tolerate the duplications of
Lichtman Apprehensive
I am looking forward to the coming year, in
the picture business, with a great deal "of ap¬
prehension, because I feel that the present
haphazard, cut-throat method of distribution
and of buying pictures has about reached its
limit, and unless exhihitorSj producers'arid dis¬
tributors realize—and realize quickly—that a
constructive plan whereby only the best pic¬
tures can play the best theatres and play them
upon an equitable basis, and pictures of an
inferior grade are relegated to cheaper houses
regardless _ of who made the pictures or who
may distribute them, the industry will meet
with conditions from which it will be difficult
to recover.
Everyone must realize that the picture busi¬
ness has enjoyed abnormal prosperity during
the war period, and particularly for a little
over a year after the signing of the armistice.
the picture business is no longer a war baby,
and the industry must adjust itself to normalcy.
To my mind, the thing that will bring about
readjustment quicker than anything else, and
the thing that will at the same time bring the
crowds back to our theatres, will be an absolute
open market that will give the utmost incentive
to our creators of great pictures to do their
level best. When the pictures are created they
must be given a free opportunity to play the
best theatres upon equitable terms; the system
of forcing... inferior production into first-class
houses, just because somebody controls the best
house and with it controls certain films, will
stagnate the picture business and kill all in¬
centive for the creators of the best motion
pictures to do their level best.
«'AL" LICHTMAN,
Gen. Mgr., Asso. Producers-
197
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