Boffo Sensational

To describe the golden cinema business of the war years, Hollywood had used a special phrase--"boffo terrif." By last week Hollywood knew that it was time to use another phrase; things had changed. Movie attendance ("boffo") was down 25%-45% in extreme cases. In the nation's theaters, business had slipped until it was a mere "boffo sensational."

What scared Hollywood was that the cost of making movies was still soaring. Daily Variety estimated that 20th Century-Fox's Margie, filmed a year ago for $1,400,000 would cost $2,200,000 today--up 57%.

With rising costs and a box-office slump, there was bound to be a squeeze. Producers and writers "whose assignments have been completed," were being laid off by studios. Monogram, which specialized in Westerns and quickie "Bs," closed down for the summer. Bankers were cutting down on the percentage they would loan on a picture. The major studios were trimming their production schedules. They could afford to cut down because they had so many pictures "in the can," i.e., completed but not released.

Canned Gold? Paramount alone had 20 pictures in the can, filmed mostly at 1946 costs. These canned goods were the best kind of an investment if costs went higher and box office stayed up. But if box office skidded much more, it might be hard to make a profit on expensive pictures from the can. 20th Century-Fox's Production Chief Darryl F. Zanuck, with $12 million already sunk in Forever Amber and Captain from Castile, was worried enough to postpone a third costume spectacle.

There were too many horrible examples of money-losing pictures. Despite Ginger Rogers, Universal -International's The Magnificent Doll was having trouble getting into some first-run theaters. Only blitz tactics by razor-sharp David O. Selznick saved his Duel in the Sun from losing the box-office battle. To combat the panning of Duel by critics, Selznick shrewdly ran Duel simultaneously in several theaters in selected cities. Thus he cashed in before adverse comment could get around. Hollywood guessed that Duel's box-office gross is over $7,000,000, half of what Selznick needs to break even.

With fewer pictures scheduled, Hollywood will concentrate on 1) the sprightly, clever picture which can easily show a profit because of the small original cost, or 2) the surefire spectacle, such as the coming $6,000,000 Joan of Lorraine (heavily "insured" by Ingrid Bergman's star-power).

Quick Shooting. One man notably tuned to the trend was RKO's new production boss, 41-year-old Dore Senary, up from writing ranks and a stint as producer for Selznick. Despite all the worry over high costs, he had demonstrated that pictures could still be made cheaply. His newest picture. Crossfire, was produced in only 24 shooting days at a cost of only $500,000.

Nobody thought that the box-office slump was going to shake the industry. Most studios were in the best financial position they had ever known. Last year they showed a total net profit of $125 million. This year, if box office held only "sensational," they might do $100 million. And by turning choosy again, U.S. moviegoers stood to gain. They would frighten Hollywood into making better pictures.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.