The Washington times., 1914-07-15
THE BEST
Photopldy Department in
WASHINGTON
T linn Industry NoU
Recognized AS Big
Business by
Experts.

] The business end of the moving
picture business-the financial end,
s coming in for much discussion
nowadays. The large business in
terests of the country are begin
ming to realize a new industry has
been developed within the past few
vears-an industry which is now
said to occupy second place among
american manufactures for value of
product and expenses Of production.
II is almost impossible to get the
exact figures because the industry
Is so scattered, but in the newest
number of Golfers. Weekly, Isaac
?. Marcosson has an article which
goes rather deeper into the subject
than anyone has heretofore written.
Mr.. Marcosson makes a statement
as to the big organizations inter-
ested and the golden harvest that
comes to them from the pictures
and then declares:
Clearly to understand Just how
this harvest is reaped 1t will
first be necessary to explain the
technical procedure of the business.
|, There are three distinct agencies
rofit. The first is the producer
no makes the him plays; the sec
Z nd is the exchange or middlcman
Who distributes the product; the
third is the exhibitor who shows it
10 the public. What Their are the
in such an instance as this are esti-
mates, but with certain facts we
an arrive at some conclusions. Let
IS begin at the bottom and see just
low the structure of motion-picture
income is reared. Take the pro-
Queer first and follow the film on
IT'S road from factory to screen. The
american picture makers consume
approximately 1000 miles Of film a
year. OF this, 60,0o0 is made in this
country and the rest is imported.
This unused film costs an average
Of "a cents a foot delivered to the
Etudios. Roughly Speaking, the out o.
lay for raw material is slO@o.eoo
L year.
To this must be added not less
an s40,00O,0oo, which is the conser-
vative estimate of the cost of pro-
ducing photoplays in this country
every twelve months. The gross to-
tai outlay then is s5o.00o.eo0. Right
fere you encounter one of the start
ness. A few years ago the average
cost per foot of finished film ranged
from 50 cents TO 81. This was for
the ordinary story told on a 1000
foot reel. With the advent or
stars" big and expensive literary
trimmings that the movie fan now
demands, the price has gone to s.
q foot, and in many instances, notably
in such productions az The Prison
er Of Zanda,' and Judith of Beth
ulia,' it is even higher
- l. - ~
q time when the motion-picture &C
tor was glad TO get IS q day. Now =
many get from $40 to so a day, .
" lille such favorites as CosteIfo,
Baggott, Kerrigan. and various 9TH
ers, draw down $4,000 a year. costly
E enario departments must be main
Il ined: authors get royalty instead
q lump sums: the world is racked
for striking and stirring features.
/ is no infreGuent thing for a man
2 ger 10 spend from $4,000 to $4,000
On a production and make no bones
q It;
dIction. like the profit in ordinary
2 geography, depends upon the num-
her of prints you sell. The original
: lm-the so-called negatives sell
{ ON. If ever, sold outright. It re-
aims in stock as a constant income
y-oducer. The owner bends his en-
EtGE " ECh dS A44dAlN PO6AAAfto
re reproductions are caIed-as pos
e Bile.
The average number of positives
= ade from a commercial film in
the United States is thirty. This is
very low estimate because many
{. the larger concerns print fifty
and some even turn out eighty or
nety. The foreign demand helps
70 swell the number. One concern
akes 800 feet of negatives a week.
From this figure you get some idea
az the number of positives il can
let loose. A single company-part
II the Motion Picture Patents Com
pany-used 100000 feet of film last
year!
The standard price that the pro-
Queer gets from the exchange on
rngular film stories is 10 cents a foot.
., his means 800 for every 1000 foot
'yaeL The manufacturer counts him
self fortunate il he can average a
net profit of cents a foot.
II is impossible to get at the
exact motion picture gross and net
31come figures for the United States.
j is estimated, however. that there
a~e 1oe film releases in this coun-
r1eant a film play let loose for ex-
Friction. This piles up a weekly
+ m literature Of los negatives from
each of which thirty to eighty
7 rsitives are printed and sold. Each
7 -oduction has it's own scale of price
cost; its own particular expense of
q stribution. Hence the difficulty in
hazarding a statement about re-
rms.
But competent and conservative
producers viii tell you that the total
gross revenue to the American film
PRODUCERS is not less than $50. CO., 600
wear. Since we calculated the out
Is y to be $50, oo0. 900. the profit would
r. in the neighborhood of 500 600
TO this must be added the profit that
comes to the producers who own,
ntrol, or have some sort Of in
tsrest in the various exchanges.
The film manufacturers are very
canny individuals. Most of them
Rave chung TO the exchange golden
egg. The General Film Company.
for instance, has a string of ninety
Exchanges in this country and Can
ala. They get the middleman's
: oft out of them just as If they
Rad nothing TO do with the manu-
g. cture You get some idea OF the
profit in this particular end OF the
| usiness when ] say that il is ira
q ton in the business that for one
~ eek. during the heyday Of mo-
ropoly. the General Film exchanges
cleared exactly SIS. 900. This repre-
scnted a high-water mark and could
not be duplicated today"