Evening star., 1939-03-05
International
Film Market
AHeadache
Many Odd Things
Affect Foreign
Sales
By Harold Hefernan.
HOLLYWOOD.

HOLLYWOOD.
"Vice president in charge of for
eign sales" Sounds like swell Job,
doesn't it? Half a dozen highly paid
movie executive positions come un-
der that designation in Hollywood's
leading studios-and yet they would
doubtless like nothing better at this
moment than to get away from 1t
all. They would welcome a few con-
secutive nights of untroubled sleep,
free from narrowing dreams of Hit
lers and Mussolinis slamming trade
doors in Hollywood's face.
The job of running the foreign
market isn't the grief1ess task it was
a few years ago. Then, producer
could count on the overseas gross
reaching 60 to IS per cent of a pic
lures cost, often much more than
that. The only real worry foreign
sales manager had was connected
with getting enough prints and de-
livering them to his theaters on
time. Today the average picture is
fortunate If it draws % per cent
return from abroad.
Besides his increasing worries
about political restrictions and
grudge penalties, the foreign sales
chief must fret from month to month
oversa vast number of events and
conditions that have no connection
with the movies. They're summed
up in the act-of God category.
Sam E. Morris. who wears the
foreign vice presidential prefix in
the Warner Bros. sales department,
shrugged as he told why the foreign
market could never be exactly
tabled, dictators and closed markets
Notwithstanding.
Low temperatures in Holland,
bombs falling in Shanghai, earth
quakes in Chile and high winds in
Jamaica are some of the things We
can't predict in advance, but which
have a powerful effect on foreign
business" said Morris They have
their repercussions right here in
Hollywood. because they affect the
nerve center of production"
These upsets in foreign lands are
not known or understood in the
American home offices until the ex-
hibitors and exchanges write or
cable, pointing with pride or view
ing with alarm.
The low temperatures in Holland
didn't chill theater patrons ex-
planned Morris, but they froze canal
surfaces and ushered in the skating
season for which the low countries
are famous However, Holland au-
diences really go for musicals in a
big way, and several of these, in
cluding Gold Diggers in Paris and
The Big Broadcast of 1885, were
about the only pictures that SUE
cessfully competed with the Hol-
land skating season."
On the other side Of the world
in Uruguay, South America. and at
the very same time, the opening of
the bathing season" was considered
definite threat to the box Office,
and gave Morris and his staff many
headaches because some of their
most important products were being
released thereabouts at the time
The beaches were thronged with
people-"and only the best of prod
uct can hope to make expenses
was the way one leading exhibitor
warned the home Office.
Then there is the political situ-
alton in Egypt" Morris went on
People over there are reluctant to
go to theaters, even to see their
favorite players, when they know
that some discontented faction may
start a revolution any minute. One
of our pictures, 'Zola,' might have
been more successful in its first
runs in Shanghai had not the Japa-
nese chosen that time to bomb the
city"
A bus strike in Singapore. which
threatened to paralyze business gen.
orally, had less than the anticipated
effect upon the business done by
I'm Old Chicago" and Robin Hood" "
The exhibitor waxed almost poetic
in reporting the incident They
walked miles to see these pictures, y
he said. Sometimes as much as S
miles" Which seems to be a good
long walk in Singapore.
The death of the Queen in Nor
way, added to a restaurant and
hotel strike and a big fire in Oslo,
caused theater attendance to shrink
for several weeks, foreign depart
ment records show.
A few months ago, the exchanges
in Sweden reported to Hollywood
that the "muzzle and hoof" disease
among cattle, evidently a variation
of the hoof and mouth disease IA
miliar to American cattle raisers,
was prevalent in farming districts
of that country and that, as con-
sequence, most of the small town
theaters were closed.
A landslide on the Island of st.
Lucia, just off the coast of Vene-
zuela, wrecked buildings. unroofed
! others and killed and manned many
people, with the natural result that
Hollywood's take" dropped almost
IS per cent over a month in that
country. Cuban exhibitors bewailed
the announcement that the gov
(See HEFFERNAN, Page F-2D