The movie business is in trouble. There seems to be a malaise which has settled on this industry. An attitude that you really have no control of your business, no ability to determine if you succeed or if you fail. It feels like the the whole movie business is just treading water, hoping not to be submerged the the waves they see forming on the horizon.
What the movie industry needs now more than ever is the leadership of true showmen, people who genuinely love the movies and want to share this love with others.
It was not always this way. At one time the movies business a collection of artists, innovators and dyed in the wool entrepreneurs. It was a business where you lived and died by the strength of your vision and your personality. A theatre owner could walk around their town, snap a couple of tickets out of their back pocket and the world was their oyster. Movies were important, they introduced the world to America, America to the world and allowed an emerging nation of immigrants to define themselves. Bold, imaginative leaders held the reins of the business. Former glove makers, bicycle shop owners and scrap dealers found greatness in the movies where anything was possible.
In a small town in rural Pennsylvania, a young man by the name of Marvin Troutman decided to pursue a safe and steady trade as a mortician. This made sense, Pennsylvania Dutch were as a rule were solid and conservative as people, they could never be called frivolous. Marvin Troutman, contrary to his breed broke away from the pack and decided to become a showman, a theatre owner. He embraced the business and soon found himself at the helm of a burgeoning Pennsylvania movie empire.
In the 1970’s the movie world began to change. Studios were being acquired by large corporations who had little or no knowledge of the movie world. Studios like Warner Brothers were consumed by Kinney Parking Systems, Fox was controlled by the last movie mogul, Alan Ladd Jr. The studio system was in its final death throes. The exhibitors would soon find themselves in very rough seas.
Before the summer of 1975, movie studios traditionally did not advertise their movies on network television. It was way too expensive . For three nights prior to the release of “Jaws” on June 20, 1975, Universal saturated the networks during prime-time with 30-second trailers for the movie. This time, for whatever reason it worked: The film easily surpassed the $100-million mark at the box office and broke the previous records set by “The Godfather” and “The Exorcist.” Ultimately, the movie would gross $260 million in the U.S. Alone. It changed the shape of movies forever.
The release of “Jaws” represented another significant change in standard practice: opening a movie in hundreds of theaters at the same time. This trend was actually set in motion before “Jaws,” in the early 1970s, with the release of Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather.” Prior to “The Godfather,” high-profile movies would typically play for three months or so in only one location before slowly moving into other major cities and then, finally, to second- and third-run theaters in small towns across the country. Also, the first theater to premier the film had a monopoly of sorts — it had “clearance” over a large area in which no other theater could play the same film. In 1972, Paramount opened “The Godfather” in five theaters at once, and moved to 316 theaters the following week. The studio was able to challenge the theaters’ clearance policy, and before long “The Godfather” was taking in $1 million a day and setting box-office records.
“Jaws” opened in 465 theaters, and in an astonishing 78 days it had already dethroned “The Godfather” at the box office. This countered traditional industry practice. of going out in a few number of theaters in a city and then expanding more and more and more. Now if you did saturation marketing for a movie on network television and successfully interested an audience in that movie, you could open everywhere at the same time. Now movies are released on a much wider basis. Now a summer release can easily open on more than 3,000 screens.
The studio heads in the 1970’s had been briefed on current developments in technology that would allow the viewer to view movies on demand via betamax. There were rumors of a digital network being developed with assets that the military had developed for communications during the Cold War. They decided to put the squeeze on theatres owner. They demanding increasing guarantees and advance payment using the rationale of the success of Jaws and the Godfather to substantiate their demands upon the exhibitors.
Marvin Troutman and others in the theatrical exhibition industry saw a storm brewing and sought to insulate themselves and their industry. Led by Troutman, the Pennsylvania industry exerted pressure in the Pennsylvania State Capital of Harrisburg. Bolstered by his Pennsylvania Dutch sense of right and wrong, Troutman and company worked tirelessly at crafting legislation that would counter the machinations of the studio had advanced against the independent theatre.
The Feature Motion Picture Fair Business Practices Law enacted in 1980 became the strongest pro-exhibitor legislation enacted in the United State of America. The Act declares that the licensing and distribution of feature motion pictures to theatres, affects the general economy as well as the access of the public to works of artistic expression and opinion. This Act insures unencumbered access for the public to artistic expression and opinion in feature motion pictures at reasonable prices and at many different locations.
The Act avoids undue control of the exhibitors by the distributors and fosters vigorous and healthy competition in offering feature motion pictures for the benefit of the public by prohibiting practices through which fair and honest competition is restrained or restricted by the studios.
The law intent, purpose and execution is eloquently stated in its preamble. “73 P.S. § 203-2 states that it is necessary to legislate regulations and standards pursuant to the exercise of the police power governing the relationship between feature motion picture distributors or licensors and exhibitors serving the public by establishing fair business practice procedures for the licensing and distribution of feature motion pictures and to provide remedies for the violation of this Act, including damages and attorneys’ fees.”
Immediately upon it becoming law in Pennsylvania in 1980, the studios sought to crush this legislation in anyway possible. Marvin had a fight on his hand, and the studios were known to play for keeps.
The studios claimed it was a violation of the 1st and 14th amendment of Constitution, a lower court agreed with the studios and ruled against the law. The State of Pennsylvania (with prodding by the theatre owners) appealed the ruling the higher court which overturned the decision. Numerous other challenges were made against the law….all eventually unsuccessful.
In the final ruling during the landmark case, ASSOC. FILM DISTRIB. CORP. v. Thornburgh, Pennsylvania District Court Judge Katz stated in his ruling “I uphold the constitutionality of the Pennsylvania Feature Motion Picture Fair Business Practices Law. That Act regulates certain trade practices in the licensing relationship between those who distribute films and those who exhibit them. The distributors contend that the Act violates their rights to freedom of speech, offends the right of Congress to regulate interstate commerce, is preempted by federal copyright legislation, and is contrary to the Pennsylvania Constitution’s prohibition of “special laws.”….Nothing in this title annuls or limits any rights or remedies under the common law or statutes of any state with respect to activities violating rights that are not equivalent to any of the exclusive rights within the general scope of copyright as specified by section 106, including breaches of contract, breaches of trust, invasion of privacy, defamation, and deceptive trade practices such as passing off and false representation.” August 1985
As of the date of this writing, the strongest pro-exhibitor legislation in the USA still is law. It prohibits guarantees, blind booking and attempts to twist the principals of true free enterprise. In short, Marvin Troutman just wanted a fair and level playing field and he did his best to ensure that he and other exhibitors were treated fairly.
This year during the Memorial Day Ceremony in the town of Millersburg, Pennsylvania, Marvin Troutman, Korean Veteran was the keynote speaker. Like most reflections of war, mention was given to camaraderie, selflessness , sacrifice and bravery exhibited. Millerburg chose well.
Today the theatrical exhibition industry as a whole must ask itself a key question, “ Are you happy with the status quo?”, if the answer is no, your next question should be “What would Marvin do?”
Thanks Mr. Troutman
