Screendollars About Films, the Film Industry No
For Exhibitors October 26, 2020 Screendollars About Films, the Film Industry No. 140 Newsletter and Cinema Advertising In 1926, Warner Bros. Pictures, then a small, struggling studio, began a partnership with the Vitaphone Corporation to use its sound-on-disc technology to produce films with synchronized playback of sound with visual images. WB made a series of one-reel sound short films to demonstrate (Click to Play) the technology, playing them before other features. Audiences responded so enthusiastically that Warner Bros. was convinced to bet big on talking motion pictures as the next big thing in movies. Their first feature-length film to use the Vitaphone system was The Jazz Singer, which premiered at Warners’ Theatre in New York on October 6, 1928. It starred Al Jolson, a famous singer and Broadway star of the day. The film included two short scenes in which Jolson’s spoken word was synchronized to the picture, delivering life-like dialog in real-time that thrilled movie goers, comparable to the most immersive, multi-sensory special effects in today’s cinema. By 1929, only TWO “Wait a minute, wait a YEARS after The Jazz Singer, Hollywood studios produced 335 all-dialogue features, as silent films receded minute. You ain’t into the history of the rapidly changing industry. heard nothin’ yet.” (Click to Play) Weekend Box Office Results (10/23-25) With Comments by Paul Dergarabedian, Comscore Per Theatre Rank Title Week Theatres Wknd $ Total $ Average $ 1 Honest Thief (Open Road) 3 2,502 2,350,000 939 7,476,274 2 The War with Grandpa (101 Studios) 3 2,345 1,882,672 803 9,719,719 3 Tenet (Warner Bros.) 8 1,801 1,300,000 722 52,500,000 4 The Empty Man (20th Century) 1 2,027 1,265,000 624 1,265,000 5 The Nightmare Before Christmas (Disney) 2 1,614 577,000 357 1,900,000 6 Hocus Pocus (Disney) 4 1,277 530,000 415 4,372,000 7 Monsters, Inc.
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