The cost of positive prints (1926-28)

[MikeH0714]

I'm coming down to the wire on the Harry Langdon book, and have a question for anyone who may know how much it cost to make a positive print back in the late 1920's, assuming such info was ever documented anywhere. (Possibly this should be moved to the "Tech Talk" forum.)

I have the high-level financials for Harry's six First National features, and would like to know if it's possible, using the amount that was allocated for manufacturing positive prints, to arrive at a reasonably accurate estimate as to how many prints were made.

Here's how much was allocated to positives for the six features. (Those who wonder why "Heart Trouble" is lost may find this interesting):

"Tramp, Tramp, Tramp" (6 reels) - $18,708.56 as of 7/31/1926.
"The Strong Man" (7 reels) - $23,191.58 as of 1/1/1927.
"Long Pants" (6 reels) - $24,226.73 as of 7/2/1927. (There was at least some Technicolor processing embedded in this cost.)
"Three's a Crowd" (6 reels) - $17,721.83 as of 10/1/1927.
"The Chaser" (6 reels) - $15,296.08 as of 3/31/1928.
"Heart Trouble" (6 reels) - $8,834.29 as of 4/13/1929.

Thanks,
Michael

[Jack Theakston]

The most expensive prices I've seen from that period were about $17-19 for 1000' rolls. So a 6-reeler would be in the range of $100-115. But that's not counting labwork, and that's if you only bought fresh stock for one print. Also factor in the price of silver, which was at an all-time low in the 1920s, hitting rock bottom when the stock market crashed in '29.

The average print run during that period was about 200-250 prints for studio features. So my guess was the prints were costing more in the range of $75-95 each.

[David Pierce]

Here's how much was allocated to positives for the six features. (Those who wonder why "Heart Trouble" is lost may find this interesting):

"Tramp, Tramp, Tramp" (6 reels) - $18,708.56 as of 7/31/1926.
"The Strong Man" (7 reels) - $23,191.58 as of 1/1/1927.
"Long Pants" (6 reels) - $24,226.73 as of 7/2/1927. (There was at least some Technicolor processing embedded in this cost.)
"Three's a Crowd" (6 reels) - $17,721.83 as of 10/1/1927.
"The Chaser" (6 reels) - $15,296.08 as of 3/31/1928.
"Heart Trouble" (6 reels) - $8,834.29 as of 4/13/1929.

Here is the information from the First National vault cards:

"Tramp, Tramp, Tramp" printed at Rothacker [Chicago] then Consolidated L.I. 5,894 billable feet at .0225. Print cost is $132.62.
"The Strong Man" printed at Consolidated Coast and Consolidated L.I. 6,882 billable feet at .023 per foot. Print cost: $158.29.
"Long Pants" printed at Consolidated L.I. [Long Island?] 5,560 feet plus 60 feet Technicolor for a total of 5,620 billable feet. B/W cost per print $127.32.
"Three's a Crowd" printed at Consolidated Coast and Consolidated L.I. 5,685 billable feet at .0205. Print cost: $116.54
"The Chaser" was printed at Consolidated. It was 5745 billable feet at .0195 per foot. Each print was $106.28.
"Heart Trouble" 5,303 billable feet.

I can interpret any of the information that isn't clear. Print cost per foot were going down because Kodak was reducing the cost of raw stock throughout the 1920s.

First National could tell that "Heart Trouble" was a turkey - I had never seen the print costs before, but it makes sense that the studio would produce so few prints for a film given a token release. There are many mentions in the trades at that time on Langdon's antics and the poor audience response.

David Pierce

Media History Digital Library
http://www.archive.org/details/mediahistory

[fwtep]

Wow, I would SOOOOOOO gladly pay $158.29 for a nice new nitrate print of The Strong Man. Suppose I can call up Rothacker?

[Brooksie]

First National could tell that "Heart Trouble" was a turkey - I had never seen the print costs before, but it makes sense that the studio would produce so few prints for a film given a token release. There are many mentions in the trades at that time on Langdon's antics and the poor audience response.

Going off topic a little here, but how small was the American release of `Heart Trouble'? It received a pretty full release in Australia, even though the reviews were no better here. In fact, it ended up being one of the films which, by dint of historical anomaly, continued playing in Australia for years in the still largely silent regional markets. It was still playing in one major town as late as 1931.

[MikeH0714]

My sincere thanks to everyone who replied both here and privately. You've all been extremely helpful.

Brooksie, based on the newspaper searches I've done, it looks likes HT played all the usual US locations, just not for very long. Whereas TTT and SM were good for at least 4 days to a week, HT played only a day, or two at most. So those 90 or so prints got a lot of mileage.

Michael