Topic: Columbia's profit margins

[kinderscenen]

I've asked a similar question before, and I know that part of Columbia's problem (I think) with profits was that they didn't own any studios.  However, it was mentioned in an article that "You Nazty Spy!" was budgeted at $18,000.  Of course, this was back in their heyday, so obviously there'd be a good-sized profit.  But even if we look at a short such as "Flying Saucer Daffy", I'm going to assume that the budgets for the shorts did NOT go up, (I believe both Moe, Larry, and Jules White mentioned this) so if it was budgeted at, say, $20,000, how could Columbia NOT make money?  I know that the shorts weren't released to every theatre in the country (and overseas), but I find it hard to believe that losing money was the reason why the Stooges were let go in 1958.  Now, if they'd said that the audiences were changing, double features were on the rise, and there just wasn't any place for the shorts, I could believe that.  But unable to make money?  It shouldn't have been that difficult to make a profit on a $20,000 film, which may have been even cheaper due to the cutting back of the shooting schedule and use of stock footage.

I'll admit--I know nothing about the business side of movie making, but I always found this a little fishy.

[ThumpTheShoes]

Besides being a money-making machine for Columbia, the Stooges were retained at the studio (even though the Shorts Dept was all but gone in the late 50's) because Harry Cohn liked them. When Cohn died, the Stooges were out.

That might not be 100% the reason they were let go, but it was a big factor.

Edit: Larry Fine made mention of this in 1973:

"The minute he died, out we went, too! They didn't even wait 'till he was buried. While the services were going on, the guy says [whispering and ponting] 'You! Out!' So, we knew we were through."

The video is here, in 3 parts:
http://youtube.com/profile?user=stoogeriffic

-ThumpTheShoes

[jrvass]

Let's say you have a feature, a short, a newsreel, and a cartoon or two. It is all the same price of admission for the show. Certain things you can dump (the shorts), others are the draw.

Am I missing something?

James

[kinderscenen]

Besides being a money-making machine for Columbia, the Stooges were retained at the studio (even though the Shorts Dept was all but gone in the late 50's) because Harry Cohn liked them. When Cohn died, the Stooges were out.

That might not be 100% the reason they were let go, but it was a big factor.

Edit: Larry Fine made mention of this in 1973:

"The minute he died, out we went, too! They didn't even wait 'till he was buried. While the services were going on, the guy says [whispering and ponting] 'You! Out!' So, we knew we were through."

Durr!  I can't believe I forgot that, if only for the fact that I JUST watched the entire interview Sunday evening, and laughed out loud (again) at how Larry said that "You...out."  I just wonder what it would've been like if he hadn't died until the mid to late 1960s--perhaps we could've seen Stooge shorts in color, or they would've been made for TV instead of the movies.  I sometimes think that the DeRita era may have worked better with a beginning in the shorts department rather than going straight into movies.  Nah, I take that back--I think what hurt them was partly Moe's decision to "clone" Curly; the fact that they had to be more kid-friendly; and the problem of the shorts running on TV which were not all that kid-friendly, while the movies had to be.  Joe's line in "Flying Saucer Daffy"--"Do you mind if I take a picture of your (while looking at the alien woman's chest) spaceship?" would never have played in the movies, although I was surprised at the drawn-out catfight in "The Outlaws IS Coming", (but not with the amount of violence--after all, it was a western).

It also amused me at the amount of time after Cohn's death that the Stooges were back at Columbia--what was it? They were fired in January, he died in February, and the very next year, they were back. 

[jrvass]

Kinderscenen,

Larry didn't die until '75. I seem to remember the "bits" they did between the color Stooge cartoons were in color also.

I have a scan of a letter my aunt sent me, with Larry's address at the Motion Picture Country Home. I wrote to him and he sent me an autographed picture (also scanned).

I have no clue as to how to upload and attach...

James